I made a strawberry pie a while back that promised a pink crust. Unfortunately, I didn’t get pink even though I tried the recipe twice. The pie was delicious, but I didn’t get the pretty pastel dessert I wanted. Well, I’m getting it today with this Honey Lavender Cheesecake. Unlike that strawberry pie this recipe uses food coloring. That means it guaranteed to be the pretty pastel dessert I’ve been wanting, right? You would think, but the only way to make sure is to give this recipe a try. It’s been a while since I have attempted a cheesecake, so I’m raring to go!
Something about the combination of honey + lavender really gives this cheesecake an amazing taste without being too overpowering. I hate when things taste super floraly. This guy is nice and light and absolutely to die for! You will definitely be going back for a second piece!
The Ingredients
I normally keep several of this recipe’s ingredients on hand, but I still had a lot of shopping to do. My pantry had sugar (granulated and powdered), honey, salt, and even the violet food coloring. I know, who has that? Me!
The violet food coloring was in a 12-pack I had ordered to color the icing in these Tequila Sunrise Cupcakes. Of course you can always mix red and blue food coloring from the typical McCormick food coloring most every grocery store stocks. You know the one with the tiny red, yellow, green, and blue bottles.
I had to shop for the rest, but most everything was easy to find at my regular grocery store. This Honey Lavender Cheesecake is full of basics like cream cheese, butter, sour cream, eggs, etc.
The only item I couldn’t find locally was the lavender extract. I had to order it too. I found it a bit pricey, but the package I ordered included a dropper and sprayer. I’ll be adding a spritzes and drops of calming lavender to my laundry detergent and sleeping areas. It won’t go to waste!
The Process
I love it when longrecipes are divided into chunks because it makes them so much easier to handle. This one has three main parts: making the crust, then the filling, then the topping. Here’s how my time was spent:
- 30 minutes to prep
- 2.5 hours to bake
- 4 hours to chill
- 7 minutes to top
- 7 hours 7 minutes total
This recipe only listed cooking and chilling times (not prep time). These times were spot-on for me.
The Crust
A good cheesecake starts with the crust. This one was a simple two-ingredient graham cracker crust. That’s right, just crushed graham crackers and butter pressed into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.
I placed about nine graham crackers into a gallon-size ziplock bag and crushed them with my hands a bit. Then I placed the bag onto the countertop and finished crushing them with a rolling pin (just like I did for these Mini Eggnog Cheesecakes).
A quick measure verified the amount was just what was needed. Next, I mixed the crumbs with the melted butter and poured the mixture into my prepared springform pan. Tip: The recipe calls for cooking spray to grease the pan, but it’s not in the ingredients list.
I pressed the mixture into the bottom of the pan using the side of my index finger to force the edges about 1/2 inch up the sides. Then it was into the preheated oven for 12 minutes while I prepared the filling.
The Filling
The filling was the most work of all the steps, but it wasn’t difficult at all. I put the cream cheese into my stand mixer and let it do its thing while I measured the rest of the ingredients.
From there it was just a matter of adding the ingredients per the recipe with stops to scrape down the sides with a spatula and add the violet food coloring. Tip: I wanted a pale lavender cake, so I added about 25 drops of Violet (a.k.a. Incense Purple) food coloring.
The crust finished during the filling prep, and I left it to cool on a wire rack as I finished up. Then I wrapped the pan in foil, poured in the filling, and placed the springform pan into a deep roasting pan.
The oven had cooled down to 325℉ by this time, so I placed the roasting pan inside and added enough water to come about halfway up the sides of the springform pan.
Two and a half hours later and my Honey Lavender Cheesecake was ready to be chilled. Tip: I used foil shaped over an upside down mixing bowl to create a dome so the foil wouldn’t touch the cheesecake. It was a 4-quart bowl with a 10-inch diameter. It wasn’t airtight, but it did the job. I suppose I could have also just used the bowl itself.
The Topping
I left the cheesecake to chill overnight and was pleased that it didn’t sink in the middle (see my Rum Caramel Drizzled Eggnog Cheesecake review for an example of sinking and tips to prevent it). Mixing up the topping was super easy but I must confess that I took my time spreading it onto the cheesecake. It had gone so well that I didn’t want to ruin it at the end (and I didn’t)!
