I promised a surprise dessert for my girlfriend’s birthday party today and I’m worried I messed up this cheesecake 😭 I followed Sally’s Baking Addiction classic cheesecake recipe, adding in a raspberry topping & some lemon juice+zest to the batter. Unfortunately during the bake I didn’t catch that it was browning so much, and it cracked during cooking despite me leaving it in the oven and using a water bath :’ Would it be best to cut off the brown edges to save the taste? Or fine as-is? Any tips or reassurance appreciated lol
by jeuneqilac
45 Comments
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That looks delicious.
10/10 would still eat. Sometimes my cheesecakes still crack, even after 15 year of making them. Don’t worry too much about it, once it’s cut you won’t even see!
It’s totally fine as is.
Nah it’s perfect, that swirl looks beautiful. The edges will taste great they are not burnt by any means
Leave it, it looks good. If you have do something, fill the depression with unsweetened whipped cream (I find sweetened clashes with the cheesecake). Then marble in some raspberry to mimic the top of the cheesecake
In my experience it takes an exceptionally long time to over bake a cheesecake to the point of it affecting flavor.
Texture, maybe but even then it’s generally unnoticeable to most people. Also cracking doesn’t always mean overcooked. Sometimes they crack.
Yours looks really good. And it does not look overcooked if you enlarge the picture to see the cracks. I wouldn’t do anything to it but eat it.
Cover in raspberries and a dusting of powdered sugar if the looks bother you. Add a coulis of you are worried it will be dry (unlikely). Personally I would eat it as is happily. People who complain about cake given to them do not deserve cake.
You know I think it’s too far gone to be saved. I’d be willing to dispose of it for you 👀
It looks fine. Your GF will love it. I’d love it! 😉
Not a fan of Sally’s recipes. They’re old and conventional. The modern way to make cheesecake is to bake it without a fussy bain Marie and at a low temperature.
I would still eat the whole thing in one sitting
Just cover it in macerated berries but I really think it looks fab. Would happily eat this if someone made it for me.
You should slice it and eat it with your GF. If you’re worried about it being dry from overcooking whip up some kind of glaze or sauce to serve with it. If you’re super worried about the shame of a cracked cheesecake just slice it, pretty it up with some garnishes like a sauce, fresh fruit, and a sprig of mint.
Don’t mess with it though it’s fine as is.
Eat it.
It looks fine! I still get some color on my cheesecake here and there. And avoiding cracks can be hard even with a waterbath. I left a cheesecake in the oven to finish cooling and it looked perfected. When i went to take it out, it had a huge crack in the middle. So ended up whipping some ganache and covering it up. The whole cheesecake didn’t even make it past the end of thanksgiving and everyone was asking for it at Christmas.
Serve it with some whipped cream or other yummy topping. Homemade cheesecake is 100x better than store bought even with a crack or two.
The best thing to do is eat it and enjoy the results of your hard work!
Just call it Basque-style 😅
There’s nothing you can do. Please deliver to my house for proper disposal
Just call it a basque 😉
I’d eat this in a heartbeat omg
It’s not burnt, it’s now a Basque Cheesecake.
Send it to me
Oh no, the cheesecake you made from scratch with love and thoughtfulness looks delicious but has a crack on top and is a little brown around the edges?
MY FRIEND THAT CHEESECAKE IS PERFECT. 😍
Doesn’t look over baked to me, that looks like it’s about to slap hardddd
Yeah, EAT IT!!! Looks good to me!!!
I’ve had cheesecakes with similar swirls crack exaaactly along the lines where I seemed to have accidentally incorporated air bubbles whilst swirling the preserves on top with a skewer. It can help to jiggle and tap the cheesecake after everything to remove excess air bubbles. However — this looks like a fantastically delicious cheesecake. If you want to cover up the cracks, you can add a vanilla whipped cream, some fruit, a coulis, or something similar to cover the surface for aesthetics. In all honesty though, no one is going to care about the cracks once it’s sliced and on a plate
One persons “overbaked” is my “100% perfection”lol. I never use a waterbath for my cheesecake and if i can get the golden ring around the edge thats my holy grail! It tastes better like this trust me- all the pale inspid cheesecakes lack the depth of flavor. If you had your heart set on a flawless look, you could always cover it with a thin layer of sweetened sour cream, ganache, or thinned out warmed jelly:)
Totally fine as is for cheesecake. Since you have a design swirl you may not want to do it, but you could put a sour cream top on it.
Sour cream at room temperature whisked with some sugar can fill in those cracks. Put back in the oven to bake to set. This can also be used for a thin layer on top of cheese cake to have a uniform top if you have some cracks or a divot.
Whipped cream and serve? I kind of love the more baked bits at the edge.
It looks gorgeous I’ll have it
Give it to me lol
I don’t even like cheesecake and I would be thrilled to eat it
If someone made this for me, I would be so happy! The thought and time and effort! It looks wonderful! She will absolutely love this!
Eat it!
I think it looks good and those raspberry swirls look lovely! 🥰 I love to make some whipped cream with heavy whipping cream and some powdered sugar and a bit of vanilla (until you get soft peaks, as someone else mentioned) and pipe it along the edge with a large star tip. Maybe even add some raspberry filling in the middle? I made a blackberry cheesecake a few weeks ago and that’s what I did to “finish” it. 😁
I wouldn’t touch it – the swirls are lovely
This is perfect!
It looks just like a ‘basque cheesecake’
Totally fine.
It looks absolutely DELICIOUS And beautiful!!! The color is great. Lots of cheesecakes are no-bake so they don’t brown. This looks great, who cares about a crack.
Whipped cream
Just unbake it
I don’t see a problem here. ☺️
You didn’t extend bake time or temperature but it cracked within the bake time? If that’s the case, I think you’re dealing with an over mixing problem and it is highly unlikely to dramatically alter the texture. Unlike a cake where over mixing creatures an unpleasant dense or gummy texture, a cheesecake that’s over mixed creates more aeration which results in cracking because it generally doesn’t have the stability needed to keep those bubbles.
Add whipped cream (or a sour cream topping?) and sing happy birthday!
It’ll still be good!
Eat it