This cheesecake came highly recommended (just check out the comments from my post on the Golden Lemon Almond cake). They were right! This is a delicious cheesecake. Having said that, we are fans of cheesecake and we do eat a fair bit of pumpkin (well at least the adults do). So you might be tempted to think we are easy to please on this front. Well....maybe...but I think objectively this is a really good cheesecake.
The crust is made from gingernut biscuits and toasted pecans, so that adds a lovely flavour. The pumpkin is lightly mixed with cream, cream cheese, eggs and raw sugar, which gives it a golden look and a soft, rich, caramel pumpkin taste. The topping is a deeply amber-coloured caramel - all runny and sweet and gooey. It just all works so well together. Ginger, pecans, creamy soft pumpkin and sweet caramel.
It seems that early on in my brief time in the bake-along, we made some tricky cakes with lots of stages. Well, this one only has three stages and only uses the food processor (not every bowl and appliance in the kitchen). So, on my scale of easy-to-hard, I'd rate it down at the easy end. "Make me again, again" - it is calling to me. We gobbled this down for breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea.
During this week of pumpkin cheesecake baking we nearly finished our renovation. We recently had our whole house recarpetted, which involved packing everything and moving it out to the garage. Now that is over, we have unpacked all the essential furniture and possessions (first priority: beds, second priority:computers), all that remains is putting back all the books, glassware, bits and pieces, nick nacks and then call it a day. No more renovations for 2011. We still need to paint a few rooms and fix up a few things, but that's pretty much it.
If I get around to it, I'll show you my before and after shots of the kitchen and new deck.
At times, I've felt it was a madness to join a bake-along while renovating a house/kitchen but you know, I've really loved it and at times it helped keep me sane. I have loved focusing on something creative and delicious and sharing it with my family, friends and with you all. I have loved being part of something across the world, but shared. I've loved all the baking skills I've developed and (sheepish) I've acquired a number of fantastic new cake pans (gotta love that!). Certainly there were weeks where I struggled to participate and once I baked but forgot to photograph and then knittybaker told me that I didn't need tons of photos or even any photo..just let us know you've baked. Thanks for easing me in, Knittybaker. It's been a great experience. Thanks also you fellow bakers and readers (and my family who have tried all and loved most of what I do).
We finish up in a few weeks. Only three more cakes to go.
I think I need one of those Christmas wreath pans....as a parting gift to myself maybe....santa baby...I don't need a condominium or diamonds...
