CHEESE-y Cake

Last night we traveled to Montecito to visit my sister-in-law (hubby's sister). It was Tim’s birthday and she offered to make dinner for us - complete with cake and all. At this point, I should have been a bit suspicious. Madelyn is going to cook???? And make a cake? Madelyn usually makes reservations. And she does it beautifully, I might add.

After last nights’ dining experience, I had to talk to Madelyn about her cooking session. I needed to find out what made her tick.

ME:
Thanks for having us to your house. It is fun to celebrate your little brother’s birthday with you.

I am not used to you cooking, so thanks for that, also.

The pot roast was awesome. And who can resist bacon in with the green beans? The new potatoes were to die for.

The cheesecake looked beautiful. The candles were great on it. The blueberry sauce you poured so perfectly over each slice looked great. The entire presentation was awesome. The fact that we were eating dessert outside, at night, under only firelight should have made me suspicious.

I’d like to ask you a few questions about it.

So, you’re in the house alone. You decided to make a cheesecake for your little brother. Tell me about that.

Madelyn:
I opened the fridge to get the ingredients for the cheesecake. I heard somewhere that it was best to let the eggs warm up.

ME: 

You mean come to room temperature?

Madelyn:
Yeah, whatever. So, I noticed I was a pound of cream cheese shy. Rather than running the 10 minutes to the store, I looked in the cheese drawer for a substitute. Lo and behold - brie jumped into my hand. It was a nice new pound of brie - it cost $12. I decided that I’d use that and add a little extra sugar.

ME:
Now tell the truth. Did you just say sugar, but mean splenda? Was that on, or off, the record?

Madelyn:
OOPS….I’m busted. I was out of sugar too. I used sundried herbally purified whole cane sugar. It was brown. I thought it would give the cake a nice color.

ME:
Did you adjust the temperature or length of time cooking?

Madelyn:
At 45 minutes, I opened the door and the cake was still jiggling. I noticed the oven had been turned off. I'm still not sure who did that. I turned the oven back on, and continued to cook the CHEESE (being the operative word) cake for about 20 extra minutes.

At this point, I thought I may have discovered something new and decided to keep my mouth shut just . That was, until I bit into the raspberry sauce laced cheesecake, served outside in the dark.

ME:
I have to admit, I was trying to be nice, but the first bite about killed me.

Madelyn:
It was one of the worst desserts I've ever had. Maybe I should stick to making reservations.

ME:
I love you anyway. You owe me a slice of cheesecake, preferably, not homemade.