Black Forest Cheesecake

I love birthdays. Maybe not as much as Trisha does, but a close second. I believe that everyone should have one special day a year to be pampered and catered to. So for Jason's birthday tonight (his 30th!), I offered to make him his favorite meal, and his favorite cake. He chose a black forest cheesecake. I have never made this particular type of cheesecake, but it sounds delicious.

I found the recipe on the PEI tourism website of all places. http://www.tourismpei.com/index.php3?number=15625. God, is there anything PEI doesn't have!

BLACK FOREST CHEESECAKE

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups graham wafer crumbs
• 1/3 cup butter (melted)
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3 pkgs. cream cheese (softened)
• 1 can sweetened Condensed milk
• 8 squares semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 can cherry pie filling
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp. clear vanilla extract (can use regular black colored extract, but it will slightly change the colour of the whipping cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 F.
2. Combine crumbs, butter and sugar. Press firmly on bottom of 9" spring form pan.
3. In large mixer bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk, chocolate, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Pour into prepared pan.
4. Bake 65 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool.
5. Top with cherry pie filling.
6. In a large chilled bowl, beat the whipped cream until stiff peaks form. Add icing sugar and vanilla and beat until well mixed. Spread over top of cheesecake.

Back On The Grid

As you can tell it's been a while since I've been online. It was a busy summer, and despite the terrible weather on the East Coast, we were able to have a ton of fun with all our friends and family members. It was really, really hard to come back to Yellowknife knowing that I wouldn't be seeing many of them for a while.

So here are a few pics from our summer vacation, where we split our time between Nova Scotia and PEI, and stay tuned for more recipes and rants.

The girls with their Grandma and Grandad

Sisters :)

Maggie gets her evil looks from her Aunt

Sony's annual cheeseburger Happy Meal on his 7th birthday

Maggie running away at the Aylesford Zoo

Is that a donkey disguised as a horse?

Enjoying the show at Avonlea Village

Diva

Sophie and her cousin Jeff...a.k.a. Gilbert

Sophie and cousin Jeff-a.k.a. Gilbert's real and fictional girlfried Robin-a.k.a. Anne of Green Gables. Confusing!

Krista and her handsome man Max

In Lulu's fancy car with Auntie Ellie 

The backseat of a Maxima is large.



Yellow fishing pole, yellow sunglasses, yellow lifejacket. READY!



Do not jump from this bridge