Mme Diat: The Super, Superbowl Cheesecake

You've got a cold beer, some chili next to some antacids and you hear the familiar NFL kick-off music. It must be time for the Superbowl. For those of you who still think the Superbowl's about football, I am here with a public service announcement...it's not. It's about watching the commercials so you have something to talk about at work the next day and eating enough calorie packed food to put you into a food coma until next year's Superbowl.

While I am normally all for participating in the annual chili cook-off, this year I decided to make something a little sweeter. My brother, the not-so-petite-anymore-Diat, turned the big 21 earlier this month and I wanted to do a test-round for his dessert at the Superbowl party. Since I've made a habit of baking something for everyone's birthday, I promised the petite Diat a delectable chocolate layer cake with chocolate covered strawberries. I had the recipe planned out and everything about ready to go when I got a hushed phone call from my mother essentially telling me that she bogarted my cake and she hoped that I didn't mind. I looked towards the cake flour that I had been dying to crack into and just hung my head.

After some sulking and serious lamenting about having to wait on using the new cake flour [it was a new brand I was dying to try] I decided on cheesecake. I have, in my humble opinion, one of the best cheesecake recipes that I've ever tasted. Since I don't really like messing with success, I thought I would use my plain cheesecake recipe as a base for chocolate chip cheesecake. And because the only addition to the cheesecake were mini chocolate chips, it was great.

My only struggle, and to be fair this was a moment of idiocy on my part, was with the springform pan. Here was my dilemma: I lined the bottom of the springform pan with parchment paper for easier removal. After letting the cake cool for about an hour and a half, I took the springform pan out of the water-filled, deep dish pizza sheet that it was sitting in. As I lifted the cake out of the pan, I saw that the water had seeped into the cake pan. To put it mildly, I panicked. I took off the sides of the pan to let the water out. However, as I did that a small tear that quickly turned into a larger one, broke into the top of my cake. By this point, I was having a minor meltdown. A pro at navigating my meltdowns and my kitchen, my brother grabbed some Saran, wrapped the cheesecake up and put it into the fridge. I felt like I was getting a pep talk before a game, "It will be fine, you can cut along the tear before you put it on the table. It will be fine, you are bringing the cake to the party! Stop worrying, oh my gosh, I put the Saran around it, it will be fine..."

All in all, he was right and no one was the wiser. I let my perfectionism get the better of me, but the petite Diat kept his cool. The cheesecake was a huge hit, in fact, almost all of it was gone by the end of the night. Now I'm ready for what's next this weekend: tiramisu [hopefully] for a friend's birthday and my brother's double chocolate, chocolate chip cheesecake.

If you want any of my cheesecake recipes or tips on how to cook one, just send a comment!