(Milk) Chocolate Cheesecake

My cousin Chiara is one of my favorite people. She's pretty much the closest thing I have to a sister. So when she graduated from the high school/running start program she's been part of the last few years, I volunteered to bake some treats for her graduation party. She wanted 2 things: 1) Chocolate Chip Cookies (simple) and 2) the chocolate cheesecake I'd made Matteo and Declan for their birthdays. I told her I'd make a chocolate cheesecake since I wanted to make a different recipe (although I did keep the original in mind just in case I couldn't find what I wanted). I did find a Bittersweet Chocolate Cheesecake in the Betty Crocker Best Desserts 2011 magazine. To change things up, I decided to switch the bittersweet chocolate out for milk chocolate (I've noticed that for the most part you can pretty much switch out one type of chocolate for another. Obviously there are some exceptions, like milk for unsweetened and vice versa).

Soda Cake

As much as I like sticking with the familiar, I like to try new things when it comes to baking. Like macarons (still working on perfecting those things. Almost got it though). So when my mom asked me to bake the dessert for her and Dad's night while in Chelan, I decided what better time to bake a soda cake than vacation?

Yup, that's right. A cake baked with soda.

I've seen them throughout the internet, specifically Pinterest. All you do is take a boxed cake mix and a 12-oz. can of soda in a complementary flavor (like chocolate mix and pretty much any dark-colored soda), mix the two together in a bowl, pour the batter in a pan, and bake. Simple, right?

Well, let's find out: