Sunday, March 6, 2011

I Baked A Cake And Ate It, Too!

Having been busy with the poopettes, another visitor - this time from Canada and who also happens to be Murphy's mom - and being a bit laid up with more stomach problems, it was my birthday in late February and, as if I didn't already have enough to do,  I had to make my own birthday cake!  Really??

Sheesh!

Well, not really - I mean I really did make a cake but it wasn't just necessarily for my birthday. In late 2010 I won a calendar from the wonderfully cheesy people at  WWFC (that would be Nicky, CheesyMike and Sme Jepeto), with each month in the calendar featuring a different recipe with cheese as an ingredient.

February's recipe was (is):

HOLY CHOCOLATE CAPPUCCINO CHEESECAKE, BATMAN!


Okay, delete the "Holy" and "Batman" from the above and that gives you name of the recipe.  If you are a lover of cheesecake, especially CHOCOLATE cheesecake, this is a great recipe and relatively simple, too! The only problem I had was with the springform pan: I usually cheat and use the store bought crusts but the ingredients were such that they called for a larger vessel. I did, however, use the pre-fab crusts for the cookie crumbs which was way easier than scraping the cream filling off of chocolate cookies (we don’t have just plain chocolate cookies here) and then crushing them. Hey, the easier the better, right?

Since I am not much of a sweets fan, I was going to forgo the topping but the cake developed a crack (and, apparently, some teeth, zits and attitude) while baking:

Eat me.


As you can see, I had no idea what I was doing slightly overdosed on the crumbs for the side crust (I really didn’t know if I was supposed to do that or not - a side crust, that is) which shrank inward, making the cake look kind of like a flattened curling rock (and I mean the sport of curling, not hair curling unless you use rocks to curl your hair - hey, whatever floats your boat).  Regardless of its appearance, the cake was lighter than a regular cheesecake - almost mousse like - and definitely fabulous!

So, here it is in all its glory, the finished product:

Happy Frakken Birthday To ME!!!

In hindsight, I probably could have gone with a meringue topping but that may have been just as sweet as the icing the recipe called for.  Hmm … maybe cherry pie filling for the schmear next time. Yum!

Instead of including the recipe here, I will post it in the next few days with some tips and tweaks (i.e. so your cake won't grow 'teeth' if it develops a crack, etc.).

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34 comments:

  1. Your cake looks delicious. Happy belated birthday. And from your caption I see you're a Battlestar Galactica fan. Your mentioning crack and teeth in the same sentence almost makes me think of a Charlie Sheen joke. What a frakken douche.

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  2. Happy belated birthday Dozo! I'm so glad you tried, and liked, the cake...it is freakin' delish, isn't it?! Mine developed the crack too. Usually, if you put a shallow pan of water in the oven with the cheesecake, it keeps it from cracking. In any case, the crack doesn't stop it from being cheesy, chocolatey goodness from Heaven! :-)

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  3. Man. Wtf is up with you people today??? This is the 3rd blog I've read that had something about food! Now I need a snack. Nice cheesecake, btw, and HAPPY BERFDAY to YOU!

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  4. dufus: Thanks. Yes, it was very, very tasty and rich, too! Ha! With all the hubbub about Sheen lately, I probably put that in there subconsciously. Yep, a frakken douche with a bad attitude.
    ;-)

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  5. Nicky: Thanks! A much better recipe that the same old, same old (I think I'll use a little more liqueur next time). I did put a pan of water in the oven, but it still cracked. Maybe I left it in a little too long? No worries, there's always topping covered it up.
    ;-)

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  6. vicki: Thanks for the BD wishes! It was Sunday after all and there's always a family dinner going on somewhere, be it real or virtual! Hope you enjoyed your snack.
    ;-)

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  7. By the way "poopettes" sounds like a 50s doo-wap group. Imagine Ed Sullivan saying "and now on our really big shoe, Peter and the Poopettes!"

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  8. Oh my goodness! Your cake looks delicious!! YUM!

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  9. Happy belated birthday, Double-O! That cake looks amazing.. I'm so happy my birthday isn't until June and I might have forgotten about this cake by then, because I would totally eat the entire thing all by myself.

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  10. Happy late bd 00 glad you've been around even tho you've been too busy to post. I loves me some cheescake, oh and trifle. Glad it tasted good even though it was frowning like a Mr. Yuck sticker.

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  11. dufus: Funny, I was trying to think of doo-wap groups earlier today, but for another post. (I've think we've had a mind-meld.) *insert Twilight Zone theme here*
    ;-)

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  12. meleah: It was! I'm going to post the recipe and you should really try it - decadent, to say the least.

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  13. Ziva!! You've been absent, but that's o.k. Thanks for BD wishes. Dang girl, if you ate an entire cakeyou'd be going to your "Zoomba" classes five times a week! Share the wealth (in this case, the calories). I know you don't care for cheese all that much, but I think you would like this. Who wouldn't?
    ;-)

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  14. Madge: Thanks! Ha! Chocolate is chocolate - does it matter what it looks like? Heh, heh.

    Oh, I like trifle, too - especially with some brandy or cherry liqueur.

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  15. Yay cheese and yay you! Happy birthday (belated) Double O!

    Oh, did you say trifle? My mom used to make it and it was the best. She had this huge V-shaped bowl for it and it was decadence personified. If food can be personified...hmm..not sure. Anyway! I love trifle!

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  16. Cappuccino? Did you say cappuccino cake? I want it. I must have it. Happy Birthday a little late.

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  17. You can never have enough chocolate crust! Hope your smile on your birthday was as big as the smile on that cake, Double 0!

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  18. CheestMike: Thanks! And, really, how can one screw up a cheesecake?
    ;-)

    One of these days I'm going to try a trifle. It seems pretty easy to make.

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  19. Sue: Thanks! Drop by in the next couple of days - I'll be posting the recipe.

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  20. Boom Boom: Surprisingly, the crust wasn't as hard (as in chewy) as I thought it would be, but I now realize I could have used a different method for making it. There's always next time.
    ;-)

    I did frown when I saw that crack, but it was all good after I put on the topping. Yum!

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  21. That looks dayum good! Hmmmm...I don't have the ingredients to make a cake right now, but Funny Man did buy Chocolate cheesecake ice cream yesterday...and I am home alone and....well, it must be 5:00pm somewhere in the world right? - G

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  22. Oh, and Happy Birthday too! - G

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  23. Happy belated birthday, Double-O. Your cake looks delicious and I wish I was there to share it with you. Not that I like hot, balmy weather. But it'd be nice to meet you and help you celebrate.

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  24. GD: I'll be posting the recipe (probably today), so maybe you might take a stab at it sometime.

    And thanks for the BD wishes!

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  25. BonyMike: Thanks! I wish I could have met you and shared some cake, too! It's actually perfect weather right now - not too hot, sunny and breezy! Alas, it won't last much longer.
    ;-)

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  26. BonyMike: Thank you! I would have liked to have shared a piece with you, too. And the weather down here is perfect right now - not to hot, it's sunny and breezy. Alas, it won't last much longer.
    ;-)

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  27. heh heh.....what a brilliant cake! My twin's a cake dresser. Does all the footery icing figure and flowers and stuff but I'd rather have your one. It was the 'candle standing in a lump of chewing gum' effect that won me over...!!

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  28. Lena: Why thank you ... thank you very much!
    ;-)

    I would love to be able to make all those fancy, schmancy accoutrements your sister makes but I can barely draw a stick man to save my life. No worries. Cchocolate is chocolate! It's all good! (But I'll bet your sis could dress one up really nice!)

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  29. First of all, a big better-late-than-never HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

    Second, my ass just grew a whole size from just looking at that thing. Those tongue marks you see on your screen are mine.

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  30. Jayne: No worries. It doesn't matter when you reach, just that you do. Thanks!

    No wonder my screen was a bit out of focus - and here I thought I had to clean my glasses.
    ;-)

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  31. The idea of the mousse texture actually sounds really delicious.

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  32. Jenny: It's definitely lighter than a regular recipe. I think I'm going to try a little more whipping cream in the batter the next time.

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  33. Happy belated birthday, 00dozo. If you had to make your own cake, it looks like you picked a really good one. I mean think about it. You could have ended up with one of those boring yellow supermarket cakes with thick sugary frosting and big pink sugar flowers. Trust me, I know whereof I speak.

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  34. Patti: Thank you! I'm not really much of a birthday or cake person, but it was on my list of recipes for this year and it just happened to be in my birthday month. Yay me! Oh, and I do know of what you speak - I remember almost choking on one of those hard meringue flowers (or dollops)that are sometimes used to decorate cakes. Gah!
    ;-)

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