Birthday Cheesecake

I love love love that my birthday comes in March. It's almost always the beginning of spring, and so I feel rejuvenated, excited, and motivated to really celebrate! Lately we haven't been celebrating much of holidays (like Christmas, V-day) since Roy makes things just a bit different around these parts. But I really wanted a fun birthday "extravaganza" this year (Is that selfish? Probably...) and so I made every effort to really do the things I/we wanted to. This post should be about cheesecake, but I just want to break down my birthday anyway!

Step 1. Go to Tucanos. I wasn't super sure I wanted this to be my birthday meal, since it isn't exactly my favorite (I don't love buffets since my ideal meal involves having leftovers). But Shenli and I both have March birthdays so we get two of the buy1get1 birthday coupons. So we take our friends, and split the check between boys & girls, and we both get a sweet deal of a meal! This time was particularly good for some reason. The meat was super hot and flavorful, we were practically the only people in the restaurant (4:30 is a great time to go!) and Roy was happy the whole time (except when they sang Happy Birthday super loudly to the neighbor table...).

Family picture for March - check!

Step 2. Then right after, go to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Shenli had never been to a chocolate store before, and I had some birthday money, so we stopped in! I got a truffle and Shenli got a pecan caramel cluster. His was SO amazing, we'll probably go back for more of those!

Step 3. Take advantage of every free birthday gift. I've apparently signed up for WAY too many store emails, because I got so many of these this year. I didn't use any of the "must buy to get your free gift" ones, but there were plenty of straight-up free ones! I got a free Krispy Kreme (and then bought a dozen more...), a free jamba juice, free makeup at Ulta, and a free Redbox! That made for a fantastic birthday.

Step 4. Watch a kid movie and eat delicious cheesecake and popcorn. We watched Big Hero 6 (LOVED it) with friends and ate this triple chocolate cheesecake. Oh man, so good. Definitely rich, but a great dessert to share with friends! I used this amazing recipe from Easy Baked. I actually bought ingredients for 3 desserts: key lime pie, lemon bundt cake, and this cheesecake because I wasn't sure what I wanted. And while super chocolate desserts aren't usually my favorite (I LOVE fruit desserts, and my birthday is usually the only time I get to make them), this was a winner for sure. I do think I prefer regular white cheesecakes, but this was too fun to pass up!

I have to say, I think it photographed quite well too, at least before I cut into it