Carrot Cake Cheesecake

I decided to try to make carrot cake cheesecake tonight. Carrot cake and cheesecake are B's two favorite desserts and he tried this from the Cheesecake Factory once and loved it. I found some copycat recipes for that one online but because of my habitual disregard for recipes, I combined a couple of recipes to come up with my own. I have written out my "recipe" below, except that I also have a habitual disregard for exact measurements so some of them are just estimates. I'll update on whether it was any good once we taste test so don't try this at home quite yet.

NOTE: This is not what my cheesecake looked like. This is an example of what I was hoping to create that I found on the internet. Mine never turn out that pretty but the goal is them to taste good.

Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter


Mix together and press into the bottom of a springform pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes. 

Cheesecake Filling:
18-ish ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
4 eggs
1/4 cup orange juice


Beat cream cheese, sugar and flour at medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in juice.


Carrot Cake Filling:
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2-ish teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4-ish cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
9-ish ounces canned pineapple, lightly pureed in a food processor (left some soft chunks)
3/4 cup steamed and pureed carrots


Mix 1st 4 ingredients, then add dry ingredients, then pineapple and carrots.


Cover the graham cracker crust with carrot cake. Spoon a layer of cheesecake over top. Then spoon a layer of carrot cake on top of that. Cover with cheesecake the best you can. Note that this recipe makes more than what you will need for a 9" springform pan. I also made a smaller cheesecake in a loaf pan by making another small batch of crust and using the leftover filling. Bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees, then 45 minutes at 250 degrees. Turn off the oven and let cheesecake cool for an hour. Remove from oven and let set until completely cooled. Then refrigerate.

Topping:
4 ounces cream cheese
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Beat cream cheese and juice until well blended. Gradually add powdered sugar, mixing until well blended. Spread over top of cheesecake.


Update: This recipe tasted great. I think I can do better though. I have better cheesecake and cream cheese icing recipes that I will use. And I am going to be experimenting with carrot cake to find a recipe that I really like. This one tasted good but it had more of a consistency of pumpkin pie filling than carrot cake because of the pureed carrots. I have a pretty decent recipe but it has actual shredded carrots and coconut and I don't like the texture of those things in my cake.