Happy 2018 my friends! I hope you’ve had a great first week of the year so far and are still feeling strong and ready to face the other 51 weeks ahead.

So do you guys have any big plans this year? I know we all probably have super long lists of goals, hopes, and dreams but are there any official plans yet? For me the year is pretty wide open as of yet but I am super excited about a trip I’m planning to Southern Cali in a few weeks. It’s somewhere I’ve only been to when I was too young to fully appreciate it. I was pretty much only a baby so the memories are very vague.

Anyway, that’s something I’m looking forward to. I’m also really looking forward to sharing these cheesecake bars with you today! I realize these aren’t going to be too helpful for anyone with intentions to start out this year with perfect balance, but um, aren’t they pretty?

Surprisingly the design on top is not nearly as difficult as you might imagine. It just takes a somewhat steady hand and you should be good to go. I originally started on this recipe with the plan being to make and basic, full-size vanilla cheesecake, but with my ridiculous addiction to adding chocolate to everything and my love for focusing on eye-appeal, these happened.

Oh, speaking of things I love, I’m so excited because since we’ve been living in our current home I’ve been a bit all over the place with my photography set-ups. This may not make any since if you’ve never done much photography, but for those of you who have you’ll understand that it’s all about the lighting and that’s especially true in food photography. So far I’ve experimented with windows all around our house without finding anywhere that makes sense as a permanent studio area. Yes, well I finally found the perfect area, in our basement actually, and the lighting situation is great for taking my photos.

You see, I’d written this space off as an option thinking that the light couldn’t possibly work from a basement window but it actually fits my needs better than I could have hoped. You see, the window is halfway below ground and faces a wall of whites brick that creates it’s own softening effect. I’m so glad to say I’ll be working from there from now and hopefully having a much easier time then my constant traveling circus of backdrops and camera equipment.

Back on topic though, these cheesecake bars were quite a hit with my gang. They’re simple, just a graham crust with basic cheesecake and a chocolate ganache, so there won’t be any fancy ingredients to buy. However they’re simply elegant. They would make the perfect addition to any dinner party when you’d like to impress the guests with a wonderful finishing touch.

ALL CONTENT IS MINE AND ORIGINAL! All of these food photos were taken with my Nikon D5300 and my favorite Lens, the Nikon AF-S FX NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G. You can find out more in my INTRO POST.

And, by the way, to all the minnows out there, my intro post did a huge $0.21. The key to success on Steemit is to be consistent and persistent.