We have already established in this food blog that Tom’s favorite dessert is anything with fruit, or a crust (such as pie) and of course cheesecake. Because, he would pretty much sell his soul for anything in the cheesecake category.

So you can very well imagine his delight when I presented him with this week’s Heavenly Cake Baker choice.

I did toy with him for a bit. I took out the coconut cream and the coconut flakes and set them on the kitchen island Friday night. As he walked by and saw the ingredients on display, the following conversation ensued:

Tom: “Oh man, you are making your coconut cake this weekend!!”

Me: “nope”

Tom: “come on Mon, you know how much I love that cake, and you have not baked that in almost a year, plus the coconut cream is OUT, it must be the coconut cake!”

Me: (thinking: he does not remember to take out the trash, but remembers the last time I baked the coconut cake? – how is that EVEN possible?) “No, I’m making something else”

Tom: “well as long as it has coconut, I’m sure I’m going to like it”

Me: “Oh I’m sure you will be all over the place with this one – trust me”

Tom: “so the only hint you are giving me is that it has coconut?”

Me: “yes, it does have that”.

And I could go on, how he tried to convince me to tell him by driving me totally insane with the questioning. But, Internet I was strong and keep this recipe under wraps until Sunday, when I presented it to him as his Father’s day dessert. – It also helped that he worked most of the weekend and I pretty much had the house to myself.

This one was one easy cheesecake to do. I’m learning to let go of my fear of water baths and this one went without any incidents, or maybe, I just trust myself more when it comes to things I’m deadly afraid of – who knows.

I used my 9 inch spring-form pan, covered it with double foil, set it in a much bigger round cake pan I have and then set to work to making the coconut cookie crust. I original thought of making my own vanilla wafers, but then I talked myself out of it - Why make it harder on myself?

So, out came the store bought vanilla wafers and into the food processor they went, along with the coconut flakes, pitch of salt and with a quick 10 second blitz, I had crumbs. Added the melted butter to combine it all and this goodness was pressed into the baking pan. I did notice that with the 9-inch pan, the crust did not go very high to the side of the pans, so I made a note to use an 8-inch pan the next time in order to have a bit of crust fill the side of the cheesecake.

The actual cheesecake batter took less than 10 minutes to whip up. The complicated part was separating the 8 eggs so I could get the 150 grams of yolks that the recipe called for. And here, is where I want to kiss Rose, for giving us the recipes in weight measurements. Because after cracking the 8 yolks, I was still 30 grams short, thus my total eggs used for this was 9 - so much for jumbo eggs.

Whipping the cream cheese with the sugar until fluffy, adding the eggs, the coconut and vanilla extract, as well as the sour cream and coconut cream was done next and voila – cheesecake was DONE! Poured it into the pan and after a 45 minutes baking period and a 1 hour rest period inside the “off” oven, the cheesecake was ready to be put away overnight in the cool comfort of the refrigerator.

On Sunday, I unmolded it, which turned out to be the most difficult part of this recipe for me. Because that coconut cookie crust wanted to stay put. I decided to just leave it and took the side off, placed on a serving platter, topped it with the crunchy pre-toasted coconut flakes and presented it to Tom, who literally flipped out!

Verdicts:

Tom: “Oh my god, its not coconut cake! It’s COCONUT CHEESECAKE!!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, you know that right? And the reason I do is because of this, you feed my soul and my cravings. This is so good – not as good as the lemon ones, but this one is way up there. I love the hint of the coconut taste, its not overly sweet, its like a custard and cheesecake together which makes is super light – it’s just excellent, promise I don’t have to wait another year for this one?!”

Tom’s mom: “Monica, this is so delicious, I think its one of the best cheesecake that I have ever eaten”

The little man: “it’s so good, dad is right – you have to make it again, soon”.

Me: I also like the flavor, was I knocked off my feet with it? Not really, but then cheesecakes are not my thing, so I was not so excited about it to begin with. I know that it’s a great dessert recipe to keep at hand, since it easy to make and a pretty good crowd pleaser... it’s actually the perfect dessert to serve at a dinner party – not to fussy, but fancy looking to make your guest believe you slaved away making it.