What directions? Jennifer Freeze learns to read all the steps before starting a cheesecake

My entire family witnessed my pathetic cooking skills Easter Sunday. After lunch, they all gathered in the kitchen to watch me attempt to bake a cheesecake for my mom's birthday, which was Tuesday. Let's just say I won't be putting My Daddy's Cheesecake out of business anytime soon.

The recipe I used was for a chocolate and peanut butter marble cheesecake, which I found on the Hershey's chocolate Web site. When I first saw the recipe, I thought the name sounded good -- who doesn't like chocolate and peanut butter? I quickly read over the ingredients and didn't get much further. After this cooking experience, I learned an important lesson: Thoroughly read all directions before starting to bake.

The first step was to make the crumb crust. Here are the ingredients:

1/3 cup of chopped peanut butter chips

1/4 cup of Hershey's cocoa

1 1/4 cups of vanilla wafer crumbs

1/4 cup of powdered sugar

1/4 cup of butter, melted

You have to chop up the peanut butter chips. To do this, I got a small knife out of the drawer.

"You'll need to use a bigger knife than that," my uncle told me.

I pulled out a much bigger, sharper knife and chopped up the peanut butter chips. Once I finished this, I put a handful of vanilla wafers into a plastic bag to crush them up. I found a wooden utensil, which I've often seen my mom use to squish juice out of tomatoes, and started to pound the vanilla wafers.

"Use a rolling pin for that," my mom said.

Yes, every family member felt compelled to give me advice as I was trying to make my cheesecake.

Once everything was chopped and crushed, I mixed all the crust ingredients together. After everything was mixed together, I pulled out a 9-inch pie pan. The instructions said to press the crust mixture into a 9-inch springform pan. I thought the word "springform" was a brand of pans.

Nope, a springform pan is a particular type of pan that has removable sides. This was so you wouldn't ruin the cheesecake edges, my aunt told me.

Oh, well, the cheesecake would have to be baked in a regular pie pan.

Now it was time to create the filling. Here are those ingredients:

3 (8-ounce) packages of cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar, divided

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon of vanilla

3 eggs

3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour

1/4 cup of cocoa

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

1 1/3 cups peanut butter chips

1/4 cup milk

I placed the three packages of cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar, sour cream and vanilla into a large bowl.

The recipe said to beat the ingredients using an electric mixer until smooth. This was the first time I used my mom's electric mixer, which she's had since 1974 -- the year she and my father were married.

As I started mixing the ingredients, my aunt and I noticed a strange burning smell coming from the 34-year-old electric mixer.

"I know what I'm buying your mom for Christmas this year," she said.

I added the eggs and flour into the bowl and once again turned on the electric mixer. The bowl I used was not nearly big enough and the mixture started flying all over my clothes. My guess is I'll also be receiving an apron from my aunt at Christmas.

This is the part in the recipe where I made a major mistake. I was supposed to take 1 1/2 cups of this original mixture and add 1/4 cup of cocoa, 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Instead, I poured these three ingredients into the entire mixture.

The recipe then instructs you to place 1 1/3 cups of peanut butter chips and 1/4 cup of milk in the microwave for 30 seconds. I should have stirred this into the remaining original mixture. The two different mixtures -- one with cocoa and one with peanut butter -- should have been alternately poured over the crust.

Since I didn't read the directions thoroughly, I poured the melted peanut butter chips and milk onto the crust first. Then I topped it off with the cocoa mixture. To give the cheesecake a "marble" effect, the recipe said to gently swirl the mixture with a knife or spatula. I used a spoon, and the cheesecake never reached that "marble" look.

The cheesecake went into a preheated 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. Then I decreased the oven to 250 degrees and left it in for another 30 minutes. Finally, I turned the oven off and kept it in for 30 more minutes.

I let the cheesecake cool for about 30 more minutes and then placed it into the refrigerator. After about an hour, we pulled the cake out and decided to sample it.

"Sorry, but this isn't very good," my mom said after taking a bite.

It definitely wasn't one of my better efforts, and we bought my mom a real birthday cake from the grocery store.

"I guess you've learned a lesson," my mom told me after my cheesecake disaster. "You need to start following the instructions."

I hate to admit it, but my mom was right. Thanks for the advice, and happy birthday!

Jennifer Freeze is a former features editor for the Southeast Missourian who enjoys testing her inexperienced hand at kitchen tasks.