Strawberry Topped Cinnamon Cheesecake

 Hello, all!

With strawberries in season here, I wanted to share a guest post I did for Seduction in the Kitchen recently.  As you might know, some recipes are born of mistakes.  This is one.  It was communication, or the lack of it that led to the error.  The good news?  It was all just fine in the end.

We were whipping up a cheesecake for hubby's birthday while trying to watch our grandsons, 3 & 2, at the same time.  Between making this and having their "help," I didn't get a chance to tell my daughter NOT to put cinnamon in the mix (as the recipe called for) and to make it plain.  So... we had a cinnamon cheesecake to work with.

The strawberries were a part of the plan from the get-go, all cut by my almost 4-year-old grandson using my Pampered Chef strawberry slicer.  Great way to get his help, safely.  He was pretty excited to be making a "strawberry cake" with me.

Some how, the tastes worked!  The strawberries blended with the creamy, cinnamon-y cheesecake for a tasty new dessert.  How wonderful!

Take a look:

Strawberry Topped Cinnamon Cheesecake

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 sleeve of graham crackers, crushed (approximately 5 oz worth)
1/4 cup of butter, melted

Filling:
3 packages cream cheese (8 oz each), softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs

Topping:
sliced strawberries, soaked in sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Slice strawberries, put in a bowl and sprinkle with sugar.  Refrigerate.
3. To make the crust, put graham crackers in a food processor and pulse till fine crumbs.  Pour into a small bowl and stir in melted butter.  Press mixture into the bottom of a spring form pan (perfect job for 3, almost 4-year-old!).
4. To make the filling, in a large bowl cream the cheese, sugars, cinnamon and vanilla.  Then beat with a mixer till creamy.  Add your eggs one at a time, incorporating each one.
5. Pour the filling into the spring form pan and smooth the top.  Bake for 40 minutes, or until the center is set.  Cool and then remove from pan and refrigerate for several hours. 
6. When ready to serve, top with strawberries and share!

This was one of our best "accidents" so far!

Have fun in the kitchen,
Carrie