I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate. I know, I know, it's crazy. I'm more of a fruity dessert eater. But I'm also not selfish, and know I have to please the masses sometimes.I was in search of a knock your socks off chocolate dessert for Easter Brunch at Mikey's parents house (yes, I still have to try to impress them, and what am I going to impress them with besides my cooking?!). I called up the best dessert resource I have - MA - and asked her to send over some options. My first choice was a chocolate raspberry cheesecake, but Mikey didn't like it. My second choice was chosen mostly because the crust was still graham cracker. Usually the chocolate cheesecakes use an Oreo-type crust. But hello - the whole draw to the cheesecake for me is the graham cracker crust! The cheesecake was a hit. Mike's dad asked "did you make this yourself?" which I always take as the biggest compliment. It wasn't over-the-top rich, it was perfect. It did however, have enough caffeine in it to keep me up all night. It was worth it. I'd do it again. One of the guests decided it was the perfect breakfast cheesecake, which I had to agree with. But I've always loved cheesecake for breakfast.
The secret to this one is the almond extract in the cake. I also doubled the topping because you can never have too much frosting.
The recipe was super easy to make. The one suggestion I have is to make sure the cream cheese is really soft when you start. My batter was a little lumpy, which made the cake look a little marbled when it was finished.
The original recipe came from Taste of Home: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Chocolate-Cheesecake-2?refurl=&_mid=455702&_rid=455702.1264567647.31784
