Red Velvet Cheesecake

I'm having a very hard time writing about this. Not because I messed it up. Not because it wasn't good, not even because it was hard. But, rather, because I did it...successfully.


I see a lot of recipes day-to-day, especially ones for dessert. I seek them out and have more desserts bookmarked on my computer than anything else. I couldn't care less about making savory dinners, yet I am passionate about sweets. Making a dessert is like making a work of art every time for me, and after making this I feel like I've been finger painting my whole life and finally discovered a paintbrush, and can now properly do this form of art.

I did not have enough food dye!

This cake didn't start off on a good note. After putting all the ingredients out in front of me I realized: Crap. I've never made a cake from scratch. Or a cheesecake. Or a successful ganache. I ended up picking up my 2/3 cup instead of my 1/2 cup for adding the flour, and didn't realize it until the end. I used my instincts and added enough buttermilk until it seemed like a batter consistency. Then, on top of that, I didn't have nearly enough red food dye, and it turned into a bit of a mauve velvet cake.

Mauve-Tan Velvet cake?

When I started making the cheesecake, I realized I was short an entire 8 oz. of cream cheese. What, seriously? It worked out, though, since everything was in 3rd...I cut out a 1/3rd of all the other ingredients. It all ended up working out. I was so happy that I had overcome 2 real issues by now! On top of that, the cake baked quite beautifully. The crust burned a little bit, so I will have to figure that out, but my Dad didn't seem to mind.

The ganache was easy! I tried it once before, and ended up with a chocolate soup that sat in my fridge for days while I hopelessly thought "Please harden!"...and ended up throwing it away after all was said and done. This worked out really well, and I had a hard time not eating it as I was baking the cake.

First complete success!

My last hurdle was the frosting. I thought it would be easy, but I was making this 10 minutes before my Dad was arriving, and I guess I was too stressed, because it tasted like butter....and that was it. Butter. I ended up throwing all of it in the garbage and dumped the remainder of the ganache on top of the cake, along with some white chcolate, strawberries and BAM.

Beaut'

Happy Daddy :)

I made it. It was delicious. It was not the most successful cake ever, but I DID IT! I couldn't even believe it. I basically made 2 cakes, both of which had some issues, but I got through all of them with my own confidence and intuition. I made something that absolutely overwhelmed me, and it was wonderful. It was successful, and I'm looking forward to making a creation of my very own.