Conversation Heart Cheesecakes

I’m so lucky to be on a great negotiating team at work with people that I really do enjoy spending time with. We’re a great group with lots of opinions and although we don’t always see eye to eye we manage to have a great time together while we’re stuck in a room together for hours on end.  Since we had a holiday and day off before our next negotiating session and the following day was Valentine’s Day I decided to make a tasty treat for all of us.

I searched Pinterest for a cute Valentine’s Day treat that everyone would enjoy. I found these really cute Conversation Heart cheesecakes. I had never made a cheesecake and since I love a challenge and baking I thought it would be a great project.

I had this silicone mold with hearts but figured only making six at a time was going to take way to much time so I went and got these cute individual silicone hearts to use also. First I made a graham cracker crust and then put about 2 tablespoons of the crust in each heart. Then placed them all in the refrigerator while I made the cheesecake filling. 

The filling was super easy to make. I used Tyler Florence’s Ultimate Cheesecake recipe. Then I separated the filling evenly into six bowls and then used food coloring in the usual conversation heart colors.

I then baked them in a water bath for about 45 minutes. Once they came out of the oven I put them in the freezer for 15 minutes and the the refrigerator for an hour. The cheesecakes in the first mold I had (the one with six cavities) did not work out very well at all. When I tried to take them out of the cavities they crumbled. They were way to difficult to get out. The ones in the single molds came out really easy. 

  

In the directions the next step was to use red food coloring to write the usual messages you see on conversation hearts. I did a few but I wasn’t happy with the results. My writing just wasn’t looking like the examples and started to bleed so I left the rest of them plain

I thought all of the plain ones turned out really well. The cheesecake turned out perfect. I had plenty to send with Kelly to work for her coworkers that night and took the rest for the negotiating team to enjoy at lunch. Kelly said they were a huge hit with her coworkers and my coworkers also enjoyed them.

I hate finding things on Pinterest that look so good and easy and then you make them and they are horrible. This is definitely one that I would do again. The only thing I might do next time is pick one color instead of so many. I think it got a little overwhelming and some of the colors didn’t seem very appetizing especially the blue and orange.