Gluten Free Rainbow Cheese Cake

After showing her a picture of it, my Girly wanted a Rainbow Cheesecake for her birthday! I used this recipe from Tablespoon.com for my base and changed the crust so it would be safe for Mommy too! I added a few notes & the pictures below are all mine. :)

Crust

2 cups finely crushed Cinnamon Chex Cereal (Gluten Free)

2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons salted butter, softened

Filling
4 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 pinch salt
1 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
4 large eggs
1 each of liquid food colors (blue, yellow, green, red)

 

Directions

 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Before you get started with the crust, make sure your 9 inch springform pan is water tight. Do this by carefully wrapping several layers of foil on the outside of the pan, for when you are baking in the water bath later. 

 

Mix crushed cereal, 2 tablespoons sugar, & the cinnamon together in a bowl. Then mix in butter until crumbs are pea sized. 

Press the cereal mixture into the prepared springform pan. Press it down firmly by using a measuring cup, which makes it easy to get around the edges & keep uniform. You should have an even, flat crust.

Bake the crust for 10 minutes on a low oven rack. Remove from the oven, and cool completely before continuing.  As you can see, I have it resting on a cookie rack. Turn oven temperature down to 325°F.

 

Filling

 

To make the filling, cut cream cheese into pieces and add to a mixing bowl. Whip until smooth, approximately 4 minutes. Then add 1-1/3 cups sugar, and continue to beat until smooth again, another 4-5 minutes. Next, add vanilla, salt, sour cream and heavy cream & beat until smooth. Add in 1 egg at a time, beating briefly between each egg. 

Once the mixture is thoroughly combined and very smooth, divide evenly into 6 dishes. Add food color to each dish to get the desired colors. (Red = 30 drops of red, Orange = 18 drops yellow + 6 drops red, Yellow = 18 drops yellow, Green = 18 drops green, Blue = 25 drops blue, Violet = 18 drops red + 12 drops blue) 

Pour colored mixtures into cooled crust. Start with red filling, and slowly pour it right in the center of the crust. Continue to build the rainbow by pouring the fillings directly in the center. This will create layers so that each slice has some of each color.

Here is Red & Orange

Added yellow

Added blue & green

Place cheesecake into a baking dish on oven rack. Fill baking dish with boiling water about 1 inch up the side of the foil covered springform pan.

Bake at 325°F in the water bath for 1 hour and 40 minutes to 1 hour 50 minutes or until set but still jiggles slightly 2 inches from the edge. If your cheesecake begins to brown on top, cover loosely with foil during last 5 minutes of baking.

When finished, turn off the oven, open the oven door a crack, and let cool in the oven for 1 hour. The slow cooling will help prevent cracking.Then loosely wrap the dish in foil so the foil isn't touching the top of the cake and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours.When ready to remove cake, run a clean narrow knife around the edge of the dish, remove the foil, unlock the spring, and carefully lift off the outer ring. Serve either alone or with a strawberry/raspberry sauce.You can also serve "plain" and just enjoy the colors!

Ready for oven!