Last week we took Babydoll to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner in honor of her first A/B Honor roll of the school year. I was unable to attend the Honors ceremony for this nine weeks because of work so I promised her dinner on Friday to celebrate.

It was a decent meal, I ordered the wrong thing because I was trying to prove to Stan that it was possible to have this item on their menu and it be good. It wasn’t…hence the reason why I say I ordered the wrong thing. However, our appetizers were awesome – Babydoll loves calamari and we also ordered the Sweet Corn Tamale Cakes (a real winner there). Babydoll decided on the buttered pasta but was disappointed to get bowtie pasta instead of angel hair, but we sent it back for the right one.

The purpose of this quick blog is to tell you about their cheesecakes. Many years ago (I think this was pre-Babydoll because she wasn’t with us or maybe we had a babysitter.), Stan and I came to Cheesecake Factory for dinner and when it came time for dessert, I looked over the vast selection of cheesecakes and couldn’t find anything that I wanted to order. See, I wanted some cheesecake and I wanted some chocolate cake. When our server came back to the table and asked if we had made our choice, I asked her if there was anything in the restaurant that would satisfy my craving. I wanted chocolate cake and cheesecake at the same time. They had nothing. I left the restaurant that night without any dessert for the first time since I had begun going there (I first had it when I went to DC for college, a long time ago).

On the drive home that night, I sat in the car and devised how to get my chocolate cake and cheesecake at the same time. I discussed it with Stan and tried it out the next weekend. It worked! I served it to my girlfriends at my dinner party that December and it was a huge hit. My first cake was a vanilla bean cheesecake with a chocolate, almond cake crust. My “fusion cheesecakes” were born that holiday season out of a need that I couldn’t find at the Cheesecake Factory.

In subsequent years, I have made many versions of this fusion cheesecake – lemon, strawberry, chocolate, plain vanilla, red velvet and whatever anyone request. So imagine my surprise, last week when I look at the cheesecake menu and I see not one, but about a half dozen cheesecakes that now have some type of cake layer in them!!!!! We haven’t been to the Cheesecake Factory in a couple of years, because 1) the wait is always ridiculous and 2) I’ve learned to make such an awesome cheesecake I don’t feel the need to go there for dessert. The one thing that is on their menu that has me coming back again and again is their Crusted Chicken Romano – and you have to get it with a white sauce (Alfredo) and not the red. That is something I haven’t been able to duplicate yet (and to think that I didn’t order it this time because I was wanted to prove a point…God what a mistake).

Back to my angst….should I be upset that what used to be one of my signature desserts is now being served at the Cheesecake Factory? The process of how it’s put together differs, but should I feel like I’ve been ripped off? Mind you, they’ve probably never heard of me and my fusion cheesecakes, but I don’t have the luxury of saying that it was mine anymore. If I told you I came up with this years before them would you believe me? It made me a little sad….

But I ordered the 30^th Anniversary cheesecake because it had the cheesecake and chocolate cake combination that I wanted all those years ago that they didn’t have. I took it home and looked at it for 20 minutes (the next day, I was too tired to eat it that night and it was really late. I did mention the wait at that place is ridiculous) then I finally ate it. It was really good.

Have you been to the Cheesecake Factory and had any of the cheesecakes with the cake inside?

HEY…as an afterthought I remember when I came up with my fusion cheesecake idea, I was pregnant with Babydoll. That’s where the crazy craving came from. MY PREGNANCY!!!