Carrot Cake Cheesecake

I love carrot cake, and I usually hate (for the most part) cheesecake. The combination of the carrot cake and cheesecake works well together because usually you see cream cheese with carrot muffins, cream cheese frosting on carrot cake, so why not cheesecake with carrot cake? This was a big hit at Easter, and if you don't have a large quantity of people that you are serving, it freezes really well. Many recipes that combine a cheesecake with a cake often frost the entire thing. In my opinion, everything is so sweet already that I don't think frosting the whole thing would add anything that would otherwise feel like it was missing. If you needed to decorate it for a birthday or special occasion, however, it would always look nice with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting on just the top of the cake, and a decoration piped out.

Cheesecake Ingredients:

2 blocks (116 oz.) cream cheese
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. sour cream, lite

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 inch springform pan with baking spray with flour, and set aside. In an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugar, eggs and flour together until smooth. Add in the vanilla and sour cream and stir by hand. Set aside.

Carrot Cake Ingredients:

3/4 c. oil (veggie)
1/3 c. brown sugar
2/3 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
2 large carrots, grated

In an electric mixer, mix together the oil and sugars together until smooth. Add in the eggs and vanilla and stir to incorporate. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients until just combined, and add in the grated carrots.

Spread half of the carrot cake batter in the bottom of the prepared pan. Dollop half of the cheesecake batter on top (do not spread!). Dollop the rest of the carrot cake batter on top of the cheesecake batter. Spread the remaining cheesecake batter on top with a spatula to even the top layer out. Pat down the cheesecake to remove all of the air bubbles.

Bake for 70-75 minutes until the edges are golden brown and the middle slightly springs back when you lightly press down. Let cool in the pan before removing the springform edges and serving.