Baked my own birthday cake this year. I'm not into frosting or super sweet desserts, so I put this together.

Behold, the Cheesecake² ™️ (also thinking of calling it The Big Cheese, but not quite sold on it).

This is a cream cheese cake topped with a crustless cheesecake topped with seared apricots and strusel. I condensed the juice from the can of apricots into a syrup and drizzled that over the cake before adding the strusel.

First attempt at the idea, and she thikk. It was my first time making cream cheese cake and I'm saving the recipe, the texture is so nice. Also first time making a cheesecake. Next time I'll make the cream cheese cake layer thinner and omit the strusel. I think I'll drizzle some of the syrup onto the cake layer before topping with cheesecake, but still playing around with the idea. I think a basque cheesecake on top would be delicious, and I almost tried it, but I was worried it would fall apart during the transfer to the base layer.

I'm a novice home-baker and although she's not pretty, she tasted pretty good, air bubbles and all. 🎂