Although cheesecake may seem like a very modern, chi-chi dish, its name dates all the way back to the mid fifteenth century; much more recent—the 1930s—is the use of cheesecake as a slang term for an attractive or “scrumptious” woman, as a synonym, in other words, for gender labels used throughout the 1920s: dame, frail, skirt, Jane, wren, broad. In the late 1940s, a surge in the number of manly chests bared on American movie screens prompted the invention of beefcake, a generic name for the “hunky” leading men who thwarted cinematic Nazis and hoodlums, thereby safeguarding the film’s imperilled cheesecake.
This confectionery rarity is a dessert that incorporates cheese, an uncommon addition to sweet treats. The cake is composed of a batter that includes cottage cheese, and is crowned with a crumb topping featuring a blend of zwieback, cinnamon, sugar, and butter. The cake’s tender and moist consistency, along with its fine texture, are brought about by an extensive beating process and the final step of pushing the batter through a fine sieve.
Cheesecake traditionally refers to a baked dessert made by combining soft cheese, eggs, and sugar in a pastry case. However, this term now encompasses a wide range of recipes that invariably include a soft cheese in the filling. The dessert typically consists of a base of pastry, graham cracker crumbs, or sponge cake, with a topping of fruit, nuts, or another layer of the base. Chilled cheesecakes, which are typically set with gelatin and have a light texture, are also popular. European-style cheesecakes, on the other hand, have a rich, creamy, smooth texture that is often balanced out by the tartness of a fruit topping. Both types of cheesecake are suitable for freezing.