processed in LR4 with Pretty Presets "Fine Art, Velvetine"As you probably noticed, I have been absent from the computer for a few days. My sister and her kids are in town and this week is Duke's birthday week. Yes, that very tall young man running in the forest is now nine years old. Whoever invented the word "bittersweet" (as in "pleasure with some pain") must have had children or been close to a child. Every one of my sons' birthday is bittersweet.
Here is a photo of him eight years ago. Really, nine years old? It is unbelievable that I have had this beautiful, sensitive, empathetic, happy child in my life for nine years. Oh, I hate to sound trite, but those nine years have zipped by so quickly that sometimes I feel my head spinning.
I decided to make a cheesecake for his birthday. Times like this I wish I would invest in a stand mixer. My poor handheld mixer is from college (in other words, a kitchen appliance antique) and when I am mixing something thick like cream cheese it starts smoking and smelling like something is burning up. I think I will have to finally buy a new one. Or maybe I can use it for a few more cakes before it catches on fire. ;-)
One of the problems of using a hand mixer and no apron is you get flour and cream cheese all over your shirt! You might notice our $35 Christmas tree in the background. It is a fake one we bought when the kids were babies and had not a penny to our name. Every year I want to upgrade it to a bigger and grander tree, but the kids insist it is just perfect. It is our version of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree and proves bigger and more expensive is not necessarily better in a child's eye.
Here is my sweet young man, in his favorite pirate shirt and holding his new Nerf gun, standing in front of my uncooked cheesecake. This poor cheesecake is bound to fail. I had the smoking mixer issue, then the spring pan started leaking all over the oven, and the power kept flickering and turning off my oven and resetting my timer. I am using my new convection toaster oven and am uncertain about the temperature setting. I will try to add a photo of my finished cake later, after I add the cherries on top.
I mentioned to Duke that I was afraid this cake would not cook properly and be a gooey cheesecake soup. He turned to me and said "Mom, cheesecake soup sounds delicious, almost better than regular cheesecake".
Never a mean word from his mouth. I love this kid. Happy ninth birthday Duke!
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