Carrot Cake Cheesecake

Long time no post. Sorry guys! Being at school with no kitchen really takes a toll on being able to post my recipes. But big news! We just got an apartment...with a kitchen! Here's what it looks like...



I can't wait to cook in it! But anyway, Paula Deen was having a recipe contest using Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Which got me thinking...what could I make up with cream cheese? Here's what I came up with. Carrot Cake Cheesecake. I took some of Paula Deen's tricks and applied them to my recipe. The bottom crust is a carrot cake mix and the cheesecake part is made with carrot baby food. Sneaky sneaky ;)

Ingredients
-3 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese
-1 tablespoon cinnamon
-1 jar carrot baby food
-1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar
-3 eggs
-1/4 cup heavy cream
-1 tablespoon vanilla

Carrot Filling
-2 grated carrots
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-2 tablespoons melted butter

Crust
-1 box carrot cake mix
-1 stick butter
-1 egg

Directions
1) Mix the crust ingredients and press into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan
2) With a mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth
3) Beat in the rest of the ingredients (make sure you add the eggs one at a time)
4) In a small bowl, mix together the carrot filling (carrots, brown sugar, and butter) until completely incorporated
5) Now you have a choice. You can either mix this into the cheesecake batter OR you can pour half the batter into the pan and then pour the carrot mixture in the middle of the cheesecake and add the rest of the batter on top.
6) Pour all the batter into the pan
7) Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes until the top is golden brown and it's not completely jiggly
8) When the cake is done, slide a knife around the outside edge to loosen it from the pan (prevents cracking)
9) Put the cake back in the oven but turn the oven off. Leave the cheesecake in the oven with the oven off for an hour. (also prevents cracking by not shocking the cake with the temperature difference)