Rainbow Cheesecake

Submitted by gailanng

"It's important to have your cream cheese at room temperature otherwise the filling will become grainy. You will need one 9" springform pan. Gel food coloring produces more intense colors. To make purple food coloring with liquid coloring: Place ten drops of red food coloring into a small bowl. Add five drops of blue coloring to the red. Whisk the red and blue together to create purple. Drop in additional red food coloring, one drop at a time, to lighten the purple or more blue coloring to darken it."

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 30mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 16

ingredients

• For the Crust

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1⁄4 cup sugar
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted

• For the Cheesecake

• 4 (8 ounce) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1⁄3 cups sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 4 large eggs, divided
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup heavy cream
• food coloring (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)

directions

1. Before getting started with the crust, make sure your springform pan is water tight. You may do this by carefully wrapping a few layers of foil on the outside of the pan, working in both directions so water cannot get into the pan. Be careful not to rip the foil or water will get into your cake and ruin it.
2. Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl. Add the melted butter until thoroughly blended.
3. Press all but a few tablespoons of the graham cracker mixture into the prepared springform pan.
4. Press the crust down firmly in the pan. You may use a measuring cup for this which makes it easy to get around the edges. You should have an even, flat crust.
5. Bake the crust in a preheated 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 10 minutes on a low rack.
6. Remove from the oven and cool completely before continuing.
7. Turn oven temperature down to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
8. To make filling, add the cream cheese to a mixing bowl.
9. Beat until smooth, 4 to 5 minutes.
10. Add sugar and continue to beat until smooth again, another 4 to 5 minutes.
11. Add salt, vanilla and one egg at a time, beating briefly between each egg. Do not overbeat for it may cause cracks.
12. Finally, beat in the sour cream and heavy cream until just incorporated.
13. Once the mixture is well combined and very smooth, divide it into 6 dishes. Add food coloring to each dish to get the desired colors.
14. Pour colored mixtures into prepared and cooled crust.
15. Start with red and pour it right in the center. Continue to build the rainbow by pouring the fillings directly in the center. This will create layers so that each slice has some of each color. I have seen others that have just dolloped (by about 1/4 cupfuls) of the colored filling by overlaping colors and it still came out fine, just a different look.
16. Place cheesecake into a baking dish filled with boiling water about 1 inch up the side of the springform pan.
17. Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit in the water bath for 1 hour and 45 minutes.
18. Turn off the oven, crack the door to the oven open.
19. Let the cake cool in the oven for one hour. The slow cooling will help it not crack.
20. Loosely wrap the dish in foil so the foil isn't touching the top of the cake and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
21. When ready to remove cake, run a clean narrow knife around the edge of the dish, remove the foil, unlock the spring and carefully lift off the outer ring.
22. Slice to serve.

Reviews

[Zaney1]

OK I made this and had a little trouble but upon further research I believe the problems I had were my own doing. I made it in a 9in springform pan. I had a huge overflow problem BUT I looked into possible causes of this and I found that not using a water bath can cause this. I did NOT use a water bath. My usual cheesecake doesn't need one so I thought this one would be ok without it. WRONG! Another issue I believe I had was that I overbeat it. If you over beat a cheesecake it will puff up like a souffle and then crash back down. Mine did this. Again, entirely my fault. The flavor of this cheesecake was very mild. It would be a great base for a fruity sauce or maybe even chocolate. I used gel food colorings and the colors turned out bright and vibrant.