Triple Chocolate Cheesecake // My Camera
Our Germany trip was amazing – except for the very end, where my bag (which contained my passport, wallet, phone, cash, credit cards, driver’s license, and worst of all – my beautiful Nikon D750 DSLR and ALL my lenses) was stolen. I was so angry and devastated, and it took me a very long time before I could write this blog post, which is backdated.
It happened literally as we were heading home. My bag was on the private shuttle to take us from the hotel to the airport. We took on last photo by the shuttle, and within 10 seconds my bag was gone; in hindsight, I realized a man sitting outside the hotel had walked by and was gone. Normally, I don’t carry all my valuables in one place, but that was my bag to handcarry on the plane, and while I had been diligent the entire trip, I thought our empty private tour shuttle was safe.
We spoke to our tour guide for advice, called the Frankfurt police, filed a report (I had no hope of recovery in a foreign country, and they never did find anything). Since I had no passport now, we had to rush to the U.S. embassy for an emergency passport. B of course stayed behind with me in Germany – I’m grateful for him because I had no identification, phone, or money/credit cards to get taxis or pay for the hotel. I was worried we could be stuck days or weeks waiting for the passport, but I got a new one that same day to my surprise. Thankfully the airline kindly bumped us to the next day’s flight when we explained our situation.
While we did make it back to the USA, I’m most bitter about losing my camera and lenses. My brand new Nikon D750 was just 7 months old. My Nikon Germany photos were partially backed up by my brother to his laptop the night before. I also needed a professional camera for a shoot in Nashville, and I had to rush to get new driver’s license as we were in the midst of moving to Philadelphia, so all that was extremely stressful.
As a silver lining, I realized our renter’s insurance actually covered theft, so I was able to get a little bit of coverage. Since I had lost all my Nikon camera gear, this was a fresh start for a new system (DSLR –> mirrorless) , so I splurged on a Sony a7iii and lenses. While I love Nikon and had used it for 10 years, the mirrorless technology is smaller, lighter, and more advanced, so I’m looking forward to playing with it.
Adapted from OMG Chocolate Desserts.
Triple Chocolate Cheesecake
Ingredients
CRUST:
24 Oreo cookies, finely crushed
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
CHEESECAKE
2 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tablespoon cocoa powder
2 eggs, room temperature
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate-chopped
CHOCOLATE TOPPING:
3/4 cup heavy cream
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate-finely chopped
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
DECORATIONS:
Fresh whipped cream
Chocolate (I used Taza chocolate covered hazelnuts)
Directions
CRUST:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 6-inch springform pan.
Mix the crushed Oreos and butter in a bowl. Press crumb mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 6-8 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool
CHEESECAKE:
Melt bittersweet chocolate and set aside to cool. Mix cream cheese and sugar until smooth, mix in cocoa powder Add the eggs one at a time, mixing on low speed. Do not overbeat. Add melted chocolate and mix on low speed to combine.
Pour the filling over the crust and smooth the top. Bake the cheesecake until the edges are soft but center is set (about 1 hour).
Let cheesecake cool to room temperature, then place in refrigerator overnight (or freezer if short on time).
CHOCOLATE TOPPING:
In a medium saucepan stir together cream, chocolate and sugar on low heat until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Let cool. Remove cheesecake from the springform pan and pour the chocolate topping over the chilled cheesecake with a drip pattern along the edges.
DECORATIONS:
Top with whipped cream and decorate with chocolate. Enjoy!
