Monday, July 13, 2009

Sweet Melissa -- Berry Cheesecake

Eliana, from A Chica Bakes, chose this weeks recipe--Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake with Cornmeal Crumble Crust. Dave and I love cheesecake, so I knew that this recipe would be a big hit. This is a really big cake; there is 2 1/2 pounds(!) of cream cheese/mascarpone in the filling. The crust is unusual in that it uses cornmeal instead of graham crackers. The topping is made of blueberries that have been briefly cooked with sugar and lemon.

I accidentally grabbed a 10-inch springform pan when I started the cheesecake instead of the specified 9-inch pan, so my cheesecake was a bit thinner than it should have been. Also, I didn't have a large enough roasting pan to make a water bath, so I covered the bottom of the springform with a couple layers of foil (recycle!) and I also used a baking sheet in hopes that I would get even baking. Fortunately, the cheesecake baked up perfectly, though it was a bit more browned than it would have been with a water bath. I used raspberries instead of blueberries for the topping as the raspberries looked gorgeous at the store. Also, I did not cook the topping since I love fresh berries best just as they are. Instead, I melted some seedless raspberry jam and drizzled that over the top of the cake and the berries. I also added a sprinkle of sanding sugar.

The cheesecake was fantastic. The filling has a nice lemon taste and the crust is crunchy and not too sweet. I was happy with my topping as the fresh raspberries were perfectly ripe and bursting with flavor. The little bit of crunch from the sanding sugar went really well with the creamy cheesecake and the juicy berries.


Since this was one mammoth cake, I sent most of it with Dave to share with his National Guard unit. Supposedly, it was a huge hit!


You can find the complete Sweet Melissa Sundays blogroll here: http://sweetmelissasundays.wordpress.com/bakers/

I still have some things I need to fill out and adjust for the new blog design, and I may do a bit of tweaking later after I see how this layout works for me. The person behind the changes is Emily at The Blog Fairy. She's very talented and sweet and fun to work with. You can find her site here: http://web.me.com/ericcwhite/The_Blog_Fairy/Home.html

As always, if you have any comments or suggestions I would love to hear them! I am looking for a way to make it easier to search the recipes I've posted. Any ideas?


13 comments:

  1. that first pic makes me want some NOW!!! great job.

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  2. Your cheesecake looks perfect. I love the raspberries. YUM!

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  3. Your raspberries look amazing, I wouldn't have been able to pass them up either. I'm glad you liked the cheesecake, and good improvising on the 10-inch springform pan, I might have to try that as I run into the same problem occasionally.

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  4. I think the cheesecake turned out great. The fresh berries look fabulous on top. I didn't get to this one, but I must say that the crust intrigues me. Great job. And I love your signature here, too!!

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  5. This looks gorgeous! Good call on using raspberries!

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  6. I am seeing these cheesecakes all over the place and now am dying to try out this recipe! They all look SO GOOD! And I love the redesign!

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  7. I love cheesecake, especially with berries! Delicious

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  8. This cheesecake looks wonderful all piled high with raspberries. I have to buy this cookbook!

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  9. That looks delicious - I've always loved cheeze cakes!

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  10. Thank you for all the sweet comments!

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  11. Your cheesecake looks delicious! I'm sure the raspberries were fantastic on it!!! I didn't make the SMS recipe this week -though I did make a cheesecake - so I'm anxious to try this recipe - the cornmeal crust especially. Your new design looks great!

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