{"id":2976,"date":"2020-10-26T00:39:01","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T00:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/?p=2976"},"modified":"2020-10-26T00:39:03","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T00:39:03","slug":"taking-the-cakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womansconed.com\/?p=2976","title":{"rendered":"Taking the cake(s)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Summer crawled along this year, dimmed by our lengthy pandemic status and an early wildfire season. By the time my birthday \u00e2\u20ac\u201d as well as that of my blog\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u201d rolled around, celebrating \u00e2\u20ac\u201d  as it has felt for much of the last year \u00e2\u20ac\u201d  seemed a bit ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year has been one of low expectations, expecting the unexpected (and even the worst), and the undoing of anything planned. This very blog post was sidelined by life, other deadlines and my own reshuffling priorities. This \u00e2\u20ac\u201d my 250th post \u00e2\u20ac\u201d should have been completed weeks ago, and yet, time has morphed into something different this year, both dragging and speeding by all at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And still, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve reached a milestone with this blog, which began 10 years ago on my birthday. My birthday and my blog were worth some trouble, even this year, weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they? And definitely worth marking with \u00e2\u20ac\u201d if nothing else \u00e2\u20ac\u201d cake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cake is, as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve discussed before, the ultimate celebration symbol. And yet, I am not the biggest cake fan. It falls low on my list of dessert favorites. Often it is just too sweet, too much. And frosting? Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get me started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I wanted celebratory cake for a year of challenges and hopes dashed and losses I was still grieving. I wanted to honor the fact that in spite of everything, I kept plugging away, maybe not with outstanding results, but results in the fact that I am still standing and my blog, still active for the posts I created, mostly as they were inspired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[T]his year, and these celebrations, called for not one, but two cakes, I decided. One cake for me, and one and for my blog, turning 10. For me, I wanted something simple to celebrate my own year turning, something that recollected my childhood and was really what cake, for me, was in an ideal sense \u00e2\u20ac\u201d more creamy dessert. I took inspiration from a favorite summer drink \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the cherry limeade from Sonic \u00e2\u20ac\u201d  and decided to turn it into that ultimate lush creaminess of cakes \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the cheesecake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[M]y friend, Deanna Lamour, who is an amazing artist and an extraordinary baker, gave me what I think is the best basic cheesecake formula. She herself has adapted it to many variations \u00e2\u20ac\u201d including banana \u00e2\u20ac\u201d so I thought I could turn her recipe into a cherry limeade cheesecake, with dark, sweet summer cherries and the juice and zest from  tart key limes, which were still available in the markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[I] made a very basic graham cracker crust recipe using melted butter to bring the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and a little cinnamon together to a nice cohesive mixture that I pressed evenly into a 9-inch springform pan. I followed Deanna\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s preference of chilling the crust rather than pre-baking it. I, too, have found that sometimes this overcooks the crust and leaves it a little too hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[O]ne of the things I love most about Deanna\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recipe is that it is all mixed by hand \u00e2\u20ac\u201d no mixer or appliance needed! This actually serves a purpose. Sometimes using a stand or other electric mixer mixes too much air into the cheesecake. So the cream cheese is first creamed by hand, then sugar, eggs and vanilla are added. Here is where I also incorporated the lime juice and zest, Then sour cream is folded in, which is genius in that it adds richness and moisture within the cake, rather than its usual place sitting on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[T]he cream cheese mixture is poured into the chilled crust. It could be baked in a water bath or with a ceramic dish of water in the bottom of the oven (I chose this method) to provide some steaming<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[I]t bakes up to a beautiful golden brown. Deanna offers a method of inverting a plate over the cheesecake immediately after it comes out of the oven and keeping that plate in place until the cheesecake cools to avoid cracking in the top of the cake. It works!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[T]his cheesecake was so good\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6simple, but just the right amount of creamy\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6that I made two of them! For the first one, I made a pureed cherry sauce to top the lime cheesecake and then decorated with whole sweet cherries and a little more lime zest. For my second cake, I made the lime variation again, but before baking, I studded the top with pitted sweet cherries, so it took on an almost cheesecake-cherry clafoutis combo. The lime and cherries were perfect together \u00e2\u20ac\u201d just the right amount of tart and sweet. The recipe, alone, is worth a celebration, and I hope to make other versions of Deanna\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cheesecake to celebrate for years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cherry Limemade Cheesecake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a recipe by Deanna Lamour <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makes one 9-inch cheesecake<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Graham Cracker Crust:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n