German Chocolate Cheesecake

Tuesday was John's birthday and I told him he could pick whatever kind of cake he wanted and I would make it for him. He found this recipe for German Chocolate Cheesecake and I happily baked if for him!

German Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients
Cheesecake
24 oz cream cheese, softened and cut into chunks
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Chocolate Cake
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour

Chocolate Glaze
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 Tablespoons whipping cream

German Chocolate Topping
2 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, cut into small pieces
2/3 cup whipping cream 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup flaked coconut 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions
For cheesecake: In bowl of electric mixer, blend cream cheese, sugar, eggs, sour cream and vanilla until smooth. Set aside

For Chocolate Cake: In large microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate and butter. Microwave on HIGH power for 2-3 minutes, or until just melted. Cool slightly. With fork, beat in sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Add flour and mix until blended. Spoon into well-greased 9 1/2 inch springform pan, spreading evenly. Carefully spread cheese mixture evenly over top of chocolate batter.

Bake in preheated 425° oven for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350° and continue baking 55-60 minutes. Turn off oven, open oven door and let cake cool completely to room temperature in oven. Refrigerate until well chilled.

Remove sides from springform. Invert cake onto serving plate, so cheesecake is on the bottom and chocolate cake is on the top. Spread sides with Chocolate Glaze. Spread top evenly with German Chocolate Topping. Refrigerate until serving time.

For chocolate Glaze: In small microwave safe bowl combine chocolate chips with whipping cream. Microwave on HIGH power for 45-60 seconds. Beat until smooth. Spread on sides of cheesecake.

For German Chocolate Topping: In small microwave safe bowl, beat egg yolks. Stir in sugar, butter and whipping cream. Microwave on HIGH power 4 minutes, stirring every minute. Remove from microwave and stir in vanilla. Stir in coconut and pecans until well blended. Refrigerate until mixture is of spreading consistency. Spread on top of the cheesecake.

Amanda's Analysis:
As I said before, I don't care very much for cheesecake. However, this cake was delicious! There was plenty of chocolate cake to balance out the cheesecake, and the creamy coconut German Chocolate Topping doesn't hurt either! My only complaint is that the chocolate cake was rather dense/hard. It was difficult to cut through and I ended up squishing the cheesecake layer. I will definately add this recipe to my recipe box, but I think next time I will tweak the chocolate cake recipe and try to make it a little lighter. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN! I give this birthday cake 7 spoons!

John's Jibba-Jabba:
Amanda was nice enough to make this cake for me on my birthday. She did a very good job and it turned out to be very tasty. I would agree with her that the chocolate cake was a bit too dense but that is a really small quibble for such a wonderful dessert. This happy birthday cake gets 7 spoons!