My twenty-first birthday. I finally settled my fairy self down for a moment’s rest after being up and actively doing things since 5:00 in the morning.
02.15.2011 7:00 a.m.
I had the most amazing, magical, sparkling, flowing, tiring, sugary, warm, cold, loving, happy, thankful, magnificent twenty-first birthday anyone could ever hope for…
I woke up at 5:00 in the morning to catch the rising of my sun over the east hill while perched precariously on a frozen (but quickly thawing) waterfall in lower Robert Treman State Park with Lyca and Damaris, and was welcomed at 8:12 a.m. into the twenty-first year of my life by these two amazing people (one who I have known for quite some time; the other I have recently become acquainted with).
We celebrated the earth, the day, the sun, and the warmth with an amazing collaborative photo shoot involving frozen water, pouring water, shoes and socks, fire, sun, dry ice, and cold fingers and frozen toes. The air around us was soft and pleasant, and caressed our bodies as we carefully positioned ourselves on the ice, trying our best not to step through (although we did, and it was cold). We watched the sky change from dark gray to blue, slowly progressing through lighter and lighter hues with each passing moment. The progression of the colors of the sky and earth as a result of the sun’s greatly anticipated arrival was truly magical. When the sun finally broke free and rose over the horizon, we greeted it with upturned faces, smiles, and thanks.
We warmed our toes on the ride home, and decided that cheesecakes (yes, cheesecakes, plural) would be an appropriate breakfast. Since Lyca doesn’t have a coffee grinder, we took the cheesecakes in my picnic basket to Gimme Coffee on Cayuga Street, and sat there eating delicious chocolate currant and vanilla bean cardamom ginger cheesecake and drinking amazing, fresh coffee. One of the women in the coffee shop was staring at our cheesecakes, and we offered her some and found out that it was also her birthday! She kindly declined the offer, which made me a little sad, because I think she would have really liked them!
After the cheesecake picnic at Gimme, I drove Lyca home and went to visit Varya at her apartment, toting my picnic basket upstairs with me. I gave her a slice of each cheesecake (which she was very excited about!) and she shared some of her Limoncello (very delicious citrus liqueur) with me. I offered to drive her to class, which gave us more time to spend together, so we decided to go downtown briefly because I wanted to buy some flowers for friends. We stopped by a beautiful bed & breakfast at the bottom of Buffalo Street because Varya wanted to inquire about reserving rooms for graduation weekend. The inside of the B&B was beautiful, and the woman we talked to was adorable and gave me a piece of cake and chocolates for my birthday (Varya told her it was my birthday; Varya ended up taking the cake and chocolates to studio with her because I couldn’t eat the cake and I had already had my fair dose of sugar for the morning). After visiting the B&B, we went to Bool’s Flower Shop (the flower shop that Ginger Babel lived in for the month of December) where we were the only women in a store filled with men (not counting the ladies arranging the flowers behind the counter). It was hilarious, and we had a great time fluttering from bucket to bucket, choosing the perfect flowers. I bought Hope and Varya each a rose (red for Hope, light pink for Varya), a beautiful purple iris for Karli, and a giant bunch of bright assorted flowers for Laura.
After I drove Varya to studio, I stopped by to visit Laura at work (she works in Rhodes hall on campus), and she was very surprised and happy to receive cheesecake and flowers. I shared my cheesecakes with her officemates, who were also very appreciative.
Once I had played the part of Laura’s personal cheesecake fairy, I took a trip to the Cornell Plantations where I wandered around taking pictures and rang the gong three times in celebration of the day. I sat for a while on the long, curved bench at the top of the hill, looking out at the plantations below. The sky was dark gray and threatening rain, but it was pleasantly warm and calm. After a y feet were soaked again (I changed my boots after the photo shoot because mine were soaked through with ice water), so I stopped home to grab some food, dry socks, and another pair of boots. I then went to 140, distributed more cheesecake, and picked up Karli so we could pay Hope a visit. Hope was all dolled up in her Valentine’s Day best, and looked absolutely adorable. We visited with her for a little while, and afterwards, Karli and I went to a wine store where we encountered an adorable little girl named Saffron, and then wandered aimlessly around the commons until we needed to go take a nap.
Birthday dinner consisted of vegetarian sushi making (we used cucumber, carrots, avocado, and apples) with Karli and Lyca (even though Karli and I were very out of practice at rolling sushi) and was very tasty! It was the perfect dinner to balance the many pieces of cheesecake I had eaten earlier in the day ☺
The cheesecakes I made very tasty, and I personally preferred the vanilla bean/cardamom/ginger/fig jam cheesecake to the chocolate currant cheesecake, but some people liked the chocolate currant one better… different people like different things I guess!
Cardamom vanilla bean fig cheesecake with walnut crust
Crust:
2 cups walnuts
3 teaspoons butter, melted
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
¼ tsp cardamom powder
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp cinnamon
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons molasses
1 jar of fig jam
Cheesecake:
32 oz cream cheese, room temp
4 large eggs, room temp
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 vanilla pod, cut in half and scraped to get the beans
1 teaspoon ginger
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line the bottom of a springform pan with aluminum foil, assemble the pan, and wrap the foil around the outside. Cover the outside of the pan with more foil so that water doesn’t get into the cheesecake when it is cooking in the water bath.
Process the walnuts in a food processor or blender so they turn into a coarse meal. Mix in brown sugar, cardamom powder, ginger, and cinnamon. Add maple syrup, molasses, and butter. Mix until all of the walnut meal is coated with the sticky liquid ingredients (butter, molasses, and maple syrup). Press into the bottom of the springform pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 5-7 minutes. Take out of the oven and carefully spread a layer of fig jam on top of crust.
In a large bowl, combine cream cheese and sugar, and blend until smooth. Add cardamom powder, vanilla beans, and ginger, and then eggs, one at a time, beating with hand-held mixer until smooth. When batter is a uniform consistency, pour into crust.
Bake cheesecake in a water bath (I used a larger skillet filled with water with the springform pan inside of it) for about 1 hour (it took mine a little more than an hour) until it has set. The center will still be a bit wobbly, but will set in the fridge. Remove from oven and let sit in the water bath for a couple of minutes, then remove the cake from the water bath and let sit on counter until cool. Place in a refrigerator over night (or for about 6 hours) to let it set. Once cheesecake has set, remove from fridge and spread jam on top and sides, then eat!
