Abbey's infamous cheesecake - straight up

Junior loves cheesecake. He asks for it for every birthday party. I have made it a few times, but mostly my hubbie makes it. It is sort of his thing to make. Now that he realizes that he is allergic to dairy it is even more a labor of love.

This is from a recipe that was a daring bakers challenge. I tried it once with a chocolate pretzel crust, which was good, but graham crackers are the way to go. I decided that since the cake is so good on it's own, there really is no need to dress it up. Yes, we reduced the sugar in the crust and cake by a 1/4 cup and yes we subbed half sour cream for half of the heavy cream and sure I dropped the booze from the recipe, but other than that all I can do to it, is serve it with strawberries. It is really, really, really good, I can't bring myself to make it any other way.

But the reason I am posting it, is not to show off my husband's arms, but to show off my brilliant idea of buying a same size silicone baking pan to set the springform in for the water bath. No more water leaking into my crust and no more butter leaking into the water. We tried all sorts of sealing methods and made the cake so many times before the light bulb went off. So without further ado.

My two pans

Stack so perfectly

yes, bourbon and cheesecake making go hand in hand

blend your softened cheese and sugar

add your eggs one by one

then add the stuff from every organic brand on the market

pour into magic pans

cook until barely set, see the water not getting into my cake

yummy cake and strawberries for later

and yes I forgot to take a picture of the finished cake at my son's birthday party with the pretty plate and the strawberries on top and the candle...

Note: If you make this, it has to refrigerate overnight, so plan accordingly