Cafe Mocha Cheesecake

My sister aunt and sister are the cheesecake gurus in the family -- "Hi Aunt Donna and Annette". I don't even own a spring form pan and have never made a cheesecake until now. This Mother's Day instead of buying my mom a gift I decided to bake her a dessert. The original recipe was for a Tiramisu cheesecake, but after I made adjustments for the ingredients I forgot at the grocery store, it turned out to be more of a mocha cheese cake instead. It still looked gorgeous, was plenty of yum, no spring form pan needed and most importantly my mom (and dad) thoroughly enjoyed it!

Ingredients
12 oz. box of vanilla wafers
7 teaspoons of instant coffee
4 tablespoons of  hot water
1/4 cup cocoa powder
4 packages (8 oz. each) of softened cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 cup of sour cream
4 eggs
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons of powdered sugar

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325°F.
• Line a 13 x 9 inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over all sides. 
• Spread wafers onto bottom of prepared pan until completely covered. 
• Add 4 teaspoons of coffee granules to 4 tablespoons of hot water and stir until dissolved. 
• Using a pastry or basting brush apply half of the coffee mixture onto wafers in pan. Reserve remaining 2 tablespoons of dissolved coffee for later use.
• Sift 1/3 of cocoa over coffee covered vanilla wafers
• Beat cream cheese, sugar and sour cream in a large bowl with mixer until well blended. 
• Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. 
• Remove 3-1/2 cups batter and place in medium bowl. 
• Dissolve 3 teaspoons of coffee granules in remaining 1 teaspoon hot water and stir into removed batter. Note: this mixture is stronger than the first batch of coffee used to coat the wafers. 
• Spread coffee cream mixture over wafers in pan. Completely cover coffee cream mixture with another layer of vanilla wafers. 
• Brush with remaining dissolved coffee you set aside earlier, sift another 1/3 of the cocoa over the wafers and cover with remaining plain batter.
• Bake 50 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool and refrigerate 3 hours. 
• Use foil handles to lift cheesecake from pan. 
• Add 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar to 1 cup of heavy whipping cream and beat to stiff peaks.
• Spread whipping cream over top of chilled cheesecake and sift remaining 1/3 of cocoa powder on top.

Servings
15 to18 This dessert is very rich dessert and small pieces would suffice, especially after a big meal.

A Broken Oven Tip
My mom topped this mocha cheesecake with fresh strawberries for an added flavor, although I think raspberries would be nice too.