July 4 Cheesecake--Happiness in red, white and blue!

Here's a theme dessert for the holiday, and it's one of the best so far.  (How many times have I said this in that last six months?!)  

The Baking Bible includes five cheesecakes.  We baked the Stilton Baby Blue Cheesecakes and now this one...I can't wait to make the others!  

First, there's a red velvet cake baked in a 10-inch cake pan.  It will be a thin layer cake for the base of the cheesecake.

Here's the cheesecake batter in the springform cake pan, which is set inside a 10-inch cake pan.  Then the two pans are placed in a large ovenproof skillet.  The skillet is filled with an inch of boiling water before the pans are put into the oven.  

Rose recommends either a silicone pan larger than the springform pan, or a double layer of aluminum foil to prevent water seeping into the cheesecake.  I used the 10-inch cake pan and it worked great!

The red velvet layer is trimmed down to size with a razor blade--the single most annoying step in the whole process.  Both are cooled and ready to be composed.  Not sure how that little divot got into the red velvet cake!

The instructions in the book for stacking the two layers were elaborate and somewhat confusing.  I opted instead to use a cardboard cake round to flip the cheesecake and red velvet layers into position.  The cheesecake was a little bit off center but couldn't be adjusted because the red velvet was too fragile.  Oh well.

A raspberry jam glaze is used to seal the crumbs of the red velvet layer.  I was surprised at how well it worked.

I iced the cake with the Dreamy Creamy White Icing.  A few reverse shells here, a couple of roses there....

I opted to keep the fresh blueberry topping separate so that the cake would last a little longer.  As it turns out, there was no need to worry--the cake was destined to be eaten in short order anyway!

A brief moment before we sliced into it...

And here's the finished cake with blueberries on the side.  Superb!!

I had to thicken the sugar syrup for the blueberry topping in the microwave instead on the stovetop and it was a bit too thick to drain off the berries.  Hence the little blobs of thickened syrup in the photos.   

(My cooktop isn't working at the moment.  Smitty bought me a Viking professional 6-burner cooktop and we are waiting for the gas company to turn it on...)

Anyway, this recipe was not difficult, but there were many steps due to the several components--red velvet cake base, raspberry glaze, cheesecake, icing and blueberry topping.  

I note that Rose calls this her "basic" cheesecake filling that can be used with a variety of crusts and toppings. As I've said before, what she calls "basic," I call exceptional!   The cheesecake is light and fluffy, rich but just sweet enough.  


This recipe was a real treat!  I am so glad I made all of the components because it turned out so well.  


Please come back next week, because we will be baking Molasses Crumb Cakelets and they look irresistible!


Thanks so much for visiting my blog and leaving your comments!  


P.S. A new round of Wilton cake decorating classes starts this week!  Come and join me!  See July's schedule on the Wilton Method classes tab at the top of this page!