My Fresh idea for National Cheesecake Day; Citrus Cream Cheesecake

I love cheesecake! Ok, there I said it. I am a fan of all recipes that are easy to make but can be easily zshushed up to be an Impress your Guest Wow Dessert!
As I am now a South Floridian I come in contact with alot of "Key Lime Pie". As a "True Northerner" I sometimes don't get it. To me the "Key Lime" Pie can sometimes be so sour that it turns out to be more of a palate cleanser or digestive than a "Sweet Treat" at the end of a meal. Not my favorite way to end a meal.
This version (my version) of a "Citrus CreamCheesecake" can be more of a "True" Sweet Treat. You be the judge, You decide and let me know what you think :)

Citrus Cream Cheesecake

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Citrus juice
(Lime, Lemon)
3/4 cup Sour cream
16 oz Cream Cheese
3 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
2 tbsp Sugar

1/2 stick Butter (melted)



Directions:

Preheat oven to 325° f.
Wrap bottom (up the sides) of a Springform Pan tightly with aluminum foil to seal it.

Crust:
In a Spring Form Pan combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Add butter and combine well.
Form crust at bottom and up the sides of the pan about an inch.

Filling:
In a Mixing bowl combine Eggs and Sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Add citrus juice and beat until combined. Add in sour cream and cream cheese. Beat only until just combined.
Don't Over Beat.
(If you do it will become full of air and upon taking it out of the oven it will fall when cooling. you will then have a well in the middle of your cheesecake. As this cheesecake doesn't use a topping you can't compensate for that.)
Pour Filling into crust and place spring form pan into a baking dish. Place baking dish on Oven rack.
Pour 3-4 cups of water into the baking dish so that the water is at mid level of your wrapped pan.
Close oven and bake cheesecake for 50-60 minutes.
The cheesecake when ready will have a slight golden color at perimeter to show doneness.
Cool on rack for 2 hours and Chill until ready to serve.

This recipe also works for Orange and Grapefruit juice. If using Orange or Grapefruit juice use 1 cup of juice versus only 1/2 for the Lemon or Lime. An Orange Creamsicle Cheesecake is divine! I may share that recipe very soon! Enjoy!!!

One of the "Best Baking Blogs on the Web" !?!?!

Wow, not alot of pressure there, huh???

I am a simply an easy blogger. I am also thrilled to pieces!!!

Thank you FoodBuzz!
I am thrilled to be featured as one of

 "The Best "Baking" Blogs on the Web".

Can You believe it??

Me ??? I am so shocked! (A little proud too).

I do bake, but I have to admit, there are lots of bloggers that bake alot more than I do. The only thing I think I do differently is that I try to make it easier for Everyone to bake. I so hope that comes across. I want everyone to feel that if they take my recipe and instructions into their kitchen that they will come out with the result they see here on my blog. That's my mission for everything I post here. I bake or cook every single dish I post. I go through every ingredient and concentrate very intently on making the ingredient lists available to anyone who can get to a grocery store. I truly want to empower anyone who wants to cook, but has been intimidated to do so or just thinks it's too much trouble.

Since the concentration of this honor is on my baking..I thought I'd highlight a few of the things that have been most popular in my baking efforts. I so hope you enjoy them.

Streusal Pumpkin Bread
 ~ Featured on Foodbuzz ~

Homemade Hamburger Rolls

Boston Cream Pie Cheesecake

Lemon Coconut Tartlets

As always Thank You EVERYONE who reads, comments and follows Food is Love.

 I truly am honored for the privilege to be a part of your Food Experience! 

The Ultimate Birthday Cake

This weekend we had a Birthday in the house! So of course it was a Cook's dream! I love cooking for special occasions. We had a glorious Breakfast. I made German Pancakes with Pineapple on top and a wonderful Cuban Coffee. Yum!! For dinner I made Italian Ricotta Stuffed Shells with Italian Sausage Meat sauce.
And for dessert the Birthday Cake!!! Ahhhh the Birthday cake... It was sublime. It was fantastic. The perfect combination of chocolate, but not too much chocolate. Sweet, but not too sweet. It was the Modern Day version of an Adult "Foodiefied" treat! All I can say is, Yummy.

The Ultimate Birthday Cake

Chocolate Fudge Cake with Cheesecake filling 

topped with a glorious Nutella Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

Cake:

Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix

2 eggs

2/3 cup Vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups Water

Filling

16 oz cream cheese (softened)

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup Sugar

Frosting

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup Nutella (softened)

2 Tbsp cream cheese (softened)

1 tsp Vanilla

1 1/2 sticks Butter

3 cups Confectioners Sugar

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°

Prepare / Grease (2) 9 inch cake pans

Prepare and Bake Cake per box directions.

Divide cake batter among (2) 9 inch cake pans evenly.

Remove cakes from oven when touched in middle it bounces back.

Do not turn oven off.

Cool cakes on racks 15 minutes.

Move oven racks, leaving one middle rack, and one lowest rack.

Place an oblong baking pan on lower rack. Fill 1/2 - 3/4 with water.

Clean and dry cake pans.

Prepare/Grease cake pans

Line both cake pans edges with parchment paper.

As seen below

Make Filling:

Combine in a mixing bowl the eggs and sugar.

Add cream cheese.

Whip until smooth.

Add vanilla and combine.

Place one of the cakes into a prepared cake pan.

Top each cake with cream cheese filling. (divide evenly)

Be sure to not let filling fall off sides of cake.

Try to maintain an edge of cake.

Bake @ 350° for precisely 30 mins. No more, no less.

Remove from oven, and cool 15 mins.

Remove from pans, gingerly.

(I turned them out onto my hand then to a plate VERY quickly. If you do this and there is a little damage on one of them, no worries. Use that cake as the bottom cake. Remember you're frosting this bad boy.)

Cool cakes completely. Very important.

Frosting:

Combine in a mixing bowl, the Nutella and the milk.

Beat until smooth. Add cream cheese and butter. Beat until smooth.

Add Vanilla. combine.

Add Confectioners Sugar. Whip until fluffy and smooth.

Frosting the Cake:

**Be sure your cakes are completely cooled. The frosting will melt and slide on warm cakes. Yuck...

On completely cooled cakes:

** I piped frosting along the top edge of the bottom layer. Remember where I said to maintain a cake edge without cream cheese? This is where you pipe or spoon frosting. This edge of frosting is what will keep your top layer in place. I did not frost the whole middle. I only edged it. I didn't want to interrupt the cream cheese filling. I then frosted the cake as usual.

And Voila!! The Ultimate Birthday Cake:

The cake is so beautiful and absolutely delicious..and hey it has Nutella!!! 

Can you really go wrong???

Boston Cream Pie Cheesecake A Challenging Dessert, but Every Bite is Worth it!

As many of you know I am originally from New England.
Boston Cream Pie is in our blood. It's a birthright..LOL

One morning in December I was watching QVC and saw "Junior's" Cheesecake announcing a "New" Cheesecake. The "Boston Cream Pie Cheesecake". The Demo was mouth watering.
You can see it if you click on the link above. Thank goodness the TV is a way away from the sofa..I would have had some "splainin" to do. Anyway I watched the entire Demo. I then immediately hit the computer to see if I could get a close up picture. I had to see this and figure it out. Little did I know that this was going to be a research project of Junior High School proportions. I found a few pictures, but they were of home made ones. Apparently Junior's gave QVC the exclusive for the month of December and were not selling it on their website. Aaaarrrgghhhhh! I Will Not Be Defeated! I will figure this out.
I continued the research and found a You tube video of one of the "Junior's" Execs doing a demo @ Google
He explained much of the process.
Here it is:
Juniors uses a "yellow cake" at the bottom of their cheesecakes some of the time. In this instance they did use a Yellow cake on the bottom, then made the cheesecake on top of it. (using the yellow cake as a "crust") They then bake it in a water bath. Once baked, it's cooled, then refrigerated Overnight! In the morning it is then covered with a layer of Pastry Cream. Another yellow cake layer is placed on top and it is refrigerated again. After a minimum of 4 hours, the cake is then covered with Chocolate Ganache and refrigerated once again!
I was in awe. Although I am an "advanced" home cook, "Pastry Cream", "Cheesecake"..and "Ganache" all in one cake. All in one place. Hmmmm...Challenging for sure. I was not intimidated, though. I had never made Pastry Cream before, but was confident that if I could get the process down, I could do it.

Here's a pic of the final piece

Not bad, huh? Let me tell you.. There was a Pastry Cream Dance in my kitchen that day!

Well, I've told ya the process, now here's the recipe and the Instructions.

I won't say it's easy.. But..It's totally doable. The alternative is paying $40.00 (plus shipping) to Juniors for an 8" cake. If you can get one and QVC doesn't have an exclusive.

It could be something you might want to use as a Valentine. The receiver will surely LOVE it!

Here goes:

Yellow Sponge Cake

Ingredients

1 C Butter (room temp)

2 1/2 C Sugar

3 Eggs (room temp)

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla

2 1/2 C Sour Cream (room temp)

3 3/4 C A/P Flour

2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

2 1/2 tsp Baking Soda

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease and Flour (2) 9 inch Cake Pans.

In Mixing Bowl, Cream together Eggs, Butter and Sugar.

Beat until fluffy.

Add Sour Cream and Combine.

Add Vanilla and combine.

In Separate Bowl combine all dry ingredients.

Add dry ingredients, mix until well combined.

Pour Cake batter (divided evenly) into the 2 Cake pans. Tap sides and bottom for air bubbles.

Place in 350 oven, Bake for 30 - 40 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool on racks for min 1 hour.

Pastry Cream

Pastry Cream needs to be done ahead so chilling time will coincide with the process. 

Instructions for Pastry Cream and Chocolate Ganache Preparation courtesy of: FoodWishes.blogspot.com

See Video below.

Ingredients

1/2 tbsp butter
1 cup whole milk
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 C or 7 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoon cornstarch
3 eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
big pinch of salt


Chocolate Ganache
*Instructions are also in the video.


Ingredients
4 ounces high-quality dark chocolate, preferably bittersweet
1/2 cup cream
1 teaspoon butter

Please take a moment to view this video, It explains the Pastry Cream & Ganache Process.
Please do both ahead of making the Cheesecake Portion of the cake.

Ok, Are we caught up?
We need to move on to the cheesecake.
There are a few things I need to let you in on.
I did not do this cake in a "Spring form pan"
You can if you want to.
It may be easier, but I wanted the size.

Cheesecake

Ingredients

2 Eggs
1/2 C Sugar
16 oz Cream Cheese (softened)
2 tsp Vanilla

Combine Eggs and Sugar. Beat until Fluffy. Add Cream Cheese. Beat until Smooth.
Fold in Vanilla.

Instructions

Take on of the Yellow Cake layers and Slice it's thickness in half. (or just shave off the top making it even.)
Put the cake back in it's 9" baking pan. Pour the Cheesecake batter over it. Place the Cake in a larger (I used an oblong pan) Pan. Fill the Oblong pan with Water to about mid way of the 9" baking pan.
Bake the Cheesecake for 30 mins.
Remove from oven, cool for 30 minutes.
Place in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Whole Cake Assembly:


Remove Cheesecake from pan.
(yes it can be done, I did it. Just be patient and careful. The yellow cake on the bottom makes it easier to do.) **If you used a spring form pan, this step will be "Remove Outer Ring."


Once Cake is "removed from pan" You will note the first layers are done.
Now add the pastry cream over the cheesecake layer.
Then Add the other Yellow Cake Layer on Top. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
Remove from Refrigerator
Cover with Ganache (per video)
Refrigerate immediately.





**NOTE:

I thought my amount of Pastry Cream could have been doubled. To try it, you might want to stay with the recipe as given, but After making it, I think it could use double the amount of Pastry cream to establish a "True" Pastry Cream Layer.

The completed Cake is Fantastic! Well worth every step in the process. Tips would be: Make the Pastry Cream and the Ganache first. Set aside the Ganache and the Pastry Cream can refrigerate all day if you want. The colder it gets the thicker it gets.

When you cut the first piece and taste the first bite...You'll ahhhhh and say Yup she was right. It was WELL worth it.


Best of Luck my Foodies! This is what it's all about!