Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake

I love making my own birthday cake. It's an excuse to try new recipes, experiment in the kitchen, and then share the results with my friends! This year I decided to tackle a Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake (inspired by my one-year old birthday cake, sans the lemon). I've made a lot of cheesecakes through the years. Sometimes I place fruit on top, or chocolate, but I've never added frosting to a cheesecake. I can't say where the idea came from, but it works so well, adding a fourth texture to this delightfully complex dessert.

Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake

(Adapted from Baker by Nature)

For the Crust:

2 cups Graham Crackers, smashed into crumbs

6 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, melted

For the Lemon Cheesecake Filling:

3 (8 oz) packages Full-Fat Cream Cheese, very soft

1 cup Full-Fat Sour Cream, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups white Sugar

2 tsp. Vanilla

3 large Eggs + 1 Egg Yolk, at room temperature

2 Tbsp. All-purpose Flour

3/4 cup Fresh Lemon Juice

2 tsp. Fresh Lemon Zest

3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Frosting:

1/2 cup of cream cheese mixture (from above)

3 Tbsp. Butter, softened

1/4 cup Powdered Sugar

Zest of one Lemon

3 drops of Yellow Food Coloring

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees (F).
2. For the Crust: Crush graham crackers in a food processor, or by placing crackers in a bag and pounding with a meat mallet. Add melted butter; stir well to combine. Press down into a lightly greased 9-inch springform pan; set aside.
3. For the Lemon Cheesecake Filling: In a large bowl using a hand held mixer, beat the softened cream cheese and sour cream until smooth.
4. Remove 1/2 cup of cream cheese mixture (pre-eggs), set aside in refrigerator for frosting.
5. Return to the large bowl, add sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed. Then add in the eggs and yolks; beat until smooth. Stir in the flour, mixing just until combined.
6. Quickly stir in the lemon juice and zest, mixing just until it's incorporated in the batter.
7. Pour filling into prepared crust. Drop in blueberries, evenly.
8. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Turn the oven off and let the cheesecake sit, undisturbed, for 45 minutes inside the oven, with the door shut. The cheesecake should be still slightly wiggly.
9. Remove the cheesecake from the oven, run a knife very gently around the edge of the cake, and let it sit in the pan for another 15 minutes before covering loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerating for at least 6 hours.
10. For the frosting: In a small bowl with a hand-held mixer, combine cream cheese mixture with softened butter. Once smooth, add powdered sugar, lemon zest, and yellow food coloring.

Banana Chai Cake

This year for my birthday I decided to make a more breakfasty-cake so that I could take bring it for my church's breakfast potluck. I ended up dividing the batter between two different baking dishes, one small round one so I could frost the cake pictured below, and a larger round dish that I took to the potluck. They both turned out very well! 

Banana Chai Cake

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2  tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup whole milk or heavy cream
2 tea bags of your favorite chai

3 medium (over-ripe) bananas
1/2 cup (1 stick)  butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

 

Frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 package cream cheese

1 ½ - 2 cups powdered sugar

A dash of each chai spices:

ground cloves
cinnamon
ground ginger
allspice
nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. In a medium mixing bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices together. Set aside.
2. Pour milk into a saucepan and bring to a simmer, add chai tea bags. Remove from heat, cover, and steep for 20-30 minutes, discarding the used chai. Then in a small bowl, mash bananas with chai milk. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar, about 2 minutes. Mix in eggs, one at a time.
4. Stir in the vanilla and banana mixture, until just combined.
5. Add in flour mixture and stir together until fully combined.
6. Grease an 8″x8″ baking dish or multiple dishes of any size. Pour in banana cake mixture.
7. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean when inserted into the center of the bread.
8. Allow bread to cool in pan for about 20 minutes before removing and allowing bread to cool completely.

9. Once cooled, frost cake as desired.