Baked Cheese Cake

I love cheese cake. When dining at a nice restaurant, I will almost always go for the cheese cake when the dessert tray comes around. I find it very disappointing if they don't offer a cheese cake of some kind. However, the best cheese cake I have ever had is made by my sister's mother-in-law, Bonnie. She has graciously given me permission to share it on the blog, so here it is.

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 can Holland Rusk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 C sugar
1/4 butter, melted

Filling:
3-8 oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
4 eggs
1 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Topping:
1/2 pint sour cream
2 Tbl sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375.

Crush rusk into crumbs.

Set aside 1/3 C crumbs to sprinkle on top.

Combine remaining crumbs with cinnamon and sugar.

Melt butter and add to crumb mix.

When well mixed, line 10-inch springform pan with mix.

Press with thumbs until smooth. The crust may ride up the sides of the pan a bit, but that's okay.

Cream cheese well.

Add eggs, sugar, and vanilla.

Mix well with hand or stand mixer.

Pour into crust.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. The center should still be slightly giggly.

Increase oven temperature to 475.

Mix all topping ingredients together well.

Carefully spread over cake like icing. I made two, and the first one I plopped the topping in the center and spread it out from there. Don't do that. Spoon the topping on in a ring and spread out from there. It's much less spreading and it won't take as much of the cake with it.

When the oven is hot, bake again for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes.

Sprinkle with crumbs. Let cake completely cool. Refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

Serve plain or with your favorite cheese cake toppings. I used the homemade blueberry topping from the Blueberry Sour Cream Pie.

Printed version