Carrot Cake Cheesecake

Continuing my Easter carrot cake tradition with Carrot Cake Cheesecake

This year I wanted to bake something other than the traditional carrot cake. Since carrot cake is normally paired with cream cheese, I got a great idea to incorporate the flavor of carrot cake into a cheesecake. I did an online search, which brought me to this gorgeous carrot cake cheesecake at Pennies On A Platter.

A moist and spicy carrot cake combined with creamy cheesecake.

This actually isn't what I originally had in mind, but it looked too damn good to pass up!

If you look at the original recipe, and compare it with mine, you'll notice a big difference. I'm not too sure how it happened, but during baking the cake portion was pushed to the bottom/edges/top creating a sort of soft, cakey crust. Didn't come out half cake and half cheesecake like it should have, but there was no way in hell that was going to stop me from digging in!

The cheesecake was light and creamy, and really went perfect with the moist carrot cake.

Uh, Carrot cake crust.

This was a 10-inch cake, and was completely devoured at our family's Easter dinner. Success!

Kitty Approved

I didn't notice 'til I was editing photos that a bite appears to have been taken from this slice. I swear I didn't do it! I had taken a short break in the middle of photos to change camera batteries, unintentionally leaving our cat in the room alone with the slice of cake. I'm pretty sure Sugar felt this was the perfect time to sneak in a taste. I found it appropriate to finish what she had started before going to dinner. Yum :)

For the Love of Red Velvet!

Red Velvet. It seems a lot of people go crazy for those two words. My mom being one of them. Mom has always hated chocolate cake, despised it! But, she loves red velvet....? Weird! Really though, red velvet is unlike any other chocolate cake. It's actually a devil's food cake, just with a mild chocolate flavor. Red Velvet cake is very rich, and so moist it almost melts in your mouth, plus who doesn't love that striking red color?

So, Mom's favorite cake is red velvet, but it's her birthday and I don't want to make just any old cake. I want to make a CHEESEcake. A RED VELVET cheesecake. YUMM. This is a genius idea! Remember how I said red velvet cake is so moist it almost melts in your mouth? Well, this cheesecake is definitely no exception! It's sooo creamy and moist, the most moist cheesecake I've ever had. I topped it with a not-too-sweet mascarpone frosting. I wanted something different from the traditional cream cheese frosting, but still as good.

I planned on bringing this cheesecake to Mom's house to give to her, which means there would have to be some for my sisters to share. Except that both of my sisters hate cheesecake. Wait... WHAT?!?! HATE cheesecake!? I'm not sure if we're really even related now. To be sure that my sisters had something sweet to enjoy I made some red velvet cupcakes with buttercream frosting instead of cream cheese (one sister hates cream cheese, period). I injected them twice, some three times, with the frosting. I was also going to make them purty with big frosting swirls, but I started to run out, plus my makeshift pastry bags kept ripping.:(

I must admit that I loved the cupcakes a lot more than the cheesecake. Although the cheesecake was really good with a nice creamy texture, to me the red velvet flavor really didn't compare with the cake. It didn't really scream 'Red velvet!'. The cupcakes on the other hand were delicious! So moist, and velvety. The perfect flavor you'd expect from something named red velvet. And it didn't even matter that I started running out of frosting cause I actually liked them better without it!

-Jess