Cheesecake Factory Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake Copycat

Inspired by the Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, this cheesecake features a flourless chocolate cake crust, a layer of chocolate cheesecake, a layer of dark chocolate mousse, and topped with ganache!

This post was originally published on October 30, 2009. It was updated with additional recipe details, photos and commentary in February 2025.

This is my 100th post!!! I thought I would get here much sooner, but I didn't realize how much my cooking and baking would slow down as I finished up my thesis defense!

I wanted to post something special for this occasion, and I think this cheesecake is definitely 'grander' than your run of the mill dessert.  

The Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory is my ultimate favorite indulgence dessert (see below!):

It's a layer of flourless chocolate cake (that's just the crust people!), topped with chocolate cheesecake, then chocolate mousse, and covered in chocolate ganache, which is sprinkled with cocoa powder - WHAT!!!!!!!! Insanely delicious and I'm sure oh-so horrible health-wise.

For this reason, I very rarely have this cheesecake (plus it's like $8 a slice!), but for my birthday, which was last week, I decided I wanted to create my own version at home. I've been planning to do this since my birthday last year in fact. I even eluded to it in a previous post!  

To do this, I chose recipes that I thought would work together to recreate this dessert. I knew Dorie Greenspan's ganache would work wonderfully and the cheesecake layer from the Bailey's Irish Cheesecake would be perfect, but I didn't have any recipes for the flourless chocolate cake and chocolate mousse.

The flourless chocolate cake had to be thin since it was the crust. I considered making this chocolate mousse, but from the Cheesecake Factory picture, the mousse looks like a dark chocolate one, so I thought I should search for another recipe.  

The crust is baked in a springform pan first, then the cheesecake layer is added and baked. I adapted this flourless chocolate cake recipe for the crust.

After the cheesecake cools, the chocolate mousse layer is added on top of that. I adapted Bobby Flay's recipe for the Dark Chocolate Mousse.

The ganache top is the final step.

In the end, this cheesecake took a long time to put together, but I broke it up into multiple weeknights. While I can't say it was better than Cheesecake Factory, it was just as good, and how can you beat perfection?!?

I served this cheesecake to some friends at a Game Night, and they really loved it. Everyone had a different layer that was their favorite, so that was fun. Like a true married couple, my favorite was the ganache and the cheesecake, and Bob's was the mousse and the crust!

If you're looking for a rich chocolate dessert to impress your friends, this is a great one!

Bonus: because this homemade version has a flourless chocolate cake as the crust, this cheesecake is naturally gluten free!

Jump to:

• Prepare the Pan
• Make the Crust
• Bake the Cheesecake
• Make the Chocolate Mousse
• Prepare the Ganache
• Troubleshooting
• Modifications
• Serving Suggestions
• Gluten Free Option
• 📖 Recipe

Prepare the Pan

First, trace a 9-inch springform pan with a pencil on a piece of parchment paper.

Cut the paper a little smaller than the circle so it will fit inside the pan. Spray the sides and bottom of the pan with non-stick baking spray that contains flour. If gluten free, you can butter the pan and sprinkle with cocoa powder.

Add the parchment paper on the bottom of the pan and then add more spray on top.

Make the Crust

In the top of a double boiler over lightly simmering water, melt chocolate and butter.

Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, and vanilla.

Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake the cake for 30 minutes, then remove it from the oven and use the back of a spoon to smush the cake down to make a thinner crust. Let cool to room temperature before adding the cheesecake mixture.

Bake the Cheesecake

The best way to bake a cheesecake with no cracks is to use a hot water bath or bain-marie. The way I do this is by wrapping the bottom and sides of the springform pan in a single piece of large heavy duty aluminum foil (the long/large size can be found at wholesale stores like Costco or Sam's Club).

You may want to do a double layer if you're worried about leaks. Place the wrapped pan into a larger baking pan filled halfway with hot water.

Bake the cheesecake for 50 minutes, or until it no longer jiggles in the center when moved.

At this point, turn off the oven and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Keep the cheesecake in the oven for an hour. This step, combined with the hot water bath, helps to prevent cracks in your cheesecake.

After you remove the cheesecake from the oven, chill it in the refrigerator until you are ready to add the mousse.

Make the Chocolate Mousse

When I first developed this recipe, I used Bobby Flay's recipe for the Dark Chocolate Mousse. When going to make this for my daughter's birthday, I realized that the recipe for the mousse contains raw eggs. I was not comfortable serving raw eggs to children and grandparents, so I looked for another recipe.

I found this one from Martha Stewart which was very similar to the one in my Betty Crocker Cookbook. The eggs are cooked to a safe temperature, so this was ideal.

The recipe on the Martha Stewart website is different from the video, which many reviewers noted in the comments. I tried to follow the video, but I still had some trouble with the chocolate incorporating into the whipped cream.

I found this excellent YouTube video by Dallas Chocolate Classes with Chef Zach Townsend where he explains the two common issues with making chocolate mousse.

The first mistake is that the chocolate mixture is too cold when mixed with the whipped cream. It needs to be close to body temperature (98.6°F or 37°C) when it is mixed with the aerator (in this case whipped cream). It can actually be anywhere between 95-100°F. This was definitely my issue because the recipe in Betty Crocker says to refrigerate the chocolate mixture for several hours before lightening it with cream!

The second common error in making mousse is overwhipping the aerator, in this case the whipped cream. Chef Townsend recommend beating the cream on medium speed just until it is billowy but not forming peaks.

I did not do that; my cream was forming peaks. My resulting mousse was thicker than his, but it still worked well to spread as a layer on this cake and held up to having ganache and eventually buttercream and a cake topper placed on top.

Prepare the Ganache

To make the ganache, melted chocolate is combined with hot cream and whisked until smooth.

The ganache should be cooled briefly and then spread over the top of the mousse. You can leave the acetate collar on for a clean look, or remove the acetate and the ring of the springform before adding the ganache if you prefer it to drip down the sides of the cheesecake.

Troubleshooting

One of the issues you might encounter when making this recipe is having trouble getting the chocolate to incorporate into the cheesecake batter or into the mousse. This means that the chocolate was too cold when it was added.

If you add it to the cheesecake batter and there are lumps of chocolate that will not melt back in, I recommend placing the metal mixing bowl inside a larger bowl filled with hot water and continuing to mix the batter, smashing the lumps of chocolate against the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula to get them to melt.

Continue to do this until the chocolate is fully incorporated or you will have clumps of chocolate in your cheesecake.

Another issue you may come across is lumps of chocolate in your mousse. This means the chocolate was too cold when mixed with the whipped cream.

If this happens, you can use a silicone spatula to press the chocolate into the sides of the bowl to get them to incorporate. This will deflate the whipped cream, so you'll need to use more whipped cream to bump up the volume.

To do this, mix up some additional whipped cream and fold it into the lightened chocolate mixture. This should result in a smooth mousse. It will be a little lighter in color and flavor, but in my opinion that is better than a lumpy mousse!

Modifications

The cheesecake recipe I originally chose for this is from the Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake. As I mentioned, you can add the Irish cream or cold coffee.

I think this would be really good using the cheesecake layer from the Mocha Cheesecake. It would be a taller cake, so I don't recommend doing that unless you have an acetate sheet to make a cake collar.

The ganache recipe has 2 teaspoons light corn syrup. This adds just a little more shine to the ganache. You can leave this out if you prefer.

Serving Suggestions

Chill the cheesecake until ready to serve.

Carefully remove the springform pan ring, then slowly peel off the acetate collar, if using.

You should be able to slide a plastic knife underneath the crust to loosen the cake from the bottom of the pan. The cake can be slid onto a cake platter or serving plate.

You can leave the cheesecake plain, sprinkle it with cocoa powder, or even decorate it with buttercream, like I did for this Garden Tea Party Cake.

I've also decorated a cheesecake for this Nutcracker Birthday Cake and Wizard of Oz Birthday Cake.

The easiest way to slice the cake is to slip it onto a cutting board and use a large chef's knife that has been run under hot water then dried. The hot knife will cut through the cheesecake easily and make less of a mess.

Gluten Free Option

This dessert contains no gluten, but please check your packaging for cross contamination as with any food allergy or intolerance.

📖 Recipe