Aunt Edna's Cheesecake

from the horse and buggy to airplanes

My paternal grandmother and my Great-Aunt Edna were born in the days of the horse and buggy in a farming community in upstate New York. Their father died when they were very young and they each had to leave home at an early age to earn a living; my grandmother initially worked in a shirt collar sweatshop in Troy, N.Y. and my great-aunt was a home healthcare provider somewhere in New Jersey. While working in New Jersey Aunt Edna met the man who would become her husband, my Uncle Charles who emigrated from France in 1912, all on his own, at the tender age of sixteen. As a child, Uncle Charles had wanted to become a doctor, but when the Wright Brothers came to France in 1908 the direction of his life changed. As he states in his handwritten memoir, “The sight of all these strange looking flying machines and the ease of their flight regime…..made me forget my medical vocation.” He studied engineering at the Ecole Diderot in Paris, graduating two years ahead of schedule, and worked briefly for the Farman Aeroplane Company experiencing flight for himself in 1912.

Even though the aviation industry was very advanced at that time in France, Uncle Charles decided that the opportunities were potentially greater in the United States. He had an aunt in Chicago willing to sponsor his voyage. He spoke no English other than “yes” and “no” as he boarded a steamship from Le Havre to New York with train tickets to continue to Chicago. He traveled with very few personal effects but did take along his grandfather’s gold pocket watch that is still in the family. He later recalled seeing the Woolworth Tower, the tallest building on the skyline, and paying one dollar for a “carton containing sandwiches, fruits, and various desserts” as he went through Ellis Island that was meant to last for several days.

Uncle Charles ultimately wound up as vice-president of engineering at the now defunct Eastern Airlines commuting from New Jersey to their offices at 10 Rockefeller Plaza working under the WWI flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker. All of this has come to mind of late as we just donated his papers to the library at Stanford University. Hopefully, he would feel pride that his lifelong passion would be preserved in this way.

I can remember my brother and I playing Monopoly with Uncle Charles on Christmas day and how he would try to coax me to speak my schoolgirl French with him. Aunt Edna was known for her baking and attempts to control her husband's sweet tooth. When he would reach for a second slice of pie I can still hear her saying, “You know Charles, tomorrow is another day.” My mother would make Aunt Edna’s cheesecake and bake it in an angel food cake pan. I considered purchasing the appropriate springform pan but decided to make it as my mother had. Uncle Charles may be remembered for the patents he filed, but Aunt Edna is remembered for her fluffy cheesecake.

Recipe

Ingredients for Filling

16 oz cream cheese

1 c. granulated sugar

2 T. flour

pinch of salt

4 eggs

1 c. heavy cream

1 T. vanilla

Ingredients for Crust

6 Graham crackers, crushed

3 T. melted butter

Directions

Allow cream cheese to come to room temperature.

Combine melted butter and graham cracker crumbs. Press into the bottom of an angel food cake pan.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream the sugar and the cream cheese together in a large bowl. Separate the eggs. Beat the yolks with a fork and add to the cream cheese mixture along with the flour, salt, cream, and vanilla. Beat the egg whites until they are stiff. Fold the egg whites into the cream cheese mixture. Pour into the pan with the graham crust bottom.

Bake for one hour on the middle rack. Turn off the oven. Leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door open until it cools. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours. To remove the cake from the sides of the pan, picture an angel food cake with the two separate parts. Run a knife around the outer edge of the cheesecake. Use the tube in the middle of the angel food cake pan to lift the cheesecake and the base of the pan away from the sides of the pan. Your cheesecake will remain on the base.

Note: I was too stubborn to purchase a springform pan for a recipe that I make infrequently, but it is probably a good idea for the best results.

Thanks for reading, liking, commenting, and sharing!

Vicki