The (Now Infamous) Cheesecake

This weekend my in-laws came to visit and we held a 30th birthday dinner celebration for Justin. We made Crock-Pot Taco Soup for dinner, a delicious recipe Justin and I recently discovered and absolutely love. And for dessert: cheesecake!

I told you in my TOT post last week that Justin wanted a homemade cheesecake for his birthday. I also admitted that, as much as I ADORE baking, I had yet to make a cheesecake. Now I must clarify that statement: I had yet to successfully make a cheesecake. Justin reminded me after said TOT post that I actually made a pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving a few years ago; however, since nobody really liked that cheesecake - and I'm pretty sure I burned the crust somehow - I do not include it on my baking resume.

Not wanting to spend my Saturday juggling a baking task and a busy toddler, I opted to make this cheesecake on Friday evening. But, chatty daughter-in-law that I am, I let myself get a little sidetracked in catching up with my in-laws, so the cheesecake didn't make it into the oven until 10pm. There was a sour cream topping that required an additional 20 minutes cooking time at a lower temp, and then I had to account for some cooling time. Long story short, I finally put the semi-cooled cheesecake in the fridge at 12:30am, long after everyone else had headed to bed. Lucky for me, I am halfway through Breaking Dawn right now, so Edward, Bella and Jacob helped to keep me awake for the sake of The Perfect Cheesecake.

And no, I'm not bragging when I call it that - the recipe I found is actually called The Perfect Cheesecake. Its from The Pioneer Woman, so I knew it had to be marvelous.

I would love to tell you that the first thing I thought of the next morning was how blessed I am to wake up to a happy toddler, but it wasn't. It was the cheesecake. I may have even hopped out of bed (a rare thing for a leisurely Saturday), excited to peek at my masterpiece. You see, the cake was still a little warm when I put it in the fridge the night before, but I couldn't keep my eyes open a second longer waiting for it to completely cool. Perfectionist that I am, I was worried that breaking this "completely cool then refrigerate" rule would result in a less-than-perfect dessert.

Justin and Kendry were in the kitchen when I walked in and went straight for the fridge. I audibly oohed and I aahed over it a bit. Then, seeing that it looked presentable even though I had put it in the fridge a wee bit early, I closed the fridge door and greeted my family good morning.

Exactly what happened next is still a bit puzzling to me. One second I was loving on my kiddo sitting adorably in his PJ's on the kitchen counter, and the next second I heard a crash from the fridge behind me. I turn to see my hubby barely holding up a shelf in the fridge, and my beautiful cheesecake lying facedown on the kitchen floor. I think I actually mumbled something like "No, you didn't", and then the tears came. Perhaps I was overtired, or simply overdue for a good cry, but I didn't even try to stop the tears. Within seconds I was blubbering like a child, asking "What were you doing?" and "Why didn't you ask for my help?" Maybe there is no use crying over spilled milk, but it is most certainly justified to sob over a mutilated dessert.

Between comforting his sobbing wife, re-attaching the fridge shelf and cleaning up the globs of cheesecake leaving a trail from the fridge to the overturned springform pan, my hubby finally admitted that he had wanted to take a peek at the cake himself. But apparently his maneuvering of the cake cover and the fridge shelf went a little haywire. Sniffling back my tears, I nearly laughed at the thought of my 30 year old husband sneaking into the fridge like a little boy, so excited to see his birthday cake. How could I possibly stay mad at him for that?

Finally, we flipped the springform over and realized that the damage wasn't nearly as bad as it seemed, especially since the rest of the cake was still intact in the pan. The only permanent scarring was where my hubby had attempted to catch the cake on its way down. So we did a little patching and then figured if we did a raspberry glaze on top the damage may not even be noticeable.

Now that I look at it again, the damage even resembles my hubby's handprint.

And the glaze worked like a charm:

I put up a few photos of my hubby for the birthday dinner. From left to right its Justin with his mom, Justin with his little brother Dru, and Justin at the pumpkin patch with Kendry a few weeks ago.

Gosh that cake looks pretty, doesn't it? And it tasted delicious!

Happy 30th Birthday, Justin!