Sunday, April 26, 2009

Daring Baker Challenge - Cheesecake

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

I had mixed feelings about a cheesecake challenge. I make cheesecake regularly, so it really wasn't daring for me. But, I LOVE cheesecake and any reason to make it is a good thing. The great thing about this challenge is that Jenny not only made creativity an option, she encouraged it. So, I put on my thinking cap and started getting excited about this challenge.

I have a go-to cheesecake recipe that I am absolutely in love with, so I knew that I wanted to do something different. I wanted to play around with the flavors. The problem with this is that I couldn't narrow it down. I ended up making mini cheesecakes in 10 different cheesecake variations. Yes, you read that correctly. TEN different cheesecakes. See what I mean... I just couldn't decide!




I made the following flavors:

Not pictured individually:

Plain
Plain with Strawberry Coulis
Lemon
Coconut
Caramel



Plain with Blueberry Coulis



Chocolate Covered (To include craters filled with chocolate)



White Chocolate & Raspberry



Nutella Swirl


Peanut Butter & Chocolate



They were all phenomenal, but my favorite had to be the Nutella swirl. Big shocker, right? Cristine likes Nutella. I know you just can't believe it. :) The white chocolate and raspberry one was pretty great, too. Ah... who am I kidding? There wasn't a bad cheesecake in the whole bunch!

My only problem with the recipe was my own fault. I tried making 36 mini cheesecakes in a two hour period while my son was napping and my daughter was at preschool. That meant rushed cooling time (aka pan straight to freezer from oven) since I only had one mini cheesecake pan. This caused some of the cheesecakes to fall in the center, but they still tasted great!

Thanks to Jenny for a great challenge! Head over to her blog for the recipe and check out the blogroll for some HIGHLY creative cheesecakes.

36 comments:

Megan said...

You mean you only did 10 variations? Slacker!!!

Just kidding. They look delicious and could you send one my way? Because I haven't had dessert yet!

Leslie said...

My word!!! You were a busy bee!
And I woul dhave to agree, the nutella would have been my top pick as well

Flourchild said...

At first glance I thought your picture was a bunch of yummy looking donuts. When I saw they were all little individual cheesecakes I fell in love! My goodness do they look wonderful!

Anonymous said...

Those look amazing. I coudn't even imagine an individual, chocolate covered cheesecake. Swoon.

Bunny said...

WOW!! you did a fantastic job Cristine, they all look so good!! I'd have to eat everyone just to see which one ones my favorite!

anchan said...

Wow... great work! Mmmmm, peanut butter and chocolate for me! But as they're only little, I'll take a chocolate-coated one too!

Jaime said...

wow, so impressive!!! (and you just reminded me that i totally forgot about the DB challenge this month....hmmm...not sure if i will pull it off tomorrow???)

The Grows said...

These were the best cheesecakes ever. I will never look at cheesecake the same cause I will never find a more dlicious cheesecake. Basically these were amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The McBride Family said...

K well MY favorite was the chocolate and peanut butter one. Shocker Monica likes peanut butter and chocolate!! :) Thanks for sharing the cheesecake wealth. As usual they we FABULOUS!

Coleens Recipes said...

I would totally enjoy a bite of each one, please.

Katy ~ said...

Well done! All look so DELISH! I'd be overwhelmed to choose which one to sample first.

Shelby said...

Cristine they are awesome, you did such a great job! Grumpy would love your raspberry white chocolate one...and me, heck, I'll take any of them!

Jamie said...

Holy moly, TEN?? I don't think you made enough! They all look fabulous!

Debbie said...

Wow...so many variations. They all look wonderful. Where do I start?

teresa said...

What a fun day in the kitchen! They all look so good, I'd give anything to be able to grab one adn pop it in my mouth!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

TEN?! Wow, they all looked great! Not sure which would be my fave.
~ingrid

Sophie said...

The variety here is so tasty, I especially like the raspberry one :).

Anonymous said...

Look at you! I love all the variations. I'll take the nutella swirl one please.

Heidi said...

These look great. I would have to try all of them and that just wouldn't work for the hips! :)

Mary said...

omigosh...nutella swirl..that sounds amazing to me...is it just the regular cheesecake with nutella swirled in on top or is there some secret other hint?

Michele said...

Wow! Amazing. Every single version looks delicious.

Stephanie said...

Nutella swirl cheesecake?! Oh my goodness! I love that these are so teeny tiny, cute!

Elissa said...

Wow... This is incredible. I had a hard enough time making one, and you've executed 10 perfectly! It's hard to say which looks the best, but I'd have to say the raspberry or the nutella (I'm a big fan too!)

Lulu the Baker said...

I'm in awe. All of your combinations sound delicious!

Lori said...

Oh indeed they all sound delicious. You get an A for taste, courage and efficiency! Amazing. I know what it is like to be tight on time with toddlers and young children around so I bow in your presence. I personally picked the nutella as my favorite. I would so love to taste it. But I , like you, would be happy with any one of these. GREAT JOB.

Engineer Baker said...

My favorites - caramel and PB&C. But seriously, they all look wonderful - what a range of flavors!

Unknown said...

Only a Daring Baker would make ten variations. Thanks for bringing so much to this challenge! Personally I'd love to try one enrobed in chocolate....

Cristine said...

Thank you for all the fantastic comments! I really had fun with all the variations!

Mary... this is what I did for the Nutella swirl:

I filled the pan halfway with plain cheesecake. In a seperate bowl I mixed Nutella with some plain cheesecake batter and dolloped that on top. I then put a dollop of plain on top of that and swirled together. It was out of this world! Let me know if you try it! I loved it!

Emily Rose said...

yet again I am in total awe of your creativity and ability to do so much with such little kids!! I barely got this one done and I did one very simple flavor!! Your cakes are beautiful!!!

April said...

Great job on your variations! They all look fantastic!

PheMom said...

Awesome! Look at all that variety!

Lori said...

You are the CHEESECAKE QUEEN!! Awesome job!

Anonymous said...

Wow, ten flavors in under 2 hours, you go girl. They are so pretty. Great job.

TeaLady said...

So, you could send all of us a piece of cheese cake heaven - right!!! They all look delicious. The nutella has to be on my next cheese cake list, as does the PB and Chocolate.

(And the chocolate tart. We were busy, weren't we???)

Mermaid Sews said...

Um Wow - starting to feel like you are super women, and only just met you. I mean these are some seriously creative variations and they look seriously good.

Nutmeg Nanny said...

Those look great! They all sound super yummy but the blueberry one looks soooooooooo tasty. There is something about blueberries that I just can't pass up!

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