There are three main types of cheesecake ingredients. These are those that make the base, the main cheesecake mix itself, and the toppings or additional flavorings. Some types of cheesecake such as the baked New York cheesecake may require only the first two types of cheesecake. It is possible to make two very different cheesecakes using very different cheesecake ingredients, but there is one common theme in the use of soft cheese as the main ingredient.
The first part of a cheesecake to be made is usually the base. Biscuits are usually crushed and then bound together with melted butter to form the base. It is possible to mix in some sugar here too or syrup. Digestive-style biscuits are usually used, but crushed crackers and other hard or dry biscuits can be employed to give a different texture or taste. Some cheesecakes use a sponge base instead, which uses traditional sponge ingredients such as flour, eggs, sugar, and butter.
A regular cold cheesecake, that does not require freezing, contains a number of common cheesecake ingredients. The main ingredient is the soft cheese. This can be a general kind of soft cheese, mascarpone or a branded type. The soft cheese can be mixed with a number of other cheesecake ingredients to produce a variety of tastes. Other common ingredients used as mixers include zests or juice, melted white chocolate, and double cream.
Chocolate cheesecakes, on the other hand, will mix the soft cheese with cocoa powder and/or melted dark or milk chocolate. Other ingredients that can be used in a chocolate cheesecake include eggs, sour cream, icing sugar, and even custard powder. This depends on the nature of the chocolate cheesecake being made and the recipe being followed.
Baked cheesecake ingredients are slightly different from colder ones. The chief difference is the presence of flour and eggs. These are integral to the baking process. Other cheesecake ingredients used to make baked cheesecakes such as the New York cheesecake include vanilla extract and sometimes baking powder.
Many types of cheesecakes have additional flavorings. There are two main types of flavoring: those that are inside the cheesecake and those that are put on top of the cheesecake. Many American baked cheesecakes tend to have caramel, chocolate, or fruit-flavored swirls inside the cheesecake mix, giving it a marbled effect. These cheesecake ingredients are fairly simple mixtures of sugar and fruit flavorings or melted chocolate.
English cheesecakes such as the Devonshire cheesecake and many others also put slices of fruit onto the finished cheesecake. Types of fruit that are put on top of the cheesecake include mangoes, strawberries, raspberries and small oranges such as the clementine and the tangerine. These are often combined with fruit syrup of the same flavor and blobs of whipped cream. There is essentially no limit to the possible cheesecake ingredients that can be put on top of a cheesecake; it all comes down to taste.