mmm Cheesecake!

The main ingredients!

This is no secret: I love cheesecake.

This is also no secret: I don't cook. I don't bake. I basically don't like the heat that's exuded from every cooking surface.

I would very much like to learn how to bake a cheesecake though! So, my Mom and I embarked on a mission: to make the best cheesecake we can!

Attempt #1: crustless cheesecake. Total failure. 

We left it in too long and it ended up like a gelatin sorta dessert. It may have had something to do with the addition of flour...but I don't know. It would've been nice...if it had more sugar. We ate a bit of it and then just threw it out. It had no flavour to it really.

Attempt #2: cheesecake with crust. Semi success.

This one turned out pretty well! We left out some ingredients this time: vanilla extract and flour. We also didn't bother to leave it in the oven like one recipe had suggested. It turned out more like cheesecake and tasted more like cheesecake but it was too sweet! My Mom thought to put in a bit more sugar this time but we forgot that the crust would have sugar in it as well...so it was too sweet! x3

I worked with my Mom on this so I can't really just take the credit for it. Hopefully attempt #3 will be a total hit! We've had to experiment with the temperature and timing of the baking process because we aren't using a regular oven. We're using a convection oven so the baking occurs at a much faster pace and would be needed at a lower temperature. The recommended 90 minutes of oven time at 325 degrees followed by 250 degrees obviously wouldn't work for us. We had to assume about half the 90 minutes would be okay timing (we went with about 50 minutes). We didn't really play with the temperature so that may be why it ended up so golden brown at the edges - the middle was a little too soft too. So, next time we'll be lowering the temperature some.

It just takes a few simple ingredients to make a simple cheesecake but a LOT of money is spent for it. I'm not sure what it's like overseas, but in Barbados the ingredients are expensive to buy (especially now that VAT is now 17.5%). The little tin of sour cream alone could cost about $5; the crust about $10; the cheese...similar to the sour cream; then there's sugar and eggs; and I couldn't believe the dressing for it sells for almost $30 in the supermarket! (We so did not buy that!) Don't forget, there's also the expense in electricity.

So, here's a lesson to learn: when you see a whole cheesecake selling for $45 BDS, that's CHEAP (though, it may be more like $50-something now). Especially when it comes with the tasty lovely $30 topping. And don't forget, people are paid for manual labour as well!