I Brought the Cheesecake to Japan

Here is a bit of trivia for you:

I found the recipe for Cherry Cheesecake when I was a college student, and I am proud to say that I am the one who brought the cheesecake to the Relief Society sisters in Japan.

(Here I am in my dorm room at BYU making the graham cracker crust for the cheesecake. Notice the can of cherry pie filling on my desk and the magazine where I found the recipe for the cheesecake is open to the exact spot on my bed. Don't you love the material of my 60s style pant suit that I made for myself?  Yes, I actually wore it in public. No, they really aren't pajamas!)

Later on, after I was a missionary in Tokyo, Japan, we had an investigator whose dad didn't want her to be baptized, so I told my companion that I wanted to make him a cherry cheesecake and take it to him.  I said we could do the old trick I had seen the Fuller Brush traveling salesmen use at my grandmother McKinnon's house. . . . While he is opening the door to get the cheesecake, we could sneak in and start talking to him about his daughter.

However, there was a problem:  My Japanese missionary companion had never heard about cheesecake or cream cheese, but fortunately we were in Tokyo which was the largest city in the world at the time.  When there are over ten million people, there was bound to be an American food store somewhere. . . .

We found one right down the street from the LDS Mission Home, which just happened to be situated in the section of town where all of the foreign embassies were located.  (Since it was in such a beautiful part of the city, the Church later tore down the Mission Home and built the Tokyo Temple on the same property.)

Everybody loves sweetened condensed milk in Japan.  They even give it in five-can gift packs at Christmas time, but they don't sell sour pie cherries in Japan.  No one has ever heard about sour cherries there, so we had to put fresh strawberries arranged in a pretty design on the top instead.

Anyway, it worked. The dad consented, and our investigator was baptized.

Then the Relief Society sisters of Tokyo North Branch heard about what happened and wanted me to teach them how to make cheesecake.  They loved it.  After I got home, I received letters telling how my cheesecake recipe had spread from Tokyo to Osaka and then to all of the cities in Japan where there were branches of the Church.

Amazing, huh? Little did I realize that I would actually change the course of history in Japan--food wise.

Here is the original recipe that I found in that magazine ad in 1966:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 Graham cracker crust

1 can cherry pie filling.

Add the sweetened condensed milk slowly to the cream cheese--blending until smooth and creamy. Then add the vanilla.  Finally, blend in the lemon juice.  This will cause the mixture to thicken and be firmer.  Put into the prepared Graham cracker crust and chill in the refrigerator until firm. Then top with about 2/3 can of cherry pie filling and put back into refrigerator to chill again before serving.