I forgot to post about my neighbor's sour cream lemon cheesecake.  It was absolutely delicious, it is a simple yet very tasty recipe.

My sweet neighbor Jill brought me a piece of Lemon Sour Cream Cheesecake along with the recipe that she had made this weekend.  I haven't had time to taste it yet, but this will be the next one I try.  The recipe is her grandmother's so I know it will be absolutely delicious.  (It looks absolutely mouth watering)

White Chocolate Orange Cheesecake

Last week I made a white chocolate cheesecake with orange zest and orange juice.  The original recipe, Lemony White Chocolate Cheesecake, is from the tasteofhome 2012 Collector's Edition magazine, the website is tastofhome.com , called for lemon zest and lemon juice.  I made it the first time using the lemon and it was very delicious, which made me wonder how it would be if I used lime or orange, or maybe a combination of lemon and lime. 

Those who taste tested it for me liked it, and I liked it but I was expecting a little more zing but orange just doesn't have the zing that lemon does.  If I make this again I might try adding some orange extract to it.

Usually when I make a cheesecake I do not use the 9" springform pan, instead I use four or five 4" or 4 1/2" individual springform pans.  This way I can take the cheesecakes to several different people without having to cut the cheesecake, it's just easier to transport it that way.  This is what I did when I made the white chocolate and orange cheesecake.  I prepared the four - 4 1/2" springform pans, but knew from the last time I made this that four pans would not be enough so I also prepared three 4" springform pans.  The downside was I did not have enough crust for all the pans, the original recipe crust calls for a flour, butter, and zest crust, so I made a graham cracker crust for the last 4" pan.  As I mentioned the cheesecake was good, but to our surprise the cake with the graham cracker crust was so much better.  If I make the cheesecake again, which I probably will, I will use a graham cracker crust and add some orange extract.

The inspiration for this adventure started with the website http://www.101cheesecakerecipes.com/  The first recipe I tried was Chocolate Raspberry.  I followed the directions which calls for 24 oz of cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, and vanilla to be blended and poured into the crust.  Then the remaining 8 oz of cream cheese is mixed with melted chocolate, red raspberry preserves and dropped by rounded tablespoons over the plain cheese mixture.  The instructions specifically state "Do not swirl".  The picture on the website shows a red colored cheesecake, it does have a rounded  mound of chocolate on the top surrounded by whipped cream.  My cheesecake was white with dollops of raspberry flavored chocolate on top.  While it did not look like the picture the cheesecake was very tasty.  Looking at the picture I wonder if they stirred some raspberry preserves into the 24 ounces of cream cheese.