Mary Trinca was a cousin of our's who made this delicious cheesecake. She gave me the recipe many years ago and I have made it ever since. Make the crust for this first, then the filling and last the topping.

Cheese Cake Filling

3 - 8 oz pkgs cream cheese

1 cup sugar

6 eggs separated

1 teaspoon lemond rind

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup sour cream

1 Cake Crust (recipe follows)

Leave cream cheese at room temperature to soften. Cream cheese and sugar, do not overbeat. Add egg yolks one at a time, again do not overbeat. Add lemon rind and vanilla, mix and then fold in sour cream.

Beat egg whites till stiff and moist. Fold into other mixture. Pour into graham cracker crust. Bake at 325 degrees for about 1 hour. If center is still jiggly bake for another 15 minutes. At the end of baking time shut oven off and leave cake in oven for another hour. The top may crack but that's OK because we are going to put a topping on it. Cool well before add topping. I usually make the cake one day, refrigerate and put topping on the next day. To remove cake from the pan, run a thin knife around the edges and push up on bottom of spring pan. Do this before putting the topping on.

Cake Crust

2 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs

1/3 cup butter or margarine (melted)

3 tablespoons sugar

Grease a spring pan good. Add melted butter and sugar to crumbs in a bowl. Mix well. Pat some in bottom of pan and press down and up the sides with your hand or back of a spoon. Keep doing this until the pan is covered. Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes. Let cool before filling.

Pineapple Glaze Topping

2 cans 8-3/4 oz crushed pineapple (undrained)

4 teaspoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons sugar

2-3 drops yellow food coloring

In small pan combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in the undrained pineapple and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, stirring over medium heat and boil for 1 minute or until mixture is translucent. Stir in food coloring. Let cool thoroughly before spreading over top of cooled cake.

This is the topping I usually make because it reminds me of when I was a child and bought a small pineapple cheese cake at the deli for 5 cents. You can use whatever topping you like. Rasberry and cherry are also good.