A Cheesecake for Valentine's

This has been a busy day for me in the kitchen. In an earlier post you may have noted that I made a glaze for a cheesecake. Well, here is that cheesecake. I got this recipe off of cookiemadness.net, but I changed some things. The cheesecake was well received tonight, I think, nothing like 4 bricks of cream cheese right before bedtime.
The cake had a little more of a hint of lemon than I would have preferred. I think I will cut back on the lemon extract next time just a little. Also, I knew that there would be a huge crack in the cake and there it was when it finished baking. I am curious if a bain marie, a water bath, would have helped in two ways. One, the crack and two, the ever so slight dryness to the cake. However, it was still very good and stood up so tall and proud, if a cake can be proud. Hmmm. I covered the crack with the chocolate glaze that I posted earlier and cut up strawberries in a sugar syrup. (Note: Sorry, my presentation was a little lacking on this post.)


Below are a few more desserts served at the party for your enjoyment. Paula Deen's Fresh Apple Cake and a Lemon Icebox Pie.