This was the tiered cheesecake at our wedding reception. I couldn’t find my cheesecake book when it was time to go grocery shopping, and couldn’t find a recipe that looked like what I wanted, so I modified one. I didn’t have time to test it, and it was our guests’ good fortune that it turned out to be the best cheesecake any of us had ever tasted.
I made three batches total – a double batch for the 14″ tier and a single batch divided between the 10″ and 6″ tiers. But they were pretty short – you could probably pour a whole batch into a 10″ (3″ high) pan without it overflowing. Be sure to do the banging on the counter bit – if you don’t get out all the air bubbles the cake will crack.
Ingredients
- 8 oz Nilla Wafers
- 1/2 c (one stick) butter
- 2 T sugar
- ***
- 2 1/2 lb cream cheese, softened
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1 3/4 c sugar
- 3 T all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract (we had the really good stuff that a friend bought in Mexico)
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 large egg yolks
- 6 large eggs
- ***
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 c butter, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 lb powdered sugar
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325
- Process Nilla Wafers to fine crumbs using blender, food processor, or fingers
- Mix in the 2 T sugar
- Melt the butter and stir it into the crumb mixture
- Press the mixture into the bottom of a Springform or loose-bottom pan
- Bake at 325 for 12 minutes
- Allow to cool
- Preheat the oven to 500
- Beat the cream cheese until smooth (works best if it’s at room temp)
- Mix the salt into the cream cheese
- Add the sugar and flour slowly, while beating the mixture
- Add the lemon juice, vanilla, and cream. Keep beating
- Add the egg yolks and eggs
- Keep beating until perfectly smooth
- Pour into pan on top of pre-baked crust
- Lift the pan about five inches and slam it straight down onto the counter
- Repeat the previous step until no further air bubbles come to the surface
- Bake at 500 for 10-12 minutes (top should be golden brown)
- Reduce heat to 200
- Bake at 200 for 1 hour 40 minutes (check halfway, if top is getting too dark, cover with aluminum foil)
- Check internal temp – remove from oven when it equals 150 degrees
- Cover with large bowl and towel for several hours to slow cooling.
- After room temp is reached, refrigerate
- Frosting:
- Beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla
- Add powdered sugar slowly and mix well
- Frost cake
This recipe was submitted by dkw on April 18, 2005.