Weddings are a hectic time. Between picking out invitations, flower arrangements, music entertainment and catering, it’s no wonder wedding planning can cause future newly-weds a lot of stress and sleep loss. But like anything, getting things in order early will go a long way when the big day finally arrives. If you’ve opted to serve cheesecake at your wedding, congrats! Cheesecake is not only delicious, it’s an incredibly versatile treat that can come in many shapes and sizes. Here are a few different ways you and your guests can enjoy cheesecake at your wedding:

Cheesecake Wedding Cake
If you simply prefer cheesecake over regular cake but want to keep things traditional, why not serve a cheesecake wedding cake? Cheesecake takes wedding cakes to the next level, offering guests a tasty treat with a distinct edge. For a particularly yummy dessert, opt for a cheesecake topped with cream cheese frosting. This will make the cake appear just like a traditional wedding cake, but your guests will love its unique flavor.

Cheesecake Toppings Bar
Everyone has different tastes, and they should be celebrated! If you’d like to give your treasured guests more control over their desserts, along with a memorable experience to top off the day, try serving plain cheesecakes with a toppings bar. That way, they can choose from different sauces (hot fudge, strawberry syrup and blueberry compote are always crowd favorites) and toppings (such as chocolate chips, nuts, cookie crumbs and assorted fruit). Your guests will love it!

Mini Cheesecakes
If you’d like to serve cheesecake in addition to the main dessert, mini cheesecakes are a wonderful option! The smaller portion sizes make them much easier to serve, and they make for a tasty complement to a more traditional wedding cake. They don’t need to be cut into slices and can be made in many different flavors for guests to pick and choose their favorites.

Cheesecake Pops
A growing trend we love to see is cheesecake pops at weddings! Cheesecake pops not only make for a cute and unique dessert on your big day, they can also be passed out as party favors. They’re made from sticking lollipop stocks in mini cheesecakes, before being completely dipped in melted chocolate. After cooling, they should be kept refrigerated before being served or given out to guests. If not offered as the main dessert, cheesecake pops can also be an easy and fun way to give your guests a snack at the end of the night, to restore their energy after all the dancing!

Though cheesecake’s been around for a while, its popularity as a wedding treat has only recently taken off. If you’re planning on serving it at yours, try one of these ideas and you won’t be disappointed!

So Thursday started just like most weekdays, getting set up and doing our Cheesecake Baking and building our Costco orders. That would change in the early afternoon. First some background. Over the past 12 years I have made a lot of friends here at Charlie’s Cheesecake Works, one in particular was Joe. Didn’t ever ask his last name. Joe was a casual customer from the beginning, he would stop in on the weekends or late afternoons and we would just chat. I learned that he was a WWII vet. That made him around the same vintage as my dad who passed in 1999. I learned that Joe had several kids, in particular one son who he seemed to talk about a little more than the others. One day I commented that I had just finished reading a book, as part of my Men’s Group, Called “Wild at Heart”; I commented that it embodied a lot of the values that my Grandparents had taught me. I commented that it would be a good read for some of the younger men. Joe asked if he could borrow the book when I was done.
A couple weeks later he showed up and I gave him the Book, he said he might pass it along to his son if that was ok. I said sure, just see that I get it back some day.

Back to Thursday. It is early afternoon and a petite silver haired woman comes into the store, i ask if i can help her. I can tell that she is having a tough time; I can see it in her eyes. She asks if I am Charlie? Yes I said, her next comment took me by total surprise. She said, ” I am Joe’s wife Margaret, and I am returning your book, Joe passed away recently. I was not sure how to respond. I asked how it happened and got the short chronology of the past 3 or so months. He had gone downhill pretty fast from nursing home to hospice to the end
Then she said something that really shook me to the core, I don’t know what I am going to do without Joe” I have nothing left to live for…. at that point i took her hand and asked about the kids, she said she had several Sons, one living with her and the others spread around. I said, Margaret let me tell you about my Mom….She was married to my Step Dad Hal for over 40 years, his last years were pretty tough, and Dementia is pretty ugly. Mom would not let Hal go into a home; she kept him with her til the end. I know that when he passed 9 years ago she felt just like you do. But look at this picture here on the side of my Freezer, that is my Mom (88 Years Young) and My 2 grand kids, 11 and 15. Mom has been a Dodger Baseball fan since she was a Teenager, and my Grand kids just love to play baseball 24-7, they are Giants Fans. Every weekend my grand Kids call my Mom and the talk Baseball, Little league, Travel Ball or the big leagues.

Margaret i said you have a lot to live for…. just look around, you have kids and grand kids, they all need you to be the Matriarch of the family. A frail smile came to her face, I then gave her a pack of Cheesecake Poppers, and my Phone number and told her she could call me any time she wanted. As I walked her out I noticed she seemed a little brighter than when she arrived.

Hard to imaging this all came from just loaning a book to a friend. I am sure Margaret will be just fine, just like my Mom has been over the past 9 years; she will find that there are a lot of reasons to hang around a lot longer…

Yelp Post from Lauren C.
SOLD AT FIRST BITE! Charlie’s Cheesecake is absolutely delicious! The owner Charlie is too precious, not only does he make all the cheesecake, but he is the front man of his shop! When we first walked in, immediately we mentioned we were new and found him on yelp, so right away he handed us samples to try! The blueberry popper was perfect, small light and just sweet enough where you crave more! The vanilla was similar to a classic cheesecake and was just as awesome! Without hesitation we bought a 12-pack for $10 (yelp discount) and we were on our merry way promising we would be back for more!

A must try in the south San Jose area!

I don’t know about you, but for me butter makes almost anything better. Recently i was introduced by Paulina to Browned Butter. Wow what a difference using Browned butter makes. There is a sweet caramel taste to the butter, you can even just smell the difference. So, here’s what you can do with it.

You can use it instead of plain butter for breakfast on your toast or in your Oatmeal, for lunch on your PB and J sandwich, and for dinner it is awsome on your veggies and steak.

Let us know where you used your browned Butter

This is my first attempt at Blogging, so I thought it would be good to start with what is happening with us here at Charlie’s Cheesecake Works, (The Works). The Fall equinox signals the beginning of the holiday season and the beginning for our Pumpkin Cheesecake. Our first batch came out on Monday the 22nd of Sept. We think it is pretty awsome. Starting next week we will be sending pumpkin in our PopperTM mixes to all of our customers, wholesale and retail. Pumpkin will be with us until the end of the year…who doesn’t remember the smell of home baked Pumpkin pie at Grandmas house at Thanksgiving?

If you have questions for us here at The Works just blog us back and we will answer to the best of our ability.

I also will include copies of some of our awsome and interesting reviews from Yelp, Square, google and others with each blog post

A recent Yelp Review from Valerie,

“Over decades woman and men (don’t discriminate) lived with the concept that flowers and chocolate will mend that broken heart or somehow find it acceptable to give as a gift for every birthday and holiday and then you magically have mind blowing sex at the end of the night. Well I have news for you Charlies Cheesecakes Works flipped the script on the game.

Strawberry, Chocolate, Key lime and 35 plus more delicious flavors these cheesecake poppers put those chocolate boxes to shame. They have assortments from 12-35 pieces. You don’t need a club to be popping these. Pop them at home, at the park or even in your bathtub! Not in the mood to pop it like its hot then they have whole cheesecakes for sale too! My personal favorite it the sample packs then you get a taste of the different flavors instead of the difficult decision of choosing just one. Just a note these are addicting but it is a addiction I am cool with!”

Thanks,

Charlie

Charlie’s Cheesecakes are handmade in our San Jose, CA bakery using All Natural Real California Cream Cheese. We offer 40 distinctive flavors including seasonal favorites, our 9″ Cheesecake serves 16. Charlie’s Poppers, the great anytime desserts are available in packs of 6, 12, 35, and 105.