Every 4th of July since our girls were little I’ve been making a flag cake. The raspberries and blueberries from our garden are usually at their peak at this time of year, and it wasn’t any harder than walking out the back door and picking what I needed. However, our old blueberries bushes were never big producers, so last year my husband dug them up and replaced them with a more robust variety. Funny thing, I could have filled an espresso cup with what they yielded this year. (Maybe they’re still babies.) Sans blueberries, what’s a girl to do?
The real truth if you’re even vaguely interested is that I’ve been dying to bake a cheesecake, and finally, a big dinner party with friends on the 4th presented the perfect opportunity. So this year the flag cake was out and my sublime, melt in your mouth cheesecake with fresh raspberry sauce was in. A couple of people wondered what happened to the flag cake, but after they sunk their forks into this cheesecake and tasted it, I heard no complaints about the switch.
I don’t know the origin of this divine recipe, but I’ve had it forever and had to type it from my well-loved and worn 3x5-inch index card. The sugar and egg are mixed together for a full 5 minutes, which must liquefy the sugar to create a texture that is absolutely blissful and creamy. I published my raspberry sauce recipe before, and it’s still a winner. Make cheesecake one day before serving. And by the way, I couldn’t decide which picture to post, so I’m giving you two. :)
Crust ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 5 tablespoons melted butter
Filling ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon Grand Marnier, or other fruit liqueur
Topping ingredients:
- 1 pint sour cream
- 6 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon Grand Marnier, or other fruit liqueur
Directions:
In mixing bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar, cinnamon and melted butter. Firmly pat crumb mixture into bottom and sides of a 9-inch glass pie plate, or 8-inch spring form pan. (If you use spring form pan, pat crumbs only 1 ½-inches up the sides.) Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes.
For filling, beat eggs with electric mixer until light. Add sugar and continue beating for 5 more minutes. Add cream cheese, vanilla and liqueur. Beat until filling is smooth. (It’s almost impossible to eliminate all of the little lumps, so don’t worry about them.) Pour filling into prepared crust and bake cheesecake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool cheesecake for 15 minutes.
Increase oven temperature to 475 degrees. Pour sour cream topping over cheesecake and bake for 5 minutes. Note: if you bake cheesecake in the spring form pan, add all but about 1/3 cup of the topping to the cheesecake.
Cool cake and then chill overnight.
