11/23 A Week of Birthdays Pt 2: Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake

While cake 1 was warm and autmny, cake 2 was elegant and bold: again, the cake reflecting the birthday girl. My roommate K has a strong personality, which I love and admire about her. She also loves the beauty of food and the art of decorating, so I knew a run of the mill traditional cake would not work. Instead, I went off the traditional cake path and made a Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake with an Oreo Crust.

Inspired by Jaclyn's White Chocolate Cheesecake design over at Cooking Classy, I attempted to make pretty heart-looking shapes, but the jam thickened too fast, so my cake had more of a marbled pattern. Although still pretty, I'm determined to one day make a cheesecake that resembles Jaclyn's.

Because I didn't have time to strain fresh raspberries (and I don't have a strainer), I used seedless preserves for the sauce. Below is the recipe, it's pretty much the same as the one on Cooking Classy, but with just a few adjustments here and there. Also, we still don't have a mixer so I had to make the cheesecake using a fork: proof that a perfect cheesecake can be achieved with limited tools :)

Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake 
Inspired by Cooking Classy 

Ingredients:

• 1 chocolate cookie pie crust, homemade or store-bought 
• 1/2 jar seedless raspberry preserves (I ended up using less that 1/2 the jar, it just depends on how much raspberry flavor you want)
• 12 oz 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese (about 1 1/2 blocks) 
• Heaping 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 room temperature egg
• 1 egg white
• Splash of vanilla extract (a little over 1 teaspoon) 
• 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice 
• 1 cup quality white chocolate chips 
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream 

What to Do:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Make sure oven rack is directly in the middle of the oven. 
2. Mix together cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. I recommend doing this with a fork for best results 
3. Once fluffy, about 3-5 minutes depending on your arm strength, mix in egg, egg white, vanilla, and lemon juice until combined. 
4. Make a double broiler out of a large saucepan and a heat-proof bowl (I used a glass mixing bowl). The bowl should be big enough to not fall into the pot, but small enough to just fit so the bottom of the bowl nearly touches the water in the pot. Fill pot with water and bring to a boil. In the glass bowl, place white chocolate chips and whipping cream. Stir continuously until chips are fully melted and combined with the cream. Remove from heat. 
5.  In a small saucepan, bring raspberry preserves to a simmer, letting them thin out a bit
6. Pour the white chocolate cream mixture into the cream cheese mix. Stir to combine. Pour 1/2 batter into prepared crust. Next, spoon some of the raspberry preserves onto the batter and swirl with a knife. Pour the rest of the cheesecake mix onto the crust, completely covering the first layer of raspberry. Lastly, spoon the remaining raspberry preserves on top. For a marbled design, spoon the preserves so as to make dots on the cake. Then take a sharp knife and, using the tip of the knife, swirl the dots to make different designs. 
7. Place cake in oven and bake for 40-45minutes, or until set. 
8. Remove from oven and cover the cake with a lid or foil. Place in refrigerator for at least 6 hours. 

I gave the cake to K in the morning on Friday. 24 hours later and this is all that's left. 

I'm so excited to be flying home today for Thanksgiving! I hope you all get to spend tomorrow with friends and family, and of course great food!

"Walk Around the Lake" By Lost in the Trees. Just discovered these guys. They mix classical orchestra sounds with folk beats and lyrics, definitely check out more of their stuff on soundcloud or youtube!

--Kelli