Baking & the Big Screen: Cheesecake & The Dilemma
For the first time in a little bit, I had to reverse engineer my baking/movie pairing and ended up spending way too much time googling “movie with cheesecake in it.” Thankfully, somehow, my friend managed to find this Vince Vaughn/Kevin James comedy (directed by Ron Howard?!) that featured a cheesecake in a singular scene as some potential comfort food, and that was all I needed. It was my best friend’s birthday this month and when she said her dream dessert would be an Oreo cheesecake, I’d spend a few bucks to rent this extraordinarily mediocre film in order to make it work. And it was totally worth it. A relatively harmless comedy and three dollars to be able to make this insane dessert is a deal I would make every single time.
The Dilemma
Starring Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Winona Ryder, Jennifer Connelly, Channing Tatum and Queen Latifah
Director: Ron Howard
Released in 2011
Available to watch as a rental or premium subscriptions on many services
I am not a part of the population that finds Vince Vaughn and Kevin James laugh-out-loud funny. I’m not offended by their brand of comedy by any means, but I feel like if I’ve seen one of their movies, I’ve seen them all, and very little is missing from my life if I don’t cross others off my to-watch list. And if it weren’t for my desperation to get a workable screenshot of a cheesecake in a film, I never would have watched this one. This is the epitome of “average looking men with stunning women” as they were paired with Jennifer Connelly and Winona Ryder. The premise felt pretty standard. Two average Joe style dudes owned a business doing….something involving hybrid engines that could still make the big revving sound people with inferiority complexes need? I think? It involved a partnership with a car dealership semi-brokered by Queen Latifah. Okay, maybe not so standard.
But the rest of it is relatively formulaic. Vaughn catches Ryder cheating on James with a heavily tatted up Channing Tatum, he’s torn on whether or not he should tell his friend right before their big meeting about the cars that go vroom and then chaos ensues. Because of course it does. And, as with most movies like this, it all could be cleared up with a handful of honest conversations. There’s nothing technically wrong with this movie; the acting is what you’d expect, and the script wasn’t painful to listen to. Honestly if it had somehow been flipped and the women were the leads instead of the men, this might have elevated it from merely okay to actually good. But if wasting just shy of two hours with this movie was the price I had to pay to make and eat this cheesecake, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
It’s with great pride that I say this may be one of the best things I’ve ever baked. In both look and taste, it was a huge success. This is only the second time I’ve ever made a cheesecake, and I barely remember doing the first, so I had no qualms about counting this as a “new” bake. And I was thrilled with it. Sure, a few things aren’t the most even, but it actually looks like something you’d buy, and tastes somehow even better than it looks. This Oreo cheesecake felt like a solid step into the realm of beautiful bakes, and it was one of the first times I didn’t have to say, “I promise, it’s better than it looks.” Instead, as I piped the last dollop of whipped cream and set the last Oreo half on the top, I was able to take pride in every aspect of it. This was way less work than I expected, even if it did take quite a bit of time. Overall, it’s a great joy to be able to fully brag on something I made, full stop, no exceptions.