Now that we have our main courses all set to go for St. Patty’s day, we needed a dessert. After searching through many recipes I didn’t find anything as far as authentic Irish desserts that I wanted for our party. I needed something familiar to the crowd but with an Irish twist. So I started looking up cheesecakes.

Now I have never been a big cheesecake eater or cooker so I had to make up some test batches with quite a few recipes and really I wasn’t satisfied with any of them. Finally I took a bit from this recipe and that recipe and just added my own ideas into it and came out with some of the best cheesecake I ever had.

I always noticed that cheesecake many times can be dry, or heavy or both. This recipe makes a light, smooth textured cake that any cheese lover will devour.

Crust:

• 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs (just crush some graham crackers finely).
• 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted.
• 3 tablespoons of sugar.

Cake:

• 32 ounces of warm (softened) cream cheese (4 8 ounce packages).
• 1 cup of sugar.
• 3 tablespoons flour.
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.
• 1/4 cup Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur.
• 4 eggs.
• 3/4 cup sour cream.
• 4 tablespoons strawberry preserves.

Topping:

• 1/4 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips.
• 1/8 cup Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur.
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 325.

Stir together the crust ingredients and press down on a greased spring-form pan. Make sure the crust is even to keep the cake from cracking. Cook for 10 minutes. While your waiting, prepare the cake ingredients. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool. Lower oven temp to 300.

With a mixer beat together the cream cheese, sugar, and flour until pretty smooth. Add vanilla and Baileys until just blended. Add each egg, one at a time to the mix until just blended (don’t over blend).

Add the sour cream until just blended.

Make sure there are no lumps or separated ingredients in the mixture and then pour 3/4 of it into the spring-form pan with the crust. Drop the tablespoons of strawberries evenly around the batter leaving at least an inch from the side of the pan. Using a knife, make swirls of the berries throughout the cake. Pour the remaining mixture on top.

Cook for 1 hour at 300 degrees.

Turn off the oven and let the cake remain in the oven for 15-20 minutes and then place on a wire rack. Using a knife, gently separate the pie from the sides of the pan. Let cool completely.

Cover pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 10 hours. The cake will taste best if refrigerated for 24 hours.

After the cake is cooled, make the topping.

Melt the chips in a small bowl in the microwave. This should take no more than two minutes. Start with a minute, stir with a spoon and then 15 second intervals afterwards.

Once melted, add the Baileys and the sugar. Stir strongly until combined and thickened. If you want a thicker topping, try adding a little more sugar.

Remove the side of the spring-form pan.

Take a plain plastic sandwich baggy and place the mixture inside. Using a pair of scissors, cut the corner of the bag. This should be a very small cut. You can now drizzle this mixture all over the cake by squeezing the mixture through the cut hole, and it is ready to serve!