i bake all sorts of stuff depending on my mood, but it seems like i'm always coming back to cheesecakes. the base recipe is relatively simple, but lends itself well to countless modifications. and even though i have a tendency to try somewhat bizarre varieties, i'm kind of a cheesecake purist at heart: i really prefer to leave the cheesecake filling alone. you can put chunks of stuff in it, sure, but i don't care for "flavored" cheesecake batter, even chocolate, and i don't like to mess with the fat content.

that said, one of my friends from canada is visiting this week and she has lost an enormous amount of weight. i had no idea what to expect, to be honest, but she looks FAN-freakin'-TASTIC. and she's kind of wearing the clothes that say, yeah, i know i look good! but that's a subject for a different blog :)

so in her honor, i wanted to try my hand at a low-fat cheesecake. hmm, perhaps "low-fat" is a misnomer; how about "lower fat?" i used reduced fat cream cheese, reduced fat sour cream, and replaced most of the sugar with splenda. i was a little concerned that the batter really did look different than my normal cheesecake batter-- a little grainier, a little more wet. i ended up making this into a black forest cheesecake, thinking that perhaps the chocolate would mask a bit of the "diet" flavor.

the result? i like it. it actually turned out very creamy and the flavor is pretty good. i can definitely taste the splenda. and the cheesecake might (MIGHT) actually not be sweet enough, but i dunno. it seemed to go over pretty well. so it turned out to be a fun challenge! nonetheless, i think i'll be back to my ridiculously high fat cookery in the near future :)