What are the characteristics of a good cheesecake, in your opinion?

Sara Lee French Cheesecake-yuuuuuuuuum!!

Black Cherry cheesecake. Yum!

Mmmm...cheesecake.

it should be made with mascarpone cheese instead of regular cream cheese.

Smooth, light, flavoured and/or topped, and with a crust.

Depends on the type of cheesecake. An uncooked one should be very smooth, firm but soft, with a soft biscuit base. A cooked cheescake should be slightly gritty, quite fluffy with a slightly more crunchy base (oaty biscuits are best for a savoury one).

But from the options - I think I have a different idea about what a cheesecake is than the SC does. Possibly.

I also love West Riding Tarts (curd tarts) because they are absolutely gorgeous!!!!!

With crust... NO FRUIT!.. I like to buy the Jello No Bake... I take sour cream and mix it with sugar and top it with that...

Dense, with a graham cracker crust, and topped with strawberry glaze and fresh strawberries. There used to be a deli here in Akron, Ohio called Lu & Hy's, and they had the BEST cheesecake I've ever had in my life. The restaurant went out of business a couple years ago, much to my dismay. Then, last year, my aunt brought over this delicious cheesecake that was every bit as good as Lu & Hy's. When I told her that, she said, "It should be. The two former bakers from Lu & Hy's opened a shop out by Timbuktu( a dive bar). They use the original recipe." They have a whole bunch of flavors. The one topped with hot fudge sauce is the bomb!

I'm not really a big cheesecake fan. The ones I do like tend to be smooth and fluffy, plain, and with a crust. My friend's mother makes the best crust--it's pretty much just brown sugar.

FRESH! Cheesecake that has sat around for a while is gross. Sitting around in a refrigerator picking up flavours from other foods...nasty! All natural ingredients, no weird over-processed or additive containing ingredients (like that Sara Lee or JELL-O crap). It should be on the smooth side, although if it is the denser variety, "smooth" isn't really the word to describe it. I have no preference as far as fluffy vs firm. Both can be good. It just isn't cheesecake if it doesn't have a graham cracker crust and some sort of topping. The best cheesecake I've ever had, had a mincemeat topping. It was such a sugar overload you could only eat a really small piece.

New York cheescake is the best! It should be creamy and smooth as silk, firm but light, always with a graham crust, served cold, so rich you can only take a few bites, topped with raspberries and sauce...mmmmm i want some!

Hot sweet and sticky. (ok, cold, sweet, fine, and dense). Little drops of raspberry blood. (or some chocolate).

Cheesecake is not cheesecake without crust. And the crust is a great deal more important than you should think. It is neither sweet nor salty, but with graham crackers ground in it. It is neither soggy or hard, but it is slightly chewy. And it is never thicker than two quarters' width.
Cheesecake never should have the consistency of jelly, over the consistency of tough pudding. The overall taste should be quite tart, and the topping (it always should have a topping) is three times as sweet as the normal human being can stand. Real jam is much more preferable to that lumpy whole-maraschino cherry sauce. Semi-sweet chocolate is good drizzled over it, and almond slices are a must.

smooth, firm, plain and with a crust.

I love New York Cheesecake, but sometimes can't decide between the glories of Plain or the temptations of Lemon. But if offered topped or flavored, I won't say no! However, it has been my experience in restaurants that any cheesecake that isn't plain tends to be inferior cheesecake, especially if they have mixed chocolate or other flavores into the cheesecake instead of topping it. Maybe that's how they mask 'mistakes'?
I dislike a grainy or lumpy cheesecake, but I would love to try the one Biggles mentions, because my tastes have been limited to what I have tried in the USA.

it is firstly required that it be cheesy
secondly it is neccessary for it to be cakey
the tertiary requisite is that it be well liked by the wee folk abroad

One of the baked ones? I can find you a recipe if you're interested It'll be in metric probably but it might be in imperial too. It won't be in cups/spoons etc though. I had a baked cheesecake for my birthday tea

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Cheesecake!!!!!!!!!!

Smooth and dense with a crust and topped. Personally I don't like them too sweet. I like the body of the cheesecake to be a little tart.

Sliver? Sliver?What bone brain came up with that idea?

I LOVE cheesecake!!! It has to be smooth, dense, flavored or topped and with a crust!

mmmmmmmmm smooth,light,with a flavored topping & a graham cracker crust. & an extra tall,ice cold glass of milk

Thanks a lot,I have no cheese cake so,I'll have to resort to making a milk shake.

**goes dowmstairs to whip up a glass of banana milk shake**

I like it, but I try to eat it only in small portions. Cherry compote works best for me as a topping. I'm not a big graham cracker crust fan, but I'll admit it works with a cheesecake.

Cheese cake should go straight from the refrigerator to the trash. Yuck..who cares if its fluffy, smooth, flavored, dense, etc. It's cheese cake and should be treated like the garbage that it is.

You're throwing away a cheesecake?! May I have it, please?

I have only had cheesecake once, so haven't had it enough to have a preference yet.

A good cheesecake, in my opinion, is one that is in my mouth.

Thanks, that would be great! I would love to have a recipe, and don't worry about measurements, I can convert them. But just to let you know, the smooth dense New York cheesecakes we are so fond of here are baked. There is a "no bake" cheesecake made with gelatin, but that's not the New York cheesecake.
However, I am fascinated with the idea of trying the type of cheesecake you describe, so how can I give you my email address privately?

By the way, Happy Birthday!
A Birthday Tea sounds lovely! What all is involved?

Search on '@'. You'll find entries like:

[content deleted for privacy reasons - It was an example of post made containing email addresses.]

I don't get spam by posting my email here, and everyone on SC is cool. You shouldn't, I conclude, worry about posting yours either. Trust god was how I broke the paradigm of fear.

I can just post the recipe here I'll have to find it first! My mum'll know where it is but she's out rght now

My birthday tea was just the Cheesecake with salad and *really* nice hot bread I had a birthday cake too I decorated myself with flowers made from icing.

I am the cheesecake monster! Gosh I havn't had a cheesecake in ages.
Must go to Marks and Spencer!

I had M&S cheesecakes with cream on Friday

I love their little lemon ones in a little pot from the yogurt/mousse section.

I've never had one of those I like the blackcurrant big ones (shared, of course )

light with cherries