Today is my birthday. And while in most respects it was just like any other day, my yearly celebration is the time when I allow myself to make cheesecake. I love cheesecake and I enjoy creating them, but they are an indulgent treat, so I have to limit how often I bake. Because once I bake, then I eat! I have a recipe for a dulce de leche cheesecake that I adore and it has been my cheesecake choice for at least three of the past five years, but this year I wanted to give another flavor a try. Obviously, Matthew can’t eat cheesecake made anywhere else, but neither can Malia. Cheesecake is one of those things that always has cross contact warnings for peanuts. So, they have only enjoyed the cheesecake flavors I’ve made at home. In addition to the dulce de leche, we’ve had orange, mango, strawberry, lemon, and raspberry white chocolate cheesecakes. But I wanted to give them an opportunity to try another flavor combo, one that is high on my list of favorites at the Cheesecake Factory-lemon raspberry cream cheesecake.
The lemon raspberry cream cheesecake is a combination of a raspberry-vanilla cake, lady fingers soaked in raspberry coulis, and lemon cheesecake all topped with a lovely lemon mousse. I was going for a taste-and-texture-a-like but not necessarily an identical dessert, so I opted to leave out the ladyfingers. This is a complicated cheesecake and leaving out that element simplified things a bit. Because when I make cheesecake, I always make two. One dairy free for Matthew to enjoy and one with all the lovely milk and eggs. Because while I can make a darn good allergen free cheesecake, I love the flavor and texture of traditional cheesecake, and it is my birthday so I’m going to eat the real thing!
Needing to create two complete cheesecakes multiplied the number of elements I needed to make, so I started making the freezer or fridge stable things about a week in advance. So let me lay out for you exactly what creating these delightful desserts included.
-Raspberry Coulis-naturally allergen free so I only needed to make one
-Vanilla Cake Base-while a traditional egg risen sponge makes the base for the Cheesecake Factory version, I opted for a Matthew friendly vanilla cake, again to simplify things a bit
-Lemon Cheesecake-two separate mixtures, one dairy free and one not
-Lemon Curd-again, two versions, one with eggs and one without
-Lemon Mousse-one for Matthew and one for everyone else
-Stabilized Whipped Cream-real and coconut cream
Add it all up and I made ten different elements. Hence my starting a week in advance. But the end result was wonderful! The only thing I would do differently is make the cake layer thinner so the cake to cheesecake ratio is better. I felt like it was a little heavy on the cake with not quite enough cheesecake for me. Which means that I’m going to have to repeat this adventure at some point. 😂
We had planned to go out for dinner, but I was not feeling spectacular today (Darn migraines. They are seriously interfering with my life.) so we will reschedule that for another day. Kevin did get some balloons for me. And they are taller than I am! And Matthew asked Kevin to go to the Home Depot with him so that he could give me some butane to go with the crème brulee torch he gave me for Christmas. I guess that means my next experimental dessert will be crème brulee…both the milk and eggs version and the Matthew friendly version. Because why make one dessert when you can make two? 😜
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