Red Velvet Cheesecake

Remember that disaster of a no-bake thing I tried to make?
Well... not so much disaster as in, I thought it was awful, but other people ate it?
This will not be like that. It was beautiful. In color, in taste, in.. everything.
Did I mention I really love cheesecake?

Also, for the first time on Experiments in the Kitchen, I had a guest chef! Well, two of them! One of them was my favorite Jenn, and the other was her adorable little puppy dog!
We made cheesecake, and we made wraps and we watched Paul. Which is weird, because when we eat/make cheesecake, we watch Rent or color our hair.

But enough about that. I found this recipe from The Recipe Girl, after much googling for a good recipe. I had red velvet cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory once, but that was cake and cheesecake, I wanted only cheesecake.

SO! Ingredients!

There is only one bottle of red food coloring listed there. I actually used two. And it still wasn't as red as I would have liked.

And so Jenn made a crust out of 17 oreos, butter, and some more sugar. Because oreos don't have enough sugar.

While she did this, I made the cheesecake part

And someone took a picture of me cooking! It is very blurry, however.

And then it was baked, and frosted, and looked simply beautiful.

That picture does not do it justice. It was so awesome, you guys. It was the perfect blend of cheesecake and red velvet cake.

If you are feeling ambitious, and have 2 hours of free time, go ahead and try this one out!

CRUST:
17 oreo cookies, crushed finely
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 Tablespoon granulated white sugar
CHEESECAKE:
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
2 ounces red food coloring (two 1-ounce bottles)
FROSTING:
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup shortening
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to  325
For the crust, crush up the cookies, and then mix in the butter and the sugar. Press into the bottom of a 10" springform pan. 

For the cheesecake:
Beat the cream cheese until nice and fluffy, and then add the rest of the ingredients. Mix with an electric mixer until well blended. Pour the batter over the crust. 
Bake for 10 minutes at 325 and then lower the temperature to 300 and bake an additional 75 minutes, or until the center is firm. Let it sit in the oven for an addition 30 minutes, and then cool completely. I put mine in the fridge for about 3 hours and it was perfect. 
For the frosting, mix the shortening and butter until fluffy and then add in milk, vanilla and powdered sugar. Beat until fluffy. Spread over completely cooled cheesecake. 




Now most people would be going off about some sort of water bath... and honestly, I didn't have a big enough pan to do all of that. My cheesecake did crack, but only a bit, and the frosting covered it up. 


So in the end, it was beautiful and delicious.


And poor Toby was all tuckered out from all the cooking.