The Cheesecake Contest

I did not win the Cheesecake contest in our office. There were around 15 contestants and only 1 winner was picked. However, my cake did me very proud because it looked pretty. I kept saying that if it were only for presentation, my cake would have already won and then after trying it afterwards, it really tasted very good! After the judging, we tasted all the entries and Daniel kept saying that mine is sure to be in the top 3! But then again, they only picked one winner and his (yeah he's a guy) cheesecake was also very good with some sugar crumbs on top. The winning cheesecake was more traditionally Israeli as well, I think he used ricotta for the cheese. As a prize, he got some restaurant vouchers.

I got an Israeli pastry book as a prize. The book was very fancy with glossy pages, but was written in Hebrew! Even if I could not understand a thing written on it, I will keep the book as a reminder that I once had the guts to join a cake contest. Hehe. It was totally fun, and it is especially heartwarming hearing compliments on how good the cake tasted or how beautiful it looked like. It was a wonderful experience that I'd remember for a long time.

After a few thought, I decided to make Sarah Phillip's Luscious and No Crack Cheesecake. For me, cheesecakes are the hardest to make as they are the most fragile. A little slip on the side can ruin the entire cake and frosting cannot hide cracks. As it turned out, the recipe was very baker friendly with Sarah's detailed explanations of each step. After 1 hour of baking on a water bath, here's how the cheesecake looked like in the pan. I needed to chill it for 24 hours before unmolding.
After 24 hours, I now had to do the most unnerving part which is unmolding it from the pan. It being my first time baking a whole cheesecake, I was read and re-read the theory of unmolding over and over (hehe). I did succeed in unmolding it though! Here's how it looked like after it was removed from the pan. It looks yummy already, but the smell was so enticing! I wanted to eat it right there and then.
I know the strawberry/blueberry cheesecake won in the poll that I had here in my blog but I'm sorry that I ended up with a chocolate cheesecake. I was supposed the use whole strawberries on top of a blueberry glaze but the strawberries that I had perished in the fridge and I miscalculated the blueberry filling that I had. So I ended up thinking of other options and the next best thing is chocolate. I made some chocolate ganache and glazed it on top of the cheesecake. After letting the glaze settle down a bit, I topped it with some sugar flowers and dragees. There was a little dent on the side of the glaze but I opted not to touch it anymore because the chocolate had already started to dry down.

Making the cheesecake was pretty smooth but not without a few fuss. Here's a full view of the cake, with some chocolate glaze that got poured on the crumbs.

Bringing the cheesecake to the office was another story. Daniel helped me bring it and there were a lot of close calls like the cover almost sticking to the cake, or the mini mishaps at the elevator and at the humps on the road. Here's a photo of the cake taken at the contest. Photo is dull, I just took this on the website of the event. I'm entry #13.
And here's half of the crowd who enjoyed the cheesecakes, half of it at the back of the cameraman. It was so fun! So there goes my cheesecake story. :)