The Walkers: A Heavenly Birthday

James turned 21!!! Yay! James' birthday was on Tuesday, so I told him he could pick any dessert and we dined at the restaurant of his choice. He mulled over his dessert options for a few days and settled on a cheesecake- a chocolate cheesecake!

His brother, Jason (also my double cousin), drove down to help us celebrate! You only turn 21 once! We really missed Tabitha!

We went to Buddha Tao for sushi and drinks (Jason opted for shrimp and noodles). But the rest of us enjoyed sushi! It was delicious!

To start off the celebrating, we ordered sake bombs.

Sake isn't one of my favorites, so we switched to a drink called a flirtini or something- basically, sugary koolaid with a smidge of alcohol! Yum!

Cheers!

After we finished up our sushi, it was cheesecake time! I had made the cheesecake the day before, so it could set in the fridge. It has been tempting us all day!!!

Heavenly Chocolate Cheesecake

Crust:
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup butter
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Filling:
3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
1 ¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
½ cup whipping cream

Topping:
1 ½ cups whipping cream, whipped (I added a little powdered sugar to this)
Halved strawberries

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In medium bowl, mix flour and 2 tablespoons sugar. In 1 quart saucepan, melt butter and ½ cup chocolate chips, stirring occasionally. Stir into flour mixture. Press evenly in bottom of ungreased 10 inch springform pan. Bake 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese, ½ cup sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Beat in 1 ¼ cups melted chocolate chips and ½ cup whipping cream. Poor evenly over crust.

Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake 55 to 60 minutes or until center is set. Cool 15 minutes. Run metal spatula around side of cheesecake to loosen. Refrigerate at least 4 hours. Remove side of pan. Top with whipped cream and berries. Store cheesecake in refrigerator.

16 servings.

The cheesecake is really very simple to make and it turned out better than I expected. The large crack isn't exactly aesthetically pleasing, but I think there is some saying about how cracked cheesecakes taste best . . . I don't know. It was good.

I really recommend serving it with the whipped topping. Of course, you could just use cool whip, but it's not quite as tasty as the real deal!

On a side note, Win and Ivy loved Jason! They absolutely loved him. They wanted to be right by him the entire time. Sometimes, we have trouble getting Ivy to come in from outside. I would stand at the door and say- look who's here? It's Jason! Ivy would run inside!