Gateau Jeté - Happy Birthday Matt!

So if your springform cheesecake pan is getting deformed and starting to show signs that it might fall apart on you unexpectedly, well I'd suggest that you heed those signs and consider getting a new one. That is not what I did. Instead I just bent it a bit so that the spaces at the bottom where the outer ring was no longer perfectly circular more-or-less matched up the with circular base and proceeded...

All was fine for the initial baking of the crust, but a cheesecake crust is not particularly heavy.

When I then added the filling and proceeded to transfer my creation to the oven, well...

Cheesecake mess all over the oven

...and where I placed the broken pan on the stovetop

The Recovered Cheesecake - now in a smaller sturdier pan

No longer is there a well-defined crust under the base and around the edges of the cheesecake. I think it is partly on the bottom but also distributed as crumbs throughout the middle. We shall see what happens when we slice into it. Here's what it looks like after baking and settling a bit (it was pretty lopsided when it first came out, but that went away):

The Cooked version

It still smells a lot like cheesecake. I still have hopes it will be delicious. And I have attempted chocolate curls (more like little chocolate slabs and flakes in my case) and some raspberry sauce to go with it so we can always just eat the toppings with ice cream if the cake itself is inedible.

I will post the recipe now and you can scroll down to the bottom to see what it looks like when we slice into it later this evening at Matt's birthday dinner.

This recipe is based on the following but with a few modifications: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/deep-dark-chocolate-cheesecake-236209

Ingredients

Crust

• roughly 1.5 - 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs
• roughly 0.5-1 cup of ground nuts (in this case a few almonds and some hazelnuts)
• a little less than 1/2 cup melted butter

Filling

• ~9oz good dark chocolate (I used Callebaut)
• 1kg spreadable cream cheese
• 4 large eggs
• A generous 1/3 cup sugar (since my chocolate was already sweetened)
• 1/4c cocoa powder, sifted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Prepare crust - mix the ingredients together and press into a springform pan lined with parchment paper and greased
3. Bake crust about 8-10 minutes then remove from oven to cool
4. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and set aside to cool (to lukewarm but still spreadable consistency)
5. Beat cream cheese with the cocoa and sugar until well whipped and smooth
6. Add eggs one at a time, beating each one in gently at low speed until just blended
7. Mix in the lukewarm chocolate 
8. Pour the filling in the pan and transfer to oven
9. OPTIONAL: dump a portion of the pan contents into the oven, scrape it up again, and reassemble the cake in another pan. Let oven cool while you clean interior and underneath, finding some of your 19-month-old's toys in the process. Once oven is clean, reheat to 350 and put the reconstructed cake in to bake
10. Bake for about an hour or until centre looks at least close to set (but don't overbake)
11. Remove cheesecake from oven and cool about 5 minutes before using a knife to separate the cheesecake from the edge of the pan (but leave the springform assembled)
12. Let cool slowly to room temperature then refrigerate for a good while before serving (I think slow cooling helps improve the texture and reduce cracks, not that cracks are the largest of my problems here)

Toppings

• you could top with chocolate ganache and chocolate curls as the original recipe calls for...
• or you could do like me and attempt to make some chocolate curls but keep them on the side so that if your cheesecake is a disaster then you can at least eat ice cream with chocolate bits
• in my case I thought it would also be a good idea to have some raspberry sauce at the ready again either to go with the cake or to eat with the ice cream if the cake proves inedible 

The Final Result

Sorry, it was too tasty. No pictures but it was delish. It actually looked more-or-less like a regular cheesecake, but the crust wasn't quite as crusty.