Monday, April 27, 2009

Daring Baker's Cheesecake

"Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? 
Yet not one of them is forgotten before God." 
Luke 12:6


The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. 
She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.


I can't believe I almost missed this post. I was so busy today catching up on past posting, mainly Easter, that I didn't post this. The irony is that I made the cheesecake for Easter dinner, and I was avoiding putting a picture of the cheesecake on the post, because I thought the post date was Thursday.


I don't like cheesecake, but a lot of other people do, so Easter was just perfect for this dessert. Since I never think much about cheesecake I wasn't sure what to do with it. But I remembered the strawberry mirror cake that the Daring Bakers made before I joined. I thought that topping looked pretty impressive, so I decided to give it a go.



I also decided that I'd make two smaller cakes, one plain and one strawberry. The hitch in that plan was that I couldn't find two small pans the same size in my baking pan arsenal. But I found two that are pretty close in size. One is a typical German springform pan, and the other is a tall loose bottom pan from England that I bought in Hong Kong years ago. I wrapped both pans in double foil, though I had read somewhere that even that doesn't prevent the crust from getting soggy.


My filling was just as the recipe said - no added anything. I selected a bigger pan that the two pans could fit into, but unfortunately I forgot to take into account the dimension of the foil, so they were in there quite snuggly, which proved to be not a good thing, as one of the cakes was done before the other, and it was darned hard to get it out of the hot water. Live and learn.


The one in the front is my English pan, and it did not get a soggy crust. The one in the back in the springform pan did get a slightly soggy crust. I have no idea why. You can see the evidence of this in the picture below.



On Easter I found the recipe for the top of the mirror cake, and made it up and placed in on my bigger cheesecake. I think that I let the mixture get just a bit colder than I should have, and the gelatin was a bit too set when I put it on. But no harm, everyone liked it any way. My daughter who really likes cheesecake said that it was the best on she'd ever tasted.


"Remember you humanity and forget the rest" 
Albert Einstein

5 comments:

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

What beautiful cheesecakes! Very well done!

Cheers,

Rosa

breadchick said...

How pretty, a ying and yang of cheesecakes! I found the mirror on our challenge last year set too quickly but the mirror effect sure is eye catching.

Elle said...

What a pretty pair of cheesecakes! It's fun that you did the mirror topping. It did set up fast, but sure is a nice addition to creamy cheesecake! Too bad about the soggy crust. I used a double layer of heavy foil around my pan...seemed to work!

Andrea Meyers said...

I love the idea for the mirror on top and remember that being my favorite part of the strawberry mirror cake challenge. Nicely done!

TeaLady said...

I love the mirror top. Both cakes look beautiful.

I usually put a pan of water on the shelf below the cakes and then I don't get a soggy crust.