40 Fun Facts About Cheesecake

Which human organ is named after an early Roman cheesecake made of layered dough, cheese and honey?

The placenta was named for its flat, round shape, which was thought to resemble the cake. The Roman recipe stacked many layers of dough with cheese and covered the baked result in honey.

Which 1980s sitcom's four Miami housemates talked through problems over cheesecake at the kitchen table?

The Golden Girls made the late-night cheesecake summit a ritual, and each of its four lead actresses won a Primetime Emmy for the show.

The best-known cream cheese for cheesecake was first made in Chester, New York, but carries which city's name?

Philadelphia was chosen in 1880 purely as marketing, because the city and the farms around it had a reputation for rich, high-quality dairy.

In which sitcom does aspiring actress Penny wait tables at The Cheesecake Factory until the seventh season?

The Big Bang Theory had Penny quit the restaurant to chase acting full time, though she had also trained as a bartender back in the first season.

The Sara Lee dessert brand began with a cream cheesecake that baker Charles Lubin named after which relative?

His daughter Sara Lee Lubin was eight when her name went on the cake, and the whole business was soon renamed Kitchens of Sara Lee.

Which country's soufflé-style cheesecake was inspired by a chef's taste of käsekuchen in 1960s Berlin?

Japan's version, also called cotton cheesecake, gets its airy texture from whipping the egg whites and yolks separately.

Cheesecake is reputed to have been served to athletes at which ancient Greek event, first held in 776 BC?

The Olympic Games story is tradition rather than proof, but Greek poets of the 4th century BC did describe plakous, a cake of goat cheese, wheat flour and honey.

If pin-up photos of women are known in slang as cheesecake, which word describes glamour shots of muscular men?

Beefcake is believed to have been coined by Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky, and for decades such poses by actors were far rarer than pin-up layouts of actresses.

In a seventh-season Friends episode, which two characters get hooked on cheesecakes delivered for another tenant?

Rachel and Chandler share the episode with Phoebe juggling two dinner dates and Monica turning up uninvited at a cousin's wedding.

Which piece of bakeware, with latched sides that lift away from the base, is the usual choice for cheesecake?

A springform pan lets the ring come away without the cake being turned out, which suits desserts with a delicate crumb base.

Which fresh whey cheese fills Italy's baked crostata cheesecake and is layered into Sicilian cassata?

Ricotta has been made on the Italian peninsula since the Bronze Age, from the whey left over when other cheeses are produced.

Junior's, founded by Harry Rosen in 1950 and famous for its cheesecake, began in which New York City borough?

Brooklyn loved the place enough that when it caught fire in 1981, a crowd watching the firefighters chanted for the cheesecake to be saved.

Which snack, inspired by a temperance minister's preaching, is crushed for the classic US cheesecake crust?

Graham crackers trace back to Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian minister who championed whole-grain bread and a vegetarian diet.

Ashkenazi Jews traditionally eat cheesecake on which holiday, which marks the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai?

Shavuot is a dairy holiday, and one rabbinic explanation is that the newly given kosher laws left the Israelites' meat pots unfit for use, so they ate dairy instead.

The crustless burnt Basque cheesecake was created by Santiago Rivera at his bar La Viña in which Spanish city?

San Sebastián's cake is baked very hot so the top caramelises while the centre stays custard-like, and locals seldom use the word burnt for it.

Germany's Käsekuchen is traditionally made with which soured fresh dairy product in place of cream cheese?

Quark is made by souring milk with bacterial cultures and straining it, and a firmer type sold as layer cheese is often used for baking.

Which setting agent firms up no-bake cheesecakes, including the South African version flavored with Amarula liqueur?

Gelatin sets the filling of whipped cream and cream cheese in the fridge, while Amarula adds the fruit of the African marula tree, also known as the elephant tree.

Which Broadway musical praises the cheesecake at Mindy's, a stand-in for the real New York restaurant Lindy's?

Guys and Dolls drew on the stories of Damon Runyon, a devoted regular who wrote the Broadway restaurant into his fiction under the altered name.

David Overton opened the first Cheesecake Factory restaurant in 1978 in which upscale Southern California city?

Beverly Hills got a small salad-and-sandwich shop with ten cheesecakes on a one-page menu, built on a recipe his mother Evelyn had found in a Detroit newspaper.

Ostkaka, a crustless cheesecake eaten lukewarm with jam and cream, is a traditional dessert of which Nordic country?

Sweden's ostkaka is curdled with rennet, and the style made in the Hälsingland region is firm enough to be compared with halloumi.

Sernik, a baked cheesecake made with the curd cheese twaróg since the 17th century, comes from which country?

Poland's sernik takes its name from ser, the Polish word for cheese, and the Kraków style is finished with a pastry lattice on top.

Which country's best-known cheesecake gets its vivid purple color from ube halaya, a jam of mashed yam?

In the Philippines the yam jam is layered with cream cheese over a crushed-crumb base, and the cake can be baked or simply chilled until it sets.

Which French-named kitchen technique, credited to an ancient alchemist, helps stop a baking cheesecake from cracking?

A bain-marie heats the batter gently and evenly, and its name means Mary's bath, after the alchemist Mary the Jewess, who was credited with inventing it.

Eli's Cheesecake began in the late 1970s as the signature dessert of a celebrity-filled steakhouse in which US city?

Chicago's first Taste of Chicago festival in 1980 put the cake on show, and Eli's later baked 2,000-pound cheesecakes for both of Bill Clinton's inaugurations.

Which British teatime staple, developed by two Scottish doctors in 1839, is crushed to make many cheesecake bases?

Digestive biscuits were named for the belief that their sodium bicarbonate worked as an antacid, and chemists once sold them alongside indigestion powder.

Ancient Greeks offered the amphiphon, a cheesecake set with lighted candles, to which goddess at full moon?

Artemis received the candle-lit cake in the month of Mounychion, one of many cakes that Greeks offered to their gods as a bloodless alternative to animal sacrifice.

Which British food writer's recipe, served with a licorice sauce, helped make Basque cheesecake a hit in Britain?

Nigella Lawson borrowed the licorice sauce from Spanish chef Nieves Barragán Mohacho, and by 2021 the cake was being described as ubiquitous in the UK.

William Lawrence developed American cream cheese, the cheesecake staple, while trying to recreate which French cheese?

Neufchâtel is one of the oldest cheeses in France and is often sold in heart shapes, but the extra cream Lawrence added made something richer and more spreadable.

The family recipe behind the famous Junior's cheesecake of New York calls for which base in place of a crumb crust?

Sponge cake sits under the filling in a recipe that had been in the Rosen family for three generations before a master baker helped refine it.

Which Roman statesman wrote down a recipe for libum, a cheesecake offered to the gods, in his farming manual?

Cato the Elder left the only recipe for the cake to survive from antiquity, a simple mix of flour and cheese curds. Its name comes from the Latin for making an offering.

Sambocade, a curd cheesecake in the 1390 English cookbook The Forme of Cury, is flavored with which blossom?

Elderflower went into a filling of strained curds, breadcrumbs, sugar and eggs, and rosewater was drizzled over the top once the tart had baked.

Which country sent a song called Cheesecake, performed by the singer Teo, to the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest?

Belarus qualified from its semi-final with the song and went on to finish sixteenth of the 26 countries in the final.

Which American rock band included a track titled Cheese Cake on the 1979 album Night in the Ruts?

Aerosmith made the album in turmoil: guitarist Joe Perry quit the band partway through recording, though his parts for the song were already on tape.

Fiadone, a crustless lemon cheesecake made with the fresh cheese brocciu, comes from which Mediterranean island?

Corsica bakes it with no base at all and serves it cold, while mainland Italy uses the same name for baked cheese-filled pastries shaped like half-moon ravioli.

Flaó, a cheesecake from the Spanish island of Ibiza, is scented with aniseed and the leaves of which herb?

Mint perfumes a filling of sheep or goat curd cheese, eggs and sugar, and the cake is old enough to appear in Ramon Llull's 1283 book Blanquerna.

Which fish stars in a savory cheesecake that is most often served as an appetizer or buffet dish?

Smoked salmon cheesecake was a prize winner in the Better Homes and Gardens recipe contest in 1996, in a version that paired the fish with two kinds of cheese.

Maids of honour, English curd tarts closely related to cheesecake, are said to date back to which king's reign?

Henry VIII is said to have demanded a taste after seeing the queen's maids of honour eating them, while another story has Anne Boleyn baking them for him.

Which New York senator admitted in 2020 to spending $8,600 on Junior's cheesecakes over a decade of purchases?

Chuck Schumer called the cakes his guilty pleasure after the spending surfaced in his campaign finance filings, saying he had loved them since boyhood.

Which restaurateur, also linked to a famous corned beef sandwich, claimed credit for New York-style cheesecake?

Arnold Reuben said he invented the recipe in 1928 at the deli where he named sandwiches after celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

Which food company gained a best-selling cream cheese brand, a cheesecake staple, by merging with Phenix Cheese in 1928?

Kraft and Phenix became the Kraft-Phenix Cheese Company, taking on a brand that had first been sold in foil-wrapped blocks back in 1880.