For many, a cheesecake is the ultimate dessert. It is smooth, creamy and can even be flavored in a variety of different ways to appeal to almost every palate. The cake can also be dressed up to make a better presentation. For example, it can be tie-dyed for a groovy retro look or, like Suyin's mini cheesecake above, it can be made into a bullseye. The target pattern is made by layering different colors of batter in the pan before baking. Suyin used food coloring to tint her cake, but a more common method is to use chocolate and vanilla batters. Read on for more pictures.
This is the top view of the cheesecake that first turned me on to the concept of a bullseye cake. It was made by Lori of Dessert Comes First. Her cheesecake recipe is rumored to be the best on the planet and, having tasted it, it is not much of an exaggeration. You can see in the photo below how the layers of batter "magically" rise up to create the bullseye.
When I made Lori's cheesecake recipe, I intended to do the bullseye pattern, too, but I ended up stirring the chocolate and vanilla batters together to make a marbled cheesecake (below). It still tasted great, but the visual effect wasn't as show-stopping as the target cake. Since there is no special technique involved beyond tinting the batters, try doing the bullseye yourself the next time you're baking a cheesecake. It is sure to get rave reviews and will probably get talked about at family gatherings for the next several years.
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