A happy and blessed Eid to all!
I’ve finally done it, folks! I went and baked my first strawberry cheesecake that turned out amazingly creamy and delicious. Frankly, baking cakes intimidate me because I grew up watching a relative, who actually took baking classes, successfully fail every attempt at baking cakes. So baking seemed like a task reserved for professionals.
Years later, I met people who can bake cakes that actually turn out like cakes, and they’re not even professional bakers! And I’m like, if they can do it then so can I. This fervid spirit died a quick death, due to studies and work, and it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I baked my first cake. It was a Date and Honey Cake. The cake turned out delicious, the pictures a disaster. Note to self: bake this cake again for the sake of photography.
The plan of baking a cheesecake was a random one; I think I was eating a strawberry cream cheese ice cream after lunch at work when I thought about baking a cake. It took months before I finally got serious and finally baked the cake.
The ingredients aren’t cheap. Also, I used canned strawberries instead of fresh or frozen ones because a) fresh strawberries are expensive here in the desert, and b) canned strawberry means less work. But I did buy some fresh ones for garnishing. The preparation and mixing is nice and easy. Baking is a piece of cake. And the final product? Your friends won’t believe you baked it yourself! It’s that good.
The base is chocolate-flavored Graham cracker crust. It goes really well with the cream cheese cake. The sweetness if just enough so that you can actually finish a small piece and not feel like your blood glucose levels have shot up to dizzying heights. However, this is a very rich cake. This means you can not eat more than one tiny piece at a time. I took half of the cake to work, where it took my colleagues two days to finish it off. One of my colleagues said she bought cheesecakes from different bakeshops, but they didn’t taste as good as mine! That was a grand compliment, you guys!
Click here to print or download recipe.
How was your Eid? I can’t decide what cake to bake next so if you’ve sampled something nice this Eid, let me know. Who knows I’ll be inspired to recreate it.
I am SO impressed mashaAllah, it looks so professional designed and I’m sure it tasted divine too! Well done! I LOVE baking, it’s my favourite pastime. I love making cupcakes and marble cake is really nice to eat (and the pattern is a fun part to do). I also like making chocolate cake, carrot cake and orange cake. I usually get the recipes online, BBC Good Food for example. The carrot cake and orange cake I get from my grandmother’s recipe. I tend to bake in the winter as it’s nice to eat it warm with a cup of hot chocolate. The last time I went to England I bought cupcake papers, lots of vanilla essence (they only sell it in powder form in Egypt which I don’t really like) and all these other baking things that I couldn’t find in Cairo, so now my cupboard is stocked up to bake soon:)
Keep baking!
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Thank you so much, Londoneya!
OOhh, you should post some recipes on your blog! Pleeeeeeeeeeease!
PS: Even the remotest village in Pakistan has vanilla essence. Every place on this earth should have vanilla essence in stock
Oh me oh my….this is delightful! Keywords: cake + starwberry + cheese = excited Tien. LOL! Thanks for the recipe, this is definitely a keeper. Just one question Nadia, so you actually need just the strawberry sauce to swirl into the batter before baking? No actual berries when baking?
Tien recently posted..Love Love Love and Something In The Water
LOL @ your equation
The actual berries, in my own opinion, will crack the surface of the cake so I didn’t add them. Plus, I liked how the fresh strawberries compliment the sweetness of the cake. Let me know if you plan on adding the berries into the batter. Are your organic strawberries ready for harvest?
hello, nadia…
naman, mukha talagang masarap! congrats sa ‘yo. ikaw na ang all-around, hehe…
top view pa lang, ang artistic na. parang work of art, lols! at ‘yong sliced portion, kainaman… sana, mommy na lang kita, ahaha…
btw, WP closed my site. it alleges na part daw ako ng SEO campaign or advertising and that i am infringing on the company’s profitability. i am not. that’s untrue.
in my last post re: stitches and burns, i cited certain references/URLs. now that i think back on it, i remember that there were popped-up boxes there which i simply ignored and closed. it’s quite possible that that was where the spams or viruses must have come from. and now, WP is laying it on me, so to speak.
it’s ironic and funny, actually. one URL was simply an image of the skin layers and the other, i think, was about a procedure for suturing wounds. now, why in the world would i endorse such? and profiting from it, huh? but then, WP just closed the site immediately and put up a tag/banner saying that am guilty and all.
i already wrote the technical support twice and i haven’t gotten any response. meanwhile, i am one pissed-off cyber creature, hehe…
nagsusumbong lang ako sa ‘yo… marami pa namang malalalim na tagalog words sa last post para mahirapan ka, haha… actually, it’s an essay that took off from the novel Frankenstein and the romantic tradition in literature. probably, some people did not like it and conspired to put me out of the cyberspace, lols!
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Thank you so much, anak! I did try to make it a work of art, seriously, but it didn’t actually turned out the way I envisioned it – but thank you if you think it’s pretty
Oops, I’m so sorry to hear about your blog
I just sent you an email.
mommy!
di pa nila ibinabalik ang site ko, mommy. penge munang cake, hehe…
kumusta po?
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Gabi na, anak. You can’t have your cake now.
Belated Eid wishes to u and Bro
Thanks for the cake sis he he ! as usual it looks yummy & hope u got 100/100 for the taste & look !!
Eid mubarak to you, from both of us
Glad to see you back here on the blog! How’s the wedding preparations coming along?
Thank you so much
Sis it was dropped !!
Oh! I’m so sorry to hear about that.
Looks yum!
Thanks, ‘liya!
Nadiaaaa! U did it Girl ! It just reminded me of my time with the round titanic that i made! LOL.
The presentation n decoration is simply so nice and attractive
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Thank you so much, Pervisha!
LOL @ the round Titanic
This looks really good, and I’m not even a big cheesecake person! I love the swirly pattern, it looks like an intricate lattice pie!
And belated Eid Mubarak!
Eid mubarak to you, Sadia! Thank you so much
Masya-Allah! if the picture of the cake itself is already looking so tempting… what more the taste of the cake? I am sure it’s mouth watering kind of thing. Yummy!
On the other hand, boy am I glad you’re thousand miles away from me. Had it ever occured in your head to breed rare species of hippo in the middle of the desert?
Thank you, Ati! Stop with the hippo comparison already
Thanks Nadia !!! I’v downloaded the recipe… i’m gonna surprise my parents with the cake!!
Hello Kajal! Thank you for visiting. I hope the cheesecake turns out great and that your parents love it.
Yummmmm…. I loved this cake. Thanks Nadia for the recipe as well as the images. I would love to bake and give a treat to my wife. Cheese cake is also something new to me. I think it would be great.
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Thank you, Leo.
Thank you for sharing your stories and recipes. i enjoy your photographs especially. May Allah SWT reward you for sharing sis.
Ameen to your dua, sis Noorshin. JazakAllah khair.
Nice. I can’t bake very well so it’s always cool to see other people’s wonderful creations. If you check out my latest post on my blog…that’s what I had on Eid. Hot chocolate soufflé…it was sinfully delicious.
Devina Divecha recently posted..A Chocolate-gasm of epic proportions
Devina, you can’t be forgiven after posting that incredibly sinful stuff about chocolate!
Looks absolutely delish. Have to try it, holiday coming up. I will post if we try this, Nadia!
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Please let me know how it turns out for you!
Wonderful cheesecake…..so happy it turns out deliciously good! I’m also intimidated with baking but as days goes by, doing it a little bit here and there…it makes it more less scary=) Keep up with your baking, love the look of it, specially the heart designs on top=)
Thank you so much, Cusinera! I’m working towards getting comfortable with baking