Black Forest Cheesecake

Last night I made my very first cheesecake.  I honestly thought that it would come out looking beautiful and perfect.  Well friends, I thought wrong! =)  I found this recipe on Chef De Cuisine.  They don't have a picture of their cheesecake, but I can promise you that it looked prettier than mine.  

Here are the things that did go right:

• The cake itself tastes very good.  
• It's creamy, rich, and chocolaty.  
• The texture came out perfect.  

Here are the things that didn't go so right:

• Mine just didn't come out of the oven as pretty to the eye as I would have hoped.  
• For a black forest cheesecake, it wasn't as dark colored as I expected it to be.  
• My crust doesn't want to stick to the cake and is difficult to cut. 
• There were cracks along the top edges of the cake.

What I learned:

• Run a knife around the cake before you chill it. Then run the knife back around the cake before you open the spring-form pan.  If you don't this happens...

=(

• When it is baking, the cake will rise really high, but don't panic.  =)  The cake goes back down as it cools.
• Cherry pie filling and whipped cream will hide an ugly cake. ;-)

This is another recipe that I would LOVE some more experienced people to comment on.  Here is the recipe word for word from Chef De Cuisine with my tips at the end:

Black Forest Cheesecake

makes: 10-12 servings

Crust:
1 1/4 cups Graham wafer crumbs
1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
3 packages (8 ounce each) cream cheese, softened
1-12 ounce can condensed milk
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, melted, cooled
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-19 ounce can cherry pie filling
Whipped cream
Chocolate curls

Crust:
Combine crumbs, sugar and butter; press firmly on bottom of 9-inch spring form pan.

Filling:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In an electric mixer bowl, beat cream cheese until creamy. Gradually beat in condensed milk, chocolate, eggs, and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 50-55 minutes or until set. Cool. Chill. Top with the pie filling. Garnish with whipped cream and chocolate curls.


My tips for this recipe:

• I used 1- 12oz can of sweetened condensed milk.  The recipe doesn't specify.
• I did an oreo crust rather than the wafer cookies.  I also omitted the sugar from the crust.

I can't wait to hear from those of you more experienced than I am on how I can improve my cheesecake making skills. ;-)  

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