Zebra Cheesecake

Knowing my love of baking, and my constant search for new recipes, my friend sent me a recipe for a zebra cake not too long ago. The cake was designed to be a chiffon cake, but the twist was that alternating layers of chocolate and vanilla were poured and then caused the cake to be striped like a zebra when baked. I thought this was a cool idea and decided that I should apply it to one of my cheesecake recipes.

Once I created the two different layers and started to pour them out, I understood that the concept didn't lend itself as easily to cheesecake as to chiffon or oven sponge cake. The reason is that cheesecake is quite dense, therefore when you pour it into the cake pan it stays there, instead of spreading like other liquidy batters. Also, cheesecakes don't really rise when you bake them. As you can see from the picture, even though the cake had alternating layers they did not spread out and the zebra effect was not as prominent.

Despite the image issues, the actual cake tasted amazing. It had an extremely smooth texture and the chocolate and vanilla layers melted into each other in your mouth. Also, the alternating nature of the cake allowed the vanilla layer to balance out the rich, dark nature of the chocolate layer. In the past, when I had made a cheesecake of two layers, one chocolate and one vanilla, the layers still seemed separate when you tasted them. In your mouth, you could distinctly tell that you were eating a half-chocolate, half-vanilla cheesecake. However this time, the layers came together as one complete flavor.

I think that I will try making this cake again, but I will most likely add more sour cream to help liquify the batter. Also, if I make fewer layers with more of each flavor, rather than many small layers, I think the zebra design will be more prominent.

Zebra Cheesecake

For the Crust:

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/4 cup oreo crumbs

For the Filling:

• 2 lbs. (4 blocks) cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 cups sour cream (I used 1 cup but I think 2 will work better)
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 200 g (2/3 cup) chocolate, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.
2. In a bowl, combine the crust ingredients. Once crumbs are thoroughly moistened, transfer the mixture into a 9" springform pan and press lightly against the bottom and sides. Note: I made the crust go only along the bottom so you may have to use more crumbs and butter if you want the sides as well.
3. Bake the crust for 8 minutes before removing to cool.

1.  In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese and sugar. If your cream cheese is straight out of the fridge, microwave it for about 15-25 seconds so that it softens a little.
2.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Once fully incorporated, beat in the sour cream.
3.  Separate the batter into two, one half slightly larger than the other.
4.  To the smaller batter, add the melted chocolate and mix thoroughly until it is completely incorporated.
5.  To the large batter, add the vanilla and lemon juice and mix thoroughly to combine.
6.  Starting with the vanilla batter, pour out about three massive spoonfuls into the center of the pan.
7.  With the chocolate batter, pour out about two massive spoonfuls into the center of the vanilla.
8.  Keep alternating with the batters, until both are used up. Make sure you finish with the vanilla batter on top.
9.  Bake the cheesecake in a water bath for 50 minutes. To create the water bath, cover the bottom of the springform pan with aluminum foil and place in a large roasting pan. Fill the pan with water 2/3 up the sides of the springform pan. Alternatively, you can put a pan of water onto the bottom rack of the oven and place the cheesecake one rack above.
10.  After 50 minutes, turn off the oven but do not open it. Leave the cheesecake inside for an hour before removing it.
11.  Cool the cheesecake to room temperature before refrigerating overnight.

Note: I topped my cake with chocolate ganache; the recipe can be found here.