Cheesecake Facts for Kids

A slice of cheesecake

German style Cheesecake

Sliced New York Cheesecake

A cheesecake is a yummy dessert that's like a cake. It's usually made with cheese (like cream cheese or ricotta), eggs, and sugar. Often, it has a crunchy graham cracker crumb crust. This crust sometimes uses butter to hold it together.

The inside of a cheesecake is very smooth and thick. Sometimes, sour cream is added to make it easier to shape. Cheesecakes can have fruit flavors like strawberry, blueberry, or lemon. They are often topped with fresh fruit or chocolate.

The Amazing History of Cheesecake
Fun Facts About Cheesecake
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The Amazing History of Cheesecake

Many people think cheesecake is an American dessert. But it actually has a very long history! People started making cheese about 4,000 years ago. Scientists have even found old molds used for cheese.

Cheesecake in Ancient Greece

Cheesecakes were known in Greece a very long time ago. In the 100s AD, a Greek writer named Athenaeus wrote about them. He mentioned that a poet named Callimachus (who lived around 200s BC) had a book about making cheesecakes.

Cheesecake might have even been given to athletes during the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games started way back in 776 BC!

Cheesecake in Ancient Rome

Even before the Romans took over Greece, they were making cheesecakes too. A Roman writer named Cato the Elder wrote about three kinds of cakes around 160 BC. These cakes were called libum, savillum, and placenta.

Placenta cakes were the most like today's cheesecakes. This is because their crust and filling were made separately. These cakes were often used as offerings to the gods.

How Cheesecake Changed in Europe

Around the 1700s, people in Europe stopped using yeast in their cheesecakes. Instead, they started adding beaten eggs. This change made cheesecake taste more like a sweet dessert. Before this, it was more like a cheesebread.

Cheesecake Comes to America

Cheesecake recipes came to the United States when people moved there from Europe. The "New York-style cheesecake" that many people love today came from a recipe created in 1872. A man named William Lawrence in Chester, New York, was trying to make a soft French cheese. Instead, he ended up with a thick, creamy "unripened cheese" that became the basis for modern cheesecake.

Fun Facts About Cheesecake

Did you know there's a restaurant in Stockholm that serves a garlic cheesecake? It's an all-garlic restaurant!

A person named Sonya Thomas holds a world record for eating cheesecake. She ate 11 pounds of cheesecake in just nine minutes! That's a lot of cheesecake!