Sunday, February 7, 2010

Let Them Eat Cheesecake

I must apologize for the cliched and somewhat cheesy title to the post but I couldn't resist. I had cheesecake for supper last night and must admit, it's not every day I can say that!

We participated in the 5th Annual Bobo* Cheesecake Competition held by friends of ours.

*Note: The family name, in fact, is not "Bobo" but I thought it best to change the name to protect the innocent and all of that...

This is our second event, and it proves to be an entertaining (and filling) evening. The theme this year was "an event that took place during the year in which the principal cheesecake architect or baker was born." The year was to be kept a secret and those attending got to guess at the year base on the presentation shown on the cheesecake. My wife slaved for hours on creating a cheesecake depicting the scaling of a certain tall mountain in the Himalayas for the first time by two climbers. I'll say no more about the event, or the year, as it may save me a smacking from the "cheesecake architect" if she reads this and finds that I've divulged her age (but you can do the math...)

Anyhoo...prizes were available for
  • Best interpretation of theme

  • Best presentation

  • Best chocolate cheesecake

  • Best non-chocolate cheesecake

  • Consumer with the highest CPC (cheesecake piece count)

  • Rube Goldberg award for the most unusual combination of ingredients

  • Best overall

I'm please to announce that our cheesecake one in two categories. The best presentation (ours had a small mountain of meringue covered in melted white chocolate on top) and best overall. Apparently a small trophy is on the way. The highlight for me, of course, is skipping supper and going right to cheesecake. I managed to sample 9 of the 11 entries (not that 5 had to cancel out due to the blizzard on Friday). Sadly, that quantity did not qualify me to win the CPC award. The presentation of the awards is a fine event with Prof. Bobo looking impeccably attired in his tie-die shirt and pilgrim hat. He then hands out the prizes purchased from Princess Auto. We got a small set of stainless steel cups, a whisk for sweeping car mats and a pair of welding gloves.


This post obviously has nothing to do with writing (as you may have noticed) and I commend you if you have made it this far. I would post the cheesecake recipe here, but since this is not a cooking/baking blog I won't subject you to that. I have my limits. However, the winning cheesecake was of the baked variety and contained chocolate, sour cream, cream cheese and had amaretto in both the filling and the glaze. For anyone wanting the recipe, you can email me and I'd be happy to send it to you. I forgot to take our camera to the event, so the cake shown is a generic chocolate cheesecake I pilfered from the web.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

11 comments:

Cathy Olliffe-Webster said...

Cheesecake is a way better topic than writing.
Oh, and I can't bee-leeve you forgot your camera!!! Man, that is so disappointing on so many levels!
I think you'll be wishing you had of posted the recipe, however... people will be emailing you like crazy, especially me.
What a great idea for a party!
Don't mind if I steal it, do you?
This might even top fondue.
Gotta go... gotta email somebody for a recipe.

Karen from Mentor said...

I have friends who have an annual pie party. And as luck would have it the event takes place NEXT WEEK...this is the tenth in a row. This year I'm taking a cherry pie. The first year I took two pies. An apple pie and a pie crust filled with pieces of paper depicting the symbol for pi ...it's an engineering crowd...so it went over well... especially the part where they scooped the whipped cream from around the bits of paper ....

:0)

Katey said...

Cheesecake is ALWAYS an exciting topic. Your friends sound inventive and appreciative of the finer things. Super fun! :D

Aaron Polson said...

I vote cheesecake for the win.

DEZMOND said...

Now, this might shock you, but I find the mix of cheese and sugar extremely weird and unnatural (at least my taste buds say so). I like dairy products in their sour condition or in salty meals, but sweet NEVER :)) I know you American adore cheesecakes, so I' ve always felt I would have problems if I went to USA and got served a cheesecake for dessert. It would be a nightmare for me :)

Fox Lee said...

My mother makes the best cheesecake ever : ) Then again, I suppose everyone says that about either their mother or their wife!

Paula RC said...

What happened to healthy diet, Alan! 9 pieces!

Cathy Olliffe-Webster said...

Aack! I can't e-mail you! Now what!
Note to Dezmond: I WISH I had nightmares about cheesecake. Giant soft, luscious but not overly sweet melt-mouthing nightmares...

Alan W. Davidson said...

Cathy, Since posting this someone else who was there posted the photos on their Facebook. I copied a few and will post them. My email is awdavidson.nl@gmail.com (you can link to it through my profile at top right of the page).

Karen, I'm a visualization sort of guy. Got any pictures of the pies? Perhaps audio recordings.

Katey, They're a fun crowd. I usually only see them at this function or at 'Bad Movie Night.'

Aaron, Lots of cheesecake was consumed, so I guess we were all winners.

Dez, I'm sure that it's not as bad as you think. You will have to tell us what is common for dessert in your part of the world.

Nat, There were a couple there that weren't so good. And an odd one of cheesecake 'cookies' with maple syrup.

Jarmara, agreed...it was very evil. Especially since we are trying to cut back before out holiday coming up soon. Alas it's just once a year. Sort of a grown-up Christmas.

Laura Eno said...

I love cheesecake! Please email me the recipe!!! How disappointing that you don't have a photo of your wife's, unless one of the facebook pics captured it? I envy you a dinner filled with dessert. :)
The cookies don't sound so good...

Danielle Birch said...

Cheesecake competition = heaven.