Guess what month it is? Not only is it October but it's also 💕Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Do you know someone that has been touched by this disease? Unfortunately, I know too many people who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Luckily, those that I know have been treated and are survivors which I'm so grateful for. YAY!!

When Woolwich Dairy contacted me last week to see if I would help spread the word on their fundraising campaign for the Canadian Breast Cancer FoundationI immediately said YES.

They have even manufactured a special Chevrai Raspberry Goat Cheese that is PINK!

I love PINK💕!!

I dreamt about what I could put that beautiful #pinkgoatcheese in and I was stumped. I didn't want to make the standard goat cheese appetizers and quiches so I went with a sweet favourite of mine - CHEESECAKE!

I developed this standard cheesecake recipe and incorporated the goat cheese along with cream cheese to make this yummy decadent dessert.

And as usual I have a story about the making of this cheesecake.

I had a hair appointment booked for 1 p.m. because tonight I'm celebrating a very special lady's birthday who just happens to be a 💕survivor. At 11 a.m. I was standing my kitchen with all the ingredients laid out before me. What I didn't realize was this. Although the cake was ready to go into the oven at 11:49 a.m. it needed  to bake for 70+ minutes. Cheesecakes are normally in for a long time at a low temperature to bake. I also wanted to do a water bath technique for this cake so that it wouldn't crack. Don't you hate when cakes crack? This method is pretty much the way to avoid that. Soooooo .....I put the cake in .....completely didn't do my math and when I looked at the clock it was now 12:40 p.m. and I needed to leave for the hairdresser!

One problem. There was 20 minutes left of baking time on this baby. Here's what I did. My husband walked in (just in time) and was supposed to only stay for 5 minutes. I made him babysit the cake until the timer went off then instructed him to close the heat for the oven and LEAVE THE CAKE inside.

Then I called my friend Eve to confirm that this would be something that wouldn't wreck the cake. She confirmed and said that it would most likely be an ideal scenario to leave it in the warm oven.

Well.

You want the truth? SHE WAS RIGHT!

I came home to find a cheesecake that was done to perfection.

Honestly? I'm thinking this could be the way I make cheesecake from here on in. Book a haircut in between the process and you're all set. On another note, you may notice that the cake is notsopink so I decided to add in a punch of colour to the topping. You wanna know how? I put my crazy hat on and grabbed two jars of mixed coloured sprinkles and non pareils, sat down at my kitchen table with my husband and picked out ALL THE PINK ones from the mix. Nuts right? Well, you gotta do what you gotta do when it comes to making things "Pretty in Pink". When I finally separated the pink ones, I threw them into my mini coffee bean grinder (which my husband said WOULD NOT WORK BUT I LOVE PROVING HIM WRONG) and gave it a good whirly whirl. The result was this awesome pink powder which I used to sprinkle over the cheesecake. STUN..NING!

💕This post and recipe  is dedicated to my awesome friend Francine.

READY? SET? PINK GOAT CHEESE!!

Pink Goat Cheese Cheesecake with Golden Oreo Cookie Crust

For the Crust 24 Golden Oreo cookies - finely crushed ¼ cup unsalted butter - melted For the Filling 1 cup 35% whipping cream, divided 1 pkg (8 oz/250 g) cream cheese, softened 4 pkgs (4 oz/113 g each) Woolwich Dairy Chevrai Raspberry Goat Cheese ¾ cup granulated sugar 2 tbls cornstarch 4 eggs 3 tsps good quality vanilla extract 1 tbls fresh lemon juice Topping 1/4 cup of pink candy sprinkles or non pareils - ground to powder Fresh raspberries for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, grease a 9-inch springform pan, wrap outside of pan with heavy aluminum foil and set aside. Finely crush the cookies in a food processor, add melted butter and blend until it’s all moistened.

Press crumb mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 8 minutes.

Remove from the oven and set on a wire rack to cool while making the filling. For the Filling: In the bowl of your standmixer or a large bowl using an electric mixer, whip 1/2 cup of the whipping cream to stiff peaks; set aside. In a separate large bowl, beat cream cheese and goat cheese until fluffy. Beat in sugar and cornstarch until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until blended. Beat in remaining unwhipped cream, vanilla and lemon juice. Fold in whipped cream.

Pour over baked crust. Reduce temperature to 300°F (150°C). Boil water in a kettle. Prepare a large baking dish for your water bath. Place cake pan in dish and fill 1 inch up the side of pan with hot water. Bake for about 70 min or until centre is almost set. (I let it set in the oven for almost 2 hours to set without the heat on and it came out PERFECT!) Remove from oven and run a knife around edge of pan. Let cool in pan on a rack. Refrigerate until chilled, for at least 6 hours or overnight. Garnish with pink sugar topping and fresh berries if desired.

See ya next week!

debi @simplybeautifuleatingwww.simplybeautifuleating.com