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This Frosted Animal Cookie Cheesecake has frosted circus animal cookies in the crust and throughout the cheesecake! It’s thick, creamy and topped with fun pink-colored white chocolate and sprinkles – much like the animal cookies!
I love cookies and cheesecake together. If you do too, you’ll want to try this Best Oreo Cheesecake recipe and this Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust Cheesecake. You’ll be in cookie heaven!
An Easy Birthday Cake Idea
I am a natural born sweets lover. If loving dessert can be in your blood, it’s in mine. This cheesecake kind of reminds me of that because these frosted animal cookies have been a favorite cookie of mine for as long as I can remember. On many occasions I have picked up a bag from the store, only for it to last 48 hours in my house – at the most. It’s dangerous for me to even buy them and that was the case when making this cheesecake.
Often when buying ingredients, I get plenty extra. Of course there are always endless bags of flour, sugar and packages of butter. But when I need things like animal cookies, I also have to buy several bags. I’m not a fan of running to the store over and over again. And I still had to make a couple trips to replenish these cookies as I was testing out this recipe.
Working with these cookies over a few days and not eating all the cookies was SO HARD! I probably snacked on a few more than I should have, but I couldn’t resist! I feel the same way about the cheesecake – so good!
To start, there’s the frosted animal cookie crust. This took several attempts before I was happy with it. Because of all the frosted cookies, you really barely need any butter to hold things together. The icing on the cookies kind of melts together and holds it all in place. I added a touch, just to be safe.
For the filling, there’s more animal crackers. About 3/4 cup go right into the bottom of the crust, then another 1 1/4 cups in the batter. The cookies soften up as the cheesecake bake, but still retain just enough crunch. It gives the cheesecake plenty of frosted animal cookie flavor – and color! I tried one version where I added some sprinkles to the cheesecake batter, but because nonpareil sprinkles bleed so easily, it actually messed up the fun pink and white color.
Homemade Ganache
On top of the cheesecake is a white chocolate ganache that is colored to a light shade of pink, similar to the pink cookies. You could leave it white, but the pink is just so cute! Finish off the cheesecake with some sprinkles and animal cookies and you’re good to go!
I really loved the final version of this cheesecake. Between the crust and all the cookies in the cheesecake, it’s delicious! The cheesecake filling is thick, creamy and full of vanilla flavor. The white chocolate finishes it off beautifully! I love all the flavors and every bite is a little bite of pink and white cookie cheesecake heaven!
Watch How To Make It
Print
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 Slices
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Frosted Animal Cookie Cheesecake has frosted circus animal cookies in the crust and throughout the cheesecake! It’s thick, creamy, yummy and so fun!
Ingredients
CRUST
- 2 1/4 cups (302g) frosted animal cookie crumbs
- 2 tbsp (28g) salted butter, melted
FILLING
- 24 ounces (678g) cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 cup (207g) sugar
- 3 tbsp (24g) all purpose flour
- 1 cup (230g) sour cream, room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 cups (208g) chopped frosted animal cookies, divided
WHITE CHOCOLATE GANACHE
- 6 oz (169g) white chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup (60ml) heavy whipping cream
- Pink gel icing color
- Sprinkles
WHIPPED CREAM
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy whipping cream, cold
- 4 tbsp (29g) powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Line a 9-inch (23cm) springform pan with parchment paper in the bottom and grease the sides.
2. Combine the crust ingredients in a small bowl. Press the mixture into the bottom of the springform pan.
3. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool.
4. Cover the outsides of the pan with aluminum foil (I also use a plastic crock pot liner – see method for preventing your water bath from leaking here) so that water from the water bath cannot get in. Set prepared pan aside.
CHEESECAKE FILLING
5. Reduce oven to 300°F (148°C).
6. In a large mixer bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar and flour until well combined (Use low speed to keep less air from getting into the batter, which can cause cracks). Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
7. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract, mixing on low speed until well combined.
8. Add the eggs one at a time, beating slowly and scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition.
9. Stir in about 1 1/4 cups of chopped animal cookies. Stir just until mixed, so the colors from the sprinkles don’t mix into the batter too much.
10. Pour a small amount of batter into the bottom of the crust in an even layer, then add the remaining 3/4 cup of chopped animal cookies.
11. Pour the remaining cheesecake filling into crust, over the cookies, and spread into an even layer.
12. Place springform pan (covered with aluminum foil) inside another larger pan. Fill the larger pan with enough warm water to go about halfway up the sides of the springform pan. The water should not go above the top edge of the aluminum foil on the springform pan.
13. Bake for 1 hour and 25 minutes.
14. Turn off heat and leave cheesecake in oven with door closed for 30 minutes.
15. Crack oven door and leave the cheesecake in the oven for about 30 minutes.
16.Remove cheesecake from oven and chill until firm, 5-6 hours or overnight.
TO FINISH OFF THE CHEESECAKE
17. When the cheesecake is cool and firm, remove from the springform pan and set on a serving plate.
18. To make the white chocolate ganache. Put the white chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl.
19. Microwave the heavy whipping cream until it just begins to boil, then pour it over the chocolate chips. Allow it to sit for 2-3 minutes, then whisk until smooth. If it doesn’t melt completely, microwave for 10-20 seconds, then whisk until smooth.
20. Color the ganache with a little pink gel coloring, if desired.
21. Pour the ganache onto the cheesecake and spread into an even layer.
22. To make the whipped cream, add the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixer bowl. Whip on high speed until stiff peaks form.
23. Pipe dollops of the whipped cream on top of the white chocolate ganache.
24. Top the cheesecake with frosted animal cookies and some sprinkles, if desired. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Cheesecake is best for 3-4 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice
- Calories: 529
- Sugar: 42.2 g
- Sodium: 327.6 mg
- Fat: 30.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 56.4 g
- Protein: 9.1 g
- Cholesterol: 106.4 mg
Categories
Enjoy!
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In your recipe for the frosted animal cookie cheesecake you say to cover the bottom of the springform pan with parchment paper. How do you remove the paper after the cheesecake has baked? Or do you eat it? Do you have to use the parchment paper at all? This may be a stupid question.
It makes it easier to remove the cheesecake from the bottom of the pan. It can sometimes stick to the cheesecake when you move it, but comes off easily when it’s sliced. You do not eat it.
Would it be ok if I used pink candy melts instead of a white chocolate with pink icing coloring?
Yes, you can use candy melts. I find it gives a more wax-like consistency, but it definitely works.
Can this cheesecake be frozen?
Do you know about how many cookies total I need to buy?? I’m making this tonight and everyone will be asleep so I don’t want to have to go back to the store lol
I don’t know the total number of cookies. I think I had two bags just to be sure – I may have eaten a few in the process though. 🙂
I made it for Thanksgiving. It was as DELICIOUS as the picture makes it look. I will definitely be making this again! Thank you.
Made this last night for a surprise party this evening…..just made the pink glaze and this is the cutest ever! Can’t wait to taste it. Thank you for the recipe.
Awesome! I hope you enjoy it!
Made this for my sisters 13th birthday and last night I was sleeping in shifts until 3 AM to bake this. I have never made cheesecake before and I’m 15 and pretty new to baking and cooking but it turned out soooo pretty and cute looking. Some of the ganache drizzled over the sides so I purposely made it drop down all the sides to make it look intentional and it still looks great. Haven’t eaten it yet and I’m praying my crust isn’t soggy but at least it’ll hopefully taste great even if it is ????.
That’s dedication! I’m so glad you were happy with the result and I hope you enjoy it!
Do I have to use a 9in pan? Or will it work with the 8in or 10in, with those same measurements. I’m making two of them and I only have 1, 9in, but I have two of both other sizes.
I’m sure it’d work, the cheesecake would just be thinner and need more or less baking time, depending on the size you use.
Hi,
I’m planning on making it for a dinner party and I’m just wondering are the cookies store bought? Or you have a recipe for that too? I thought maybe it’s your own recipe but when I looked at the recipe it wasn’t clear where the cookies recipe was.
The cookies are store-bought.
Thank you so much! This is delicious, and I even managed without any major incidents. I may have boiled over the cream in the microwave twice, burnt the chocolate chips in the microwave once, and thought liquid food coloring was a good idea until it turned out sickly red. However, it was no fault of the recipe, and I got everything straightened out in the end.
Oh no! Well I’m glad it all worked out in the end! 🙂
Had anyone had a problem with the cooking time taking twice as long?
Hi there,
I am thinking about making this in the instant pot. Do you have any advise or modifications that would be helpful?
I haven’t ever used an instant pot, I’m sorry.
Can you make this in cupcakes? If so, how long should it bake & what temperature? I would like to know so I can make them for my daughter’s birthday party. Thanks!
You can. I’d suggest checking out some of my other mini cheesecakes for some guidance. Bake time is probably somewhere around 15-20 minutes, give or take.
I have never made a cheesecake before and I followed the recipe step by step and it came out amazing!!! Even looks similar to the photo!
So glad you enjoyed it!
I made this for a birthday dessert, my bottom became mushy even tho I used foil around pan to make sure no leakage of water would ruin it. Guess I failed, my question is can I make a new bottom crust and set the cheesecake on top of the new crust?! I feel like that might be my only option….
Sometimes foil doesn’t do the best job of keeping water out – especially if the pan itself has a leak. Check out my tutorial to help prevent leaking for the future. As far as the cheesecake you already made, I’d take it out of the pan and let it sit in the fridge overnight. The crust will probably dry out a bit.
This was incredible! I baked it for my coworker’s birthday at her request. I was a little worried that it might be too sweet, but it’s a perfect blend of flavors. It was a huge hit and I’m definitely going to make this again! I wouldn’t change a thing!
So glad to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks Dina!
Is there a way to makeit without the so cream? And would it still taste good. Without it.
You’d want to replace it with something rather than leave it out entirely, such as yogurt.