Cheesecake Galore Birthday 2022

It's my birthday and all that I want for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is cheesecake! I'm obsessed with cheesecake. I've been making it for decades. It's kind of a birthday tradition at this point. I just moved into a new place, though, and am not entirely sure if my oven now can even bake a cheesecake. It had to have made half a century ago and hasn't exactly aged like fine wine. Although obviously more built to last than most things these days, it is still kicking, though. So, I decided to try out my hand at making a cheesecake. With a healthy amount of optimistic skepticism and a Costco-sized amount of cream cheese.

What to Make for My Birthday?

We all have scripts for holidays. Thanksgiving it's turkey and mashed potatoes. Christmas it's hickory honey ham and cranberry sauce. And for the Summer Solstice is lemon and hibiscus magical tea. But I have a special place for cheesecake on birthdays. I have nothing against cake. Cupcakes aren't a bad option. I'd ordinarily maybe like a meringue. But I make myself a cheesecake almost every birthday and no one can convince me otherwise.

I also refuse to eat store-bought cheesecakes. I like a dense New York-style cheesecake more than the over whipped fluffy ones that you tend to find commercially. Cheesecake also doesn't keep very long. The butter begins to separate in the crust and the filling dries out. It's really only at its best for the first day or two. Anything longer and it'll still be fine to eat, but it won't have that same razzle dazzle. So, I now have a longstanding tradition of making myself a cheesecake on my birthday.

The Cheesecake Menu

For this year's Birthday cheesecake menu, I've ended up with:

Gallery

New York Cheesecake w/ Rum Chocolate Ganache

Cooking Times

Ordinarily I have a section about how to get all of the dishes out at the same time. However, since I went out to eat and had cheesecake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next week and a half! I'm simply going to outline how long each of the components takes to put together.

Crust: 5 min. preparation, 10 min. bake
Filling: 10 min. preparation
Bake: 45 min. bake
Rest: 1-2 hours
Chill: 8-12 hours (or overnight)

Conclusion About the Meal

I went from not knowing whether or not I could make a cheesecake in my oven to having 3 different absolutely delicious cheesecakes. I have to say that the Margarita Cheesecake is my favorite. I'm a sucker for tequila and lime, though. So, that's really not surprising! I was worried that the Chocolate Rum Cheesecake wasn't going to turn out as well as I'd like it to. Although it ended up being great. I obviously shared these with as many people as humanly possible because there was no way that I could ever eat this much cheesecake! And the layer of chocolate ganache was a hit. I think that the crowd favorite was the Peanut Butter Cheesecake. Everyone loves a good Reese's Peanut Butter Cup dupe, though!

This Page Contains Edited Images

As a general rule, I don't like to edit images. Food styling, editing, alteration, and even faking entirely is just as rampant a problem in the recipe realm. Cooking is a very visual art and you can tell when a lot of foods are cooked based on the color. So, when this is altered and you can't use the coloration as a gauge, it makes it quite difficult to follow some recipes. I have an entire article about Food Styling and Unrealistic Expectations of Recipes. My place has very warm lighting, though. So, sometimes my camera overcompensates and ends up with an unnatural hues. I've adjusted the hues, levels, and/or cropped the following images: