10 cheesecakes for a wedding day

It has taken me a little while to post about the great cheesecake-making marathon that took place two days before my sister, Natalie's, wedding. September 22 was the wedding day, I had the best of intentions to blog about it, and we're now in November. But, better late than never. Here is the story. 

I finished out the fire season with steady work nearly all the way up to the time I got on the airplane to head back to Virginia. I put my last load of smokey-smelling, ash-covered nomex into the washer 9pm the night before I left. The next morning I checked a bag full of piping bags, an icing spatula, and various springform pans in with United airlines. The transition was odd, to say the very least... and awesome.

My sister, Chrystie, picked me up at Dulles airport, late on a Wednesday evening, she brought me back to her lovely new house, and she, her husband, Scott, and I chatted just a bit before going to bed. The next morning Chrystie woke me up to take me to the grocery store before she headed off for work so I could spend all day in her kitchen making the wedding cheesecakes.

As it turns out, shopping at 7am for ingredients for 10 cheesecakes requires a good list. This amounted to about half of what I needed, and I had to bribe my visiting friend, Kate (M.F. Elvey!), to drive me back to the grocery store twice for more butter, chocolate, etc.

8 sticks? What was I thinking? My 7am mind is not usually at its sharpest. I needed 12.

And so the day began.

With a whole lot of graham crackers. Photo credit to Chrystie, right before she left for work. This was roughly 11am and I still hadn't finished crushing all the crackers.

Eventually I started blending the fillings of three different cakes. Here I am on the batch of white chocolate. Photo credit to my dear friend, Kate M.F., who stopped by Chrystie's to keep me company while I baked. (Thanks a million, friend. You made the day so special!)

Roughly 7 hours later I was finishing up the last of the cakes. Here pictured is one of the marbled pumpkin chocolate cheesecakes, pulled from the oven. Notice the evening kitchen lighting. My friend Emily was nearly there at this point for dinner so I was trying to rapidly wrap everything up. This picture doesn't really illustrate my stress level at this point. But look at that marbled beauty! I was proud.

 I packed all the cakes into Chrystie's freezer that evening, so I wouldn't have to pack them in coolers for the 2 1/2 hour drive to Harrisonburg the next morning. Frozen cheesecakes do well. They thaw out slowly and beautifully.

Two and a half hours in the car the next morning brought us to the wedding site, and I was informed there wasn't available refrigerator space for the cakes. PANIC. FULL ON.

Adaptation. Full on. Means packing cheesecakes into various hotel mini refrigerators, split between 2 rooms.

The blur is characteristic of the speed Chrystie and I were moving to get these cheesecakes into a nice, cold place the day before the wedding. (Thanks, Chrystie, for helping me with the logistics of cheesecake transport! I believe you and I could work through any problem together now...!)

The day of the wedding, I brought all the partially frozen cakes (temperature control is hard, as it turns out, in hotel refrigerators) to thaw in Natalie's friend, Elizabeth's, kitchen, at the wedding site, Elizabeth's and her sister's beautiful property. Thanks Elizabeth and Claire! You two are magic.

After the ceremony, one of the most beautiful, heart-warming gatherings of good folks I've ever attended, Elizabeth and I headed up to her kitchen to take the cakes out of their springform pans and slice them. Elizabeth is an accomplished pastry chef and was my godsend that day. She showed me how to heat the knives up with a blow torch to make for easy slicing. And to clean the knife after every slice.

Thank you so much, Elizabeth!

Our friends helped us carry the cakes down to the tent. One of Natalie and Kahlil's friends snapped an instagram of the cakes before they were mostly all eaten.

That's three chocolate cheesecakes with chocolate ganache, four white chocolate cheesecakes, and three pumpkin chocolate cheesecakes. I heard folks liked them. Most importantly, I think Natalie and Kahlil liked them. I love you two! Thanks for letting me be involved in your lovely party. I'll make you an anniversary cheesecake yet!

Thanks again to everyone who supported me in this process. It was incredibly fun. Love to you!