Cheesecake Day

Since July 30 (today) is Cheesecake Day I thought I'd share a mini cheesecake recipe that I absolutely love. It is unbelieveably quick and easy and tastes great. I found the recipe on the Tasty Kitchen - a website that is quickly becoming a favorite for finding new things to whip up.

Anyhow here is what you'll need for the cheesecake:

16 oz Cream Cheese (generally this will be two packages)

1/2 cup Sugar

2 Eggs

1 teaspoon Vanilla

Cupcake liners

Optional: toppings (details to follow)

And the instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix everything together in a bowl until smooth. Spoon mixture into cupcake pan. Cook.

Seriously how beautiful is that? Okay okay I'm sure you'd like a few more details but I just wanted to illustrate how beautifully easy this recipe is. As regards the mixing thing this will work better if you leave the cream cheese out on the counter for a couple of hours first to help it soften up. I've done it straight out of the

fridge before but it's not quite as easy. As regards the cooking the recipe says fifteen mintues but I think it took a little longer than that for me. The things I look for most to tell that their done is 1) when there are some good cracks on top of a number of the cheesecakes, 2) a touch of color on top of the cheesecake (light brown to a soft golden usually) 3) they smell done. (Yeah sorry about number three - it's just how I've been cooking lately so I keep forgetting to even set a timer anymore.) There will be a great cheesecake aroma wafting through the house though so it's a decent indicator. As regards a crust well you can make up the one that goes with the recipe if you want to but I prefer vanilla wafers to it - they are more subtle and let you really enjoy the cheesecake. These also taste great without any crust at all so if you don't want to bother (or are allergic to wheat) don't worry about doing a crust at all.

The fun thing about these is the topping - options abound. You really can do anything you want to them. I've done a can of cherry filling (as pictured above) as well as just a bit of caramel sauce (I used a jar I picked up from the ice cream aisle at the store). My favorite so far has been melted chocolate with chopped nuts. Ideas I still want to try include other berries, toffee chips or chopped up candy bars (like Snickers). These are even great topless (how often can I say that on this blog ;).

I look forward to reading about how each of you celebrated your cheesecake day - the topping you enjoyed (or not) so come back and leave a comment.

And a friendly reminder to all of you who couldn't believe I didn't share the information sooner last year Ice Cream Sandwich Day is coming up on Aug. 2.