Happy Birthday!!
We were going for a pub crawl to celebrate Hubby’s college roommate’s birthday. I offered to bring cupcakes. He loves coffee flavored things, so I had quite a few options when I flipped through Crazy about Cupcakes. I decided on the Carmel Mocha cupcakes.
As usual, when I start baking, I get really excited and tend to bake way too much. Since I wanted to make the Carmel Mocha cupcakes “full-dairy” for the birthday boy, I wanted to make some cupcakes that I would be able to eat. I decided to use some strawberry preserves that we had paired with French Vanilla cupcakes. When I make two batches, I tend to make one from scratch and one from a box mix.
Everyone said the Carmel Mocha cupcakes were great, and I loved the strawberry filled cupcakes. Overall it was a baking success!
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I too didn’t have a pan big enough for a water bath. I just cooked it for 1 hour and 30 minutes and then let it cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. I didn’t even cool it in the oven. I haven’t tasted it yet, so I don’t know if it turned out ok…but it looks just like my other that I made.
Hey if it tastes good who cares what it looks like?!
Regardless of how it looks, it’s the taste that matters! My cheesecakes look similar when I don’t do a water bath. Another idea with cheesecake is to make cheesecake truffles with leftovers (that is, if you even have any!) 🙂
If you get an answer to your cake running over problem would you mind sharing it? I had the same problem, despite the fact my pan met Dorie’s requirements. I’m also curious where I went wrong.
I’ve had similar problems, especially with the cracking, which I believe is from cooking too long. Once I started taking cheese cakes out based on time and not appearance the problem went away. I think a lot of cooking still takes place from the internal heat…just a theory…BTW, great marble effect on your cake!
Aawwww poor little cheesecake. To be honest I am not sure why your cheesecake fell but I know when I make cheesecake mine always bakes more evenly when I use a water bath also if the internal temperature reaches 160F (don’t quote me) it starts to make the cheesecake crack. Maybe next time don’t bake it as long? Either way taste is the most important IMO. 🙂
Clara @ iheartfood4thought