Fantabulous Food! Magic Bavarian Cheesecake

*Ok, this was weird - I wrote this post in like 2012 or before, but it just listed as posted today. So many things are now different then what I mention in this post (like the husband hahaha), but the recipe is still amazing, so I'm keeping it up. Enjoy!*

This was a recipe that I posted on a previous blog I had that was devoted to my family goings-on, so if you are a long time friend of mine, you may have seen it before. But I was looking through my old blog posts and decided there were a few that were pertinent to this new blog and this new audience :)

Last year, my husband and I were given the Disney Fl Resident 4 Day tickets by my parents, so we used them to go to each park :) And we ended up going to celebrate our first anniversary. Since we didn't have to buy our tickets, we were able to spring a little extra money on our meals and one of the places we ate was the Biergarten Restaurant in the Germany section of Epcot. If you have never eaten there, you are missing out. It was a little pricey at $32 per person, but not really when you consider that it is an all you can eat buffet with every German recipe you can think of - from weiner schitzel to red cabbage :) It was a fantastic meal and they even had a floor show which, being that it was Disney, was fantastic. I was very impressed with the food, but one of the most delicious things I had that evening was the Bavarian Cheesecake.

When I came home, the memory of that cheesecake really hung around in my head, so I decided to search for a recipe online. This lead to a complete treasure trove of recipes. It was on All Ears Net (this recipe has since been removed from the site, so I'm really glad I copied it down when I did).

Now, I will tell you the familial significance of this recipe. Here is the story I put on my blog last year:

I promised my mom that I would make one as a late birthday gift for her (her b-day was Friday and it was just too hectic for everyone). Finally I had the time yesterday and I gave it a try. The result was a magical confection.

My Grammy has been in the hospital for almost two weeks now from a bad cold that turned for the worse. She started having small heart attacks to boot, so we were all very worried. A few months ago she was in the hospital and I made her Challah, or as she calls it now "healing Jewish bread" and it miraculously made her better. SO what better way to improve your health than with another Megan made baked good?

I went down to the hospital today amidst the drama of what recuperative facility she would be accepted into. There is a really nice one in Merritt Island that we wanted her to go to and we were really worried about most of the other ones in the area (not the most well kept places). So, I showed up to give my Mommy her b-day cake and of course gave some to Grammy. Grammy ate two pieces, which was a big deal since one of the things that aggravated her condition was her loss of appetite. So, once she professed how good the cake was, she told us to take the nurse and the case worker in charge of admission into the nursing facility. The cake must have been really good because after professing the nursing home we wanted was completely full 5 minutes before, she came back after eating the cake to tell us she got in! So from now on, I must make her a baked good every time she gets sick :)

 So, this cake has quite the reputation in my immediately family now. Even though my Grammy is no longer with us, she's with us all the time in all the great memories we had together :)

Anyway, enough explanation and sappy stories. Here is the recipe:

Bavarian Cheesecake:

INGREDIENTS
6 ounces Cream Cheese
6 ounces Baker's Cheese  *I used lowfat Ricotta Cheese
2 Egg Yolks
4 ounces Granulated Sugar
8 ounces Sour Cream
1 ounce Lemon Juice
12 ounces Heavy Cream
1/2 ounce Gelatin
2 ounces WaterVanilla Sponge Cake -- recipe follows

VANILLA SPONGE CAKE

INGREDIENTS 
3/4 cup Sugar (granulated)
4 Egg yolks
1 teaspoon. Vanilla Extract
3/4 cup Flour (all-purpose)
3/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
4 Egg Whites

METHOD
1. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. In a mixer, add the egg yolks and sugar beat until light and creamy. Add the vanilla extract.

4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the egg mixture. Beat until smooth.

5. Whip the egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Gently fold this into the cake batter.

6. Place into two separate greased and lined 8-inch round cake pans. Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes.

ASSEMBLING CAKE

METHOD
1. Whip heavy cream until soft peaks. Set aside.
2. Mix together in a mixing bowl the cream cheese, baker's cheese, egg yolks, and granulated sugar until smooth. Then add the sour cream and mix until smooth.

3. Gently add the whipped mixture to the cheese mixture being careful not to over whip.

4. Dissolve the gelatin in the water over a double boiler until the mixture is clear. Be careful not to whip the gelatin so it does not get air bubbles in it.

5. Add the gelatin mixture into the cheese mixture and fold quickly. When adding the gelatin mixture to the cheese mixture set the mixer on medium speed, and add it from the edge of the bowl, being careful not to get the gelatin on the whip or the side of the bowl so as to prevent lumping.

*The gelatin will set up really fast as soon as it hits the cream mixture, so make sure to do this step as quickly as you can.

6. Using a springform pan, place one of the vanilla sponge cakes smooth side down. Immediately pour the cheese mixture on the cake, and smooth out surface. Then place the other cake on top with the smooth side out. Let set overnight.

7. Remove the cake from the springform pan. Sprinkle the top of the cake with powdered sugar. This cake can be served with any of your favorite fresh fruit sauce(s).

Up at the top you will notice I said I used Ricotta Cheese instead of Baker's Cheese. This was quite the involved project to find out what baker's cheese even was. I looked all over the place - I even went to several high end and imported grocery stores and couldn't find it. So I looked up how to make it - it would have taken lots of equipment and time, so I looked up substitutes and I ascertained that ricotta was the closest thing. It really did taste just as good as the one at Epcot.  


Also, if you are not familiar with how to use recipes that are in metric weights, there are many converters you can find online. Also, lots of cookbooks will list a conversion chart in the appendix. I can tell you though, I made this recipe before I had my food scale. It takes a little bit of thought, but this recipe has all even ounce measurements that I could estimate by dividing the container of whatever ingredient I was using. Ex. The recipe calls for 6 oz of cream cheese. Well, a standard block of cream cheese is 8 oz, so I sliced the block in half and then sliced those halves in half. 6 oz was 3 of my slices. See, easy :) Also, most glass measuring cups list the cup measurements on one side and the ounce measurements on the other, making it easy to measure the liquids for this recipe.


I know this recipe looks daunting. Believe me, I won't try to convince you that it's really easy. It wasn't. But it was definitely the best cheesecake I have ever had, so it is entirely worth the work :)