Jack-O-Lantern Cheesecake...Mmmmmm (for Nov. 6)

You'd be crazy not to salivate at this idea! I got the recipe from Martha Stewart's website. It was soooo easy to make and I knew the recipe would lend itself to some playful tweaking. But I didn't want to take the easy-and sometimes too sugary-way out by trying to drown the cheesecake in Orange and Black frosting. Can you imagine? Frosting on a cheesecake!?! Gross!

Then it came to me like a little flash of delicious cookie crumbs. Why not use a marbling technique to make a jack-o-lantern's face onto the cheesecake and here it follows:

(Recipe taken from www.marthastewart.com)
Ingredients:
Serves 12

FOR CRUST
1. 1-1/4 cups graham-cracker crumbs (from 10 whole crackers)
2. 1/4 cup sugar (during one of my bakings, I forgot to add this and it didn't seem to make a difference at all)
3. 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

FOR FILLING
1. 4 packages (8 oz. each) bar cream cheese, very soft
2. 1-1/4 cups sugar
3. 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
4. 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
5. 2 tbsp pumpkin-pie spice (I didn't have this so I mixed 1 tbsp of ginger with 1 tbsp cinnamon)
6. 1 tbsp vanilla extract
7. 1/2 tsp salt
8. 4 large eggs, room temperature
9. toothpicks
10. knife

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in center. Assemble a 9-inch nonstick springform pan, with the raised side of the bottom part facing up.
2. Make the crust: In a medium bowl, mix cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter until moistened. press firmly into bottom of pan. Bake until golden around edges. 10-12 minutes.
3. make the filling: With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar on low speed until smooth; mix in flour (don't overmix). Add pie spice, vanilla, and salt for about 25 seconds. Then reserve 1/4 of the mix in a separate bowl. Add pumpkin puree to the rest of the filling. Add 3 eggs to to larger part of filling; one at a time all while making sure that each is incorporated before adding the next. Add 4th egg to reserved batter.
4. Place springform pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Pour "orange" filling into pan and gently smooth top. Carefully scoop "white" filling onto top of "orange" filling to make a jack-o-lantern's face. Use toothpicks to drag white filling edges to "draw-out" any pointy corners of the face's eyes, nose, and mouth. Transfer to oven. Reduce heat to 300 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes. Turn off oven. Let cheesecake stay in oven for 2 hours more (without opening-fight the temptation).
5. Remove from oven; cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate 'til firm; at least 4 hours. Unmold by cutting along edges of cheesecake between pan with knife before serving.