Since it is Cancer Awareness month,
I thought this was the perfect time to share this story. I hope you enjoy
reading it as much as I enjoy remembering it every time I open up one of my
Maida Heatter cookbooks and turn on my Cuisinart mixer. Trying to find the right starting place for this story is difficult. I could start with my aunt and grandmother who challenged me to not take shortcuts in the kitchen. My mother as no one could match her ability to make tasty flaky pie crusts. Perhaps it starts with receiving my first Maida Heatter cookbook from my aunt which sparked a passion for baking that continues to this day. However, I feel that the best starting point is with an amazing person I met while working and attending college at the University of North Texas. Don’t be fooled with all the burnt orange in my closet now that I live in Austin, Texas. My blood runs Eagle Mean Green.
My college plans started like many freshmen; my dream was set and I was off to accomplish it, graduate and conquer the world. For me, conquering the world meant creating beautiful spaces through Interior Design. For anyone that knows me, that is actually quite funny as I do not have an artistic bone in my body–self-proclaimed style maven perhaps, but definitely not artistic. My brother’s natural talent for drawing people, places and things far surpassed mine but my determination made up for what I lacked in talent.
This college student needed a car since I was living in Dallas and UNT is located in Denton which is 40 miles north of my home. To fund the car, I decided to take some time off from North Texas to take a full time job at an architectural firm. This seemed like a great fit since I could see what my life would be like after graduation and earn money for a car at the same time. I was in luck as they needed a receptionist and I knew how to answer a telephone. This was my first full-time job that was not through a temp agency and I earned a crazy low salary. To put it into perspective, the car I bought was $13K and my annual salary was just a few thousand more. I definitely do not recommend using that logic now if you plan to purchase a vehicle. Luckily at the time, my only expense was my car so I could funnel my entire salary into it.
When I joined the firm, I became part of their administrative team working with Joy and Carol. They were both super friendly and made me feel welcome. As we got to know each other, we discovered that we all lived on the same block in North Dallas. That is not necessarily a huge coincidence as the neighborhood is located about ten miles from the office. However, since the firm had about 20 architects on staff that lived all over Dallas, some commuting from as far as South Dallas, having all three of us on the same block was funny–but not in a ha-ha way. I do still find it comical to this day that we lived so close to one another and we all still drove our own cars to work. It must be a Texas thing. Texans just are not wired for mass transit or carpooling. We are slowly getting there as the infrastructure is put into place, but as a Native Texan I have learned that Texans do love their independence and their cars.
While I was working at the firm, Carol was diagnosed with cancer. The tumor was successfully removed and Carol underwent radiation treatments. Throughout the process she kept her spirit high and focused on the positive. You see, to know Carol is also to love Carol. She has a loving family with three beautiful children. She is cheerful, funny and a joy to be around. It was Carol’s love for life, her family and her friends that kept her spirits high. I know she had some tough moments but she rallied her courage and focused her energy on the positive forces in her life.
Throughout her journey, Carol got to know her oncologist very well and learned how much he loved cheesecake. I happened to bake a lot after my aunt gave me my first Maida Heatter cookbook and I had recently purchased another of her cookbooks, which has fast become my favorite one–Maida Heatter’s Best Dessert Book Ever. I loved to practice her recipes and routinely brought my baked goods into the office to pawn them off on hungry architects and underpaid interns. Sharing the baked goods also kept all those delicious calories off my every-girl-has-a-body-image-problem figure. I loved to bake and I loved to exercise but I could not exercise enough to keep up while exploring all of Maida’s wonderful recipes.
Now here’s where my memory gets a little fuzzy. I cannot recall if Carol commissioned me to bake her doctor a cheesecake or if she told me how much he loved cheesecake and I offered to bake one. What I do remember is that I made Maida Heatter’s Rum and Espresso Chocolate Cheesecake (p. 293) for her to give to her doctor. I do not even recall if I made the recipe prior to baking it for Carol’s doctor or if that recipe was my first attempt. I know I remember making it after I made it for Carol’s doctor and I ran into some difficulty with the glaze on subsequent attempts. Luckily, though, the cheesecake turned out marvelously for Carol’s doctor.
The recipe has a cookie and nut crust made with macaroons and almonds. Although hazelnuts can be substituted for the almonds, they were harder to come by back then. Most likely due to my inexperience in knowing where to find them or possibly they were out of my budget with everything being funneled to my car. Another unique feature of the cheesecake was the layer of chocolate melted on top of the crust and then chilled prior to adding the cheese mixture. The chocolate layer keeps the crust from getting soggy and I have incorporated that concept into other recipes I have made.
This is not a light cheesecake; it is actually quite dense. With one pound of chocolate and two pounds of cream cheese in the recipe, there should be no surprises to its denseness. Once the cheesecake is done, the currant jam glaze can be tricky. I do recommend watching it carefully as it melts and brushing it onto the cheesecake quickly. Any hesitation will result in the glaze appearing lumpy or clumped onto the cheesecake rather than the thin glassy appearance which shouts utter perfection.
Since this is a very dense cheesecake and it is extremely rich, I would encourage very thin slices. To help suggest portion size, I evenly place 20 raspberries along the edge to indicate that the cheesecake should be sliced into 20 thin slices. There is certainly nothing wrong with going back for seconds, but there is definitely something wrong with cutting too big a slice and leaving excess cheesecake on the plate!
Once the cheesecake was done I had nothing to place it on so it could be delivered. I fretted as I had no type of footing for it. I had assumed I would just throw some foil over a round piece of cardboard and place the cheesecake upon it, possibly adding a doily to pretty it up a bit. After seeing the majesty of the cheesecake–I know that sounds so over the top but it is true–a makeshift “stand” would not work. I drove to the local grocery story, the nearest being a Kroger, and approached the bakery staff. I explained my situation and I asked if it would be possible for me to purchase a plastic cake container and clear cover from them? For the small price of one dollar I was on my way to finishing this project for Carol.
I took the cheesecake to work so Carol could take it to her doctor but it still looked incomplete. Before handing it over to Carol, I decided it needed a label stating where it came from so I created one of those cartoon-shaped talking bubbles and inserted “Let Them Eat Cake – Cookies, Pies and Cakes” onto the label and slapped it on the top of the carrier. Needless to say, the cheesecake was a hit. I later learned that it had been such a hit that the doctor’s wife had called Information and checked every phone book trying to locate my “bakery”. Since this was before the Internet, I can only imagine how frustrating her search had been, especially since I had not added an address or phone number to the label since I was not truly open for business.
So why is there a picture of my Cuisinart stand mixer instead of this lovely cheesecake? For one, pictures were not as easy to take and share back then as they are now. I have to rely on my memory to recall images of the cheesecake and how it looked in its store bought container with makeshift label. But also, it is about honoring Carol 20 years later as she is still going strong. When I graduated from UNT, with a Bachelor’s degree in marketing rather than an Interior Design degree, Carol surprised me with this beautiful mixer as a graduation present. I continue to use this mixer for all my baking needs today. Every time I whip it out to begin any recipe I think of Carol, the cheesecake, and how she triumphed over her battle with cancer.
