Strawberry Cheesecake

I tried this Classic Cheesecake recipe, from Real Simple Magazine, on Father's Day.

It turned out perfectly! I was so happy!  Real Simple recommends bringing all  the ingredients to room temperature so everything mixes thoroughly. This prevents the cheesecake from cracking. It works! Only one tiny tiny crack and the sour cream topping covered that up.

I did not try Real Simple's cherry sauce because I had fresh strawberries from my garden! The strawberry cheesecake was Heavenly. Steven thinks he will keep me around for another year. 

Here is the recipe I used for the Strawberry Topping:

Smash 2 cups berries. Put them in a saucepan with  1 1/2 cups water and bring it all to a boil. Then simmer for four minutes. While the strawberries are simmering place 2 cups sugar and 1/3 cup cornstarch in a separate bowl and mix together. Add the sugar mixture to the berry mixture and stir and then add 3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice to the pan. Cook everything  until transparent (the cloudy cornstarch turns clear, it takes just a few minutes.) Add 2 Tablespoons butter. Stir until the butter melts. Arrange Strawberries on the cheese cake and drizzle the Strawberry filling over it all. Chill and serve. 

TIP: If you are not going to serve the whole cake on the same day, I recommend storing the cheesecake, the filling, and the strawberries separately and combining them on the plate when you serve it. It can still look artistic and it keeps much better. Strawberries keep better dry with their tops on in a Tupperware-like container. 

Here is a picture of H. 

He is feeling like a superhero and so did I when I made this cheesecake: I hope you do too!