Blogversary 2019 - Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake

Welcome to my blogversary post! 

7 years and 800 posts, phew!

This time last year I published my 700th post talking about my blogging journey, and I did an additional one to celebrate the Liebster award I got from a fellow blogger.

Here's a short recap:

My first blog post was something I would have used Facebook for, only that I thought it was going to be too lenghty.

It was basically an excuse for buying a designer handbag on a whim. Not completely without real justification, though. 

While working part-time for my husband’s IT business, I had accepted an HR / recruiting consultant assignment and needed the leatherware are to haul huge stacks of paper resumés.

Our son Colin was 3.5 years old and had just transitioned from the airport daycare to a local one. 

He was very passionate about Disney Cars, had watched the movie countless times and considered the characters his friends.

Even though he couldn’t skate back then, he was certainly interested in hockey.

Watched the games on TV and enjoyed the occasional opportunity to meet players at season kick-off events and the like.

I didn’t think about a niche and a target audience for my blog, how many posts a month I wanted to publish - I always liked to write, and I wanted to have some fun while sharing what was on my mind!

Seven years later I find myself in the following situation:

I still work for hubby’s, I sold said (and other) bags and reinvested the proceeds in other purses, some of them second hand. 

Met lovely fellow bag lovers in the process. All in all I have actually been super good about not spending too much on purses.

Instead I invested in acquiring my long time dream car. 

Colin is 10.5 years old, just about to finish fifth grade, he has become a kind and smart young man who enjoys spending time with his school and hockey team mates. 

He likes to read and is interested in all things sports. If I had to predict what he is going to do for a living I’d say sports agent, sports reporter, something along those lines. 

Plus I’m still blogging. Apart from calling myself Part-time working Hockey Mom, I still don’t really have a niche, my main readers are fellow bloggers I met along the way, mainly participating in writing challenges like Karen @ Baking in a Tornado’s monthly Secrect Subject Swap and Use Your Words,(Karen is celebrating 7 years and 800 posts as well, same goes for Dawn @ Spatulas on a Parade - parallel lives!) 
I also like to take part in A ‘lil Hoohaa’s Photo Blogging Challenge and the annual Blogging from A-Z marathon. 

For a while I was hosting my own weekly Top Ten Thursday. Sometimes half a dozen friends would join me, other times, especially towards the end, it was just me.

Recently Blogger and Google+ got a divorce or something. In the process I lost all my comments, which is a bummer. Not sure if the platform changes have anything to do with it, but I also observe a significant drop in page views. Are people getting tired of me? Do I need to change my ways? I know I had to make compromises juggling my precious time, and I haven’t blogged nearly as much as I’d like. Especially the “free posts” about this and that. Basically I keep doing the challenges because they keep my on my toes, and if there’s a deadline, I am committed to keeping it. 

Currently I have quite a few drafts in my folder that I want to work on. So keep your eyes open.

Your turn now! 

Using the linky tool, link up your post about your blogging journey. 

What made you start? Do you have a main theme? How has your writing changed over time?

Can’t wait to read about it.

PS: It has become a tradition to celebrate my blogversary with a yummy cherry treat, so here goes:

Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake

Ingredients Crust
300 g chocolate biscuits
50 g unsalted butter, melted, cooled


Ingredients Cheesecake Batter
200 g dark chocolate
600 g cream cheese
180 g sour cream
140 g granulated sugar
3 teaspoons flour
4 eggs
400 - 500g cherries (I used frozen ones)

Instructions

• Take all dairy products and eggs from the fridge about an hour before you start making your cheesecake so they can come up to room temperature.
• Coat springform pan with aluminium foil.
• In a food processor (or a ziploc bag, pounding a rolling pin) blitz the cookies and the melted butter together, press this mixture into the springform pan and level it. Put in the fridge.
• In the same pan you used to melt the butter, melt the dark chocolate.
• Beat the cream cheese and the sour cream together, add the sugar, then add the melted chocolate.
• Mix in one egg at a time until incorporated.
• Gently add the flour.
• Preheat your oven to 180° C (350°F)
• Let the batter rest for bit, so the air bubbles may escape (the less air in your cheesecake, the less it'll collapse and crack)
• Use the same pan to slightly thaw the cherries. Drain the juice.
• Take the springform pan from the fridge and evenly  place the cherries. Make sure there are cherries all around the edge.
• Pour in the batter and tap the springform pan a couple times again to release air bubbles.
• Bake for about 45 - 50 minutes until the sided and the top are set and the middle still slightly wobbly.
• Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake cool slowly.
• When cooled completely, place in the fridge overnight.
• Decorate with cherries and chocolate sauce.