Dana's Birthday!

My springform pan is quickly becoming the official cake pan of birthdays at 106 Governor Street. As you may remember, I bought it for Nick's Ice Cream Cake, a delicious if unwieldy creation. Sunday was Dana's birthday, and although she's game for pretty much anything sweet, fluffy and delicious, she has a soft spot for cheesecake.

I've never made a cheesecake before, in fact, I don't even like cheesecake that much. Dana, on the other hand, considers herself something of a cheesecake connoisseur, so I was understandably nervous. But then I found this easy recipe on the Bon Appetit Project Recipe Blog, and figured if Bridget could do it, I could too. (I even have a metal food processor blade! Actually, it's Vicky's, so I only have it for another 6 days.)

Conveniently, Seth had whisked Dana away to Cape Cod for her birthday, so I had all of Sunday to work on my cakes. I dragged Nick through the grocery store Sunday morning and got started right away.

As the Bon Appetit bloggers pointed out, the theme of this cheesecake is food processing. First, in go the butter and shortbread cookies (I used Walker's, and while it didn't resemble a crust at first, it turned out delicious. Even Dana thought so.)

The rest of the ingredients are basically just thrown into the food processor together, then poured into the pre-baked crust. Although Bon Appetit blogger Chris cautions against using too many pre-processed ingredients, I used Philadelphia cream cheese because that's what my mom bakes with. (And if you've ever eaten something she's baked, you understand why this is reason enough.) I did take Chris up on his suggestion to leave out the almond extract, mostly because I'm moving out in a week and already have an almost-full bottle of bourbon extract to use up somehow (if I added it to cheap vodka would it taste like whiskey?)

I had no idea how to tell when a cheesecake was done, but apparently I guessed right, because the cheesecake received rave reviews. Even Dana, cheesecake connoisseur, said it was among the best cheesecakes she'd ever had. Victory!