Homemade Cheesecake

I made up this recipe for my husband's birthday just last week. I altered it from a similar recipe that calls for yellow cake mix. Do you know what is in yellow cake mix? Neither do I and that can't be good. So, I decided that if I can make a yellow cake from scratch then I could totally make yellow cake mix from scratch. As I was making this I thought to myself, "If pioneers made cheesecake, this is how they would do it." I often compare my food to pioneer food because it was just so simple and went off of their food storage.

Homemade Cheesecake

2½ cups whole wheat flour
2½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1¾ cups sugar
6 2/3 Tbsp powdered milk (6 Tbsp plus a heaping ½ Tbsp)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
4½ tsp vanilla (divided)
5 Tbsp water
4 large eggs
2 8-ounce packs of cream cheese (NOT Light)
½ cup sugar
1½ cups milk
3 tsp lemon juice


1. Heat oven to 300°F

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, 1 ¾ cups sugar, and powdered milk. Reserve 1 cup. To the remainder add vegetable oil, 1½ tsp vanilla, 1 egg, and water (1 Tbsp at a time, you may need more or less). Mix until just moist and starts to stick together. Press crust evenly on sides and bottom of greased 13” by 9” pan.

3. Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add ½ cup sugar and continue to mix until fully incorporated. Add eggs one at a time being sure to mix well after each addition. Add reserved cake mix. Beat 1 minute on medium speed. At low speed, add milk, lemon juice, and 3 tsp vanilla. Mix until smooth.

4. Pour into crust. Bake at 300°F for 45-55 minutes until center is firm.

5. Allow to cool at room temperature before refrigerating.

Makes 24 servings
4992 total calories (208 Calories per serving)

For the topping, I was going to get cherry pie filling but I couldn't bear the high fructose corn syrup so I decided that I could make my own. Coincidentally, the grocery store had quarts of fresh blueberries so I grabbed one and made my own blueberry sauce based on this recipe. I was not patient enough to cook it on low so I upped the heat to medium-high and after I added the blueberries I boiled them for more like 5-8 minutes so some would pop open and some would still be whole. I let it cool to room temperature and served it at room temperature, which was just perfect against the cool cheesecake.