Philly 3 - Step Rainbow Candy Cheesecake

Pesach (Passover) is two months away, so that means I have to use up as much of my non-Pesach food as possible before then, so I am realizing that this will entail much more baking than cooking - at least as far as new recipes go.  I still need to use over 10 pounds of flour and about a dozen packages of cream cheese.

Today, I am making this Rainbow Candy Cheesecake because I was looking through the Ultimate Philadelphia Cream Cheese Cheesecakes cookbook last night, and I found one that will use up several things I have and need to start using up: cream cheese, Cool Whip, and M&Ms. 

We have tons of M&Ms - at least half a pound left from Joshua's Bar Mitzvah (last May!) and of course at least another pound we just "had" to buy at the M&M store in NYC last month.  Also, with M&Ms on the cheesecake, there is a much better chance that Joshua will eat some of it, and he always could use the calories (as opposed to me!).  The recipe said to put the M&Ms on after the cheesecake cools, but I really don't see how they would stick, so I put them on while it was still a bit warm.

• Prep time: 15 minutes
• Cook time: 40 minutes
• Post cook finishing: 10 minutes
• Ultimate Philadelphia Cream Cheese Cheesecakes, 1996, pg. 68