The Wonderful World Of Cheesecake

Cheesecake, you wonderful heavenly gift that has put more inches on women than chocolate and ice cream combined. A must for any "Golden Girl" and my down right favorite dessert. New York Style, With Strawberries, chocolate, turtle, you name it. It doesn't matter. It is an addiction I don't ever plan on giving up.

Sad thing is with any addiction comes the down side and I am not talking inches on the waist. I am talking making them. They are a pain! I have pulled my hair out more times trying to get a cheesecake right than I have trying to keep a soufflé from falling in a house full of kids. I swear I have read every tip and trick out there and some work, some don't and a lot need repeating.

So here I am, repeating the tips and tricks I have learned and been taught over the years.  These are what work for me.

1. Have a good recipe. If you are just starting I honestly recommend the one from Philadelphia Cream Cheese.  It is a good start.

2. High quality ingredients. This is not something you want to skimp on.

3. Room temperature ingredients. Your cream cheese and eggs for sure.

4. Do NOT overbeat! Seriously, air is your enemy. I usually cube my cream cheese before it softens and then just blend it on low with the sugar until smooth with my mixer. After that I fold in the rest as each step calls for it.

5. Springform Pan, Baking Spray, Oven Bag. Repeat this with me - Springform Pan, Baking Spray, Oven Bag. Set this up before you even start mixing. Spray your springform pan down with baking spray, including the sides and then set it in an oven bag.  (Use parchment on the bottom to make sure it comes off easy from the pan, spray that as well!) Now you can press your crust into the pan.

6. Water Bath. Once you have the pan in the oven bag and the crust is pressed in, place it in a roasting pan and fill the pan up with water - 1 inch deep around the pan.  This helps keep the oven air moist and gives you a creamy finish to your cheesecake.

7. Do NOT overcook! Most cheesecakes will still be jiggly in the center when time is up. For my personal recipe I cook it 1 hour and no more.

8. Cool in stages. Once the timer for your cheesecake goes off do NOT open the oven. Just turn it off and walk away for 3 hours.  Pretend if you open the oven it'll blow up or something. Just leave it be. Once 3 hours pass, remove it from the oven, carefully pull it out of the water and remove the bag. Place it on a cooling rack now and let it cool fully. After this cover the springform pan with a paper towel, not touching the cake and then cling wrap and shove it in the fridge overnight. (The paper towel will catch condensation instead of letting it build up on your  masterpiece.)

9. Remove from springform pan the next day. Yeah I know, you want to tear into this thing right away but seriously waiting makes it better. Next morning, if it hasn't already pulled away from the sides, just loosen it with a knife before removing the sides of the pan.

10. Decorate, enjoy, show off, share or keep to yourself. ^_~

Now, cheesecakes can still fall or crack even under the best of times don't worry. It will still taste great. If appearances are everything for you and it cracks here is a tip to fix small ones. Once the cake cools slightly but not fully, between the removing oven and putting in fridge stages, cover with plastic wrap and rub the crack slightly. This can help. That or you can go with toppings at this point. Drizzles of chocolate or caramel, some strawberries, almonds, whip cream. ^_~ Oh yeah, just enjoy it.

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Odd Things In The Kitchen

Okay, here I am working away and getting a test batch of royal icing together. Looking around I slowly stop as I realize something...Some of these items make no sense! At least out of context they don't. What items? These. ~points down~

Yeah, to some of us that decorate constantly they make perfect sense but you should see the looks of others when they look in my "Tackle Box" and see this is what I am using in my kitchen to make food.

So, quickly just gonna name everything and why I use it.

1. Vodka - No, not for drinking but there are some days I really want to. I use it mixed in luster dust to paint edible metallics onto food. Like you have seen with the Lego C3PO I did or even the Robot Unicorn Head. I also use it to attach sugar sheets onto dried royal icing. It dries faster and tends to run less than extracts. Also, dries with no flavor.

2. Dowel Rods - I honestly use these because I am lazy. Instead of spending time digging out my rolling pin rings or trying to get everything flat for cookie cutting, I just throw one of these on each side of my dough or fondant and roll. Makes everything perfectly even and usually the perfect thickness for cookies or fondant backings that need to dry to stand up.

3. Paint Brush - This gets used from painting with food coloring to clean up. Lot of time I get going to fast drawing lines with icing and it ends up hanging off the end of my cookie looking ragged. A damp brush over the nasty edge smooths it over quickly and with pin point precision.

4. Rubber Bands - Other than using them to fling at my kids to get them out of the kitchen while I cook I just use them to keep my icing bags closed.

5. Razor Blade - I don't think I would work without this one. Not only does it keep me safe and cookie thief's at-bay I use it for cutting the tips off disposable icing bags, rubber bands off them when I am done, popping "seals" off food colorings, cutting out sugar sheets and more. It is my all purpose tool. Some guys carry a Swiss Army Knife, I have my hot pink razor blade.

6. Toothpicks - I love these little babies. I use them to pop bubbles in icing, smooth icing on cookies that is bumpy, create texture in leaves and wood styled items, getting food coloring gel out and into the icing and my personal favorite - I stick them in the end of my tips to keep things from drying out. LOL (Got tired of washing dish clothes that were stained in food coloring.)

7. Shower Caps - This is my newest love thanks to the hubby. I put these over my icing bowls to keep things from drying out. Before I was using plastic wrap and the like. It was just such a pain to pull it off the icing, get what I need, put back on the icing and so forth. Now I use shower caps. 1 over the top of the bowl, a damp cloth on that and then another one over it. I wouldn't trust it overnight but I will say this - It is awesome during the day.

8. Tackle Box - Not pictured but I do love mine. It holds all my tips and such neatly and costs a crap ton less than the decorator boxes.

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