My Cherry Swirl Cheesecake Bake Contribution

Recently I participated in a local bake sale to raise money for
the local animal shelter. I volunteered to bake a dessert, and I
chose to do a couple of Cherry Swirl Cheesecakes.

I'm a very picky eater and have never been a fan of cheesecake,
so I had to have my mother be my taste tester to see if I'd done
an adequate job. She helped me by giving me a couple of
pointers, and after a couple of tries I managed to bake two
pretty good cheesecakes (or so my mom says).

Cherry Swirl Cheesecake

Vegetable cooking spray
1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 (21-ounce) can cherry pie filling
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
2 (8-ounce) packages fat free cream cheese
1 (14-ounce) can low fat sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg whites
1 large egg
1/3 cup bottled lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsifted all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 300º. Spray bottom and sides of an 8-inch
spring form pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle graham crumbs on
the bottom of the pan.

In electric blender or food processor container, puree cherry
pie filling until smooth. Add the orange rind and set aside.

In mixer bowl, beat cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in low
fat sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Add egg whites, egg,
bottled lemon juice, vanilla and mix well. Stir in the flour.

Pour half of batter in prepared pan. Spoon 1/2 cup cherry puree
evenly over batter. Top with remaining batter. Drop by spoonfuls
1/2 cup cherry puree over batter; with knife or spatula gently
swirl. Put remaining puree aside.

Bake 60 to 65 minutes or until center is set. Let it cool, then
chill it in the fridge. Serve with remaining puree if desired.
Refrigerate any leftovers.

I was thinking of using fat free cream cheese for this
cheesecake, but apparently that type of cream cheese makes the
cheesecake kind of rubbery on the inside and chalky on the
outside. The lower fat cream cheese makes the dessert harder and
crumbly, so you're best using full fatty cream cheese for the
best taste and texture.

Also make sure the ingredients, especially the cream cheese is
at room temperature before you start mixing...not making sure of
that was my first mistake. Otherwise, you'll end up with a lumpy
Cherry Swirl cheesecake.

The bake sale itself went pretty well. We're planning on having
another one soon, and I think the only thing we need to do
better next time to draw more people is advertise a bit sooner
and not have it at 2 pm on a Sunday afternoon :-).