One Cheesecake Recipe, Three Mouthwatering Variations

… It’s how to cook

I have random cravings for cheesecake. I happen to be a pretty big fan of cheesecake and I’ve found that others are also big fans of cheesecake.

When we were younger my parents would take us down to Mexico to visit family. I had an uncle who would always come over with a cheesecake from this restaurant called VIPs. I remember it being the BEST cheesecake ever, and it was so simple — nothing but strawberries and whipped cream.

My maternal grandfather was also a fan of cheesecake, and always had a box of Entenmann’s cheesecake in the refrigerator. We’d eat other kinds of cheesecakes, but that box always seemed to win over everything else. Because of this cheesecake holds a special place in my heart.

I’d never made it before because it always seemed like a complicated process. Then one day I was browsing the Internet looking for random recipes (a favorite pastime of mine) when I found this one. I would have loved to have been able to make this for my grandparents but unfortunately that never happened. I even looked up how to make it more “healthy” since they both had health issues.

I have never used another recipe and I’ve never received a complaint from anyone who’s ever eaten it. Out of the different things that I know how to make I think I’m asked to make cheesecake the most (plus it’s pretty versatile so I’ve made it in all sorts of flavors).

This particular recipe can be used for one regular sized cheesecake or it can be used to make four dozen mini-cheesecakes. The first time I made this I used berries and the sour cream ‘icing’. I don’t really use that anymore as I find the recipe makes a lot of icing and it can be very sweet. Plus it doesn’t travel very well with the icing and can be quite messy if not held together in the spring form pan.

Making mini-cheesecakes takes a bit less time to bake and you’ll want to be sure that you have pans big (or small) enough to bake using a water bath. It’s possible to skip the muffin pan and still be able to do the water bath, you’ll just need to use the tin liners (pictured above) as they tend to hold their shape better.Just keep an eye on them so that they don’t over cook or crack.

The icing on Mini cheesecakes works well since it’s in the liner. Just play with the amount of sugar that’s added so that it doesn’t over power the actual cheesecake.

This project is… well, it’s kind of a project! It’s definitely more time-consuming than any other cake recipe I’ve made. But in the end it’s definitely worth it!

Click here for the full recipe, and share your favorites in the comments below. Like I said, a plain cheesecake can be pretty versatile so I like to play around with flavors and switch it up. So far I’ve done a Chocolate chip cheese cake (for national chocolate chip day), Chocolate and Caramel swirl, Strawberry swirl (with homemade jam) and a pumpkin cheesecake.

Enjoy!