Pastry Wednesday: Pumpkin Cheesecake Showdown

While I was in Washington DC last week (see here, here, here, here, and here), my fellow Pastry Wednesday-ers met up for our monthly get-together. Adnohr was in charge and she told me before I left what she wanted to do: she wanted to bring in a line-up of pumpkin cheesecakes since they are prevalent this time of the year and vote on the best one.

I was SO sad when she told me of her master plan, because I had a feeling that I was going to miss an epic Pastry Wednesday.

So this is what I didn't get to try (all photos taken by Sugaraholic):

Five different pumpkin cheesecakes!

There was one from Tulie Bakery. Looks cute and compact.

Tulie Pumpkin Cheesecake

There was one from Gourmandise Bakery. There is always a nice sheen of gelatin on their pastries.

Gourmandise Pumpkin Cheesecake

Another one from Costco. I'm always surprised at how big these pies can get at Costco.

Costco Pumpkin Cheesecake

One from Olive Garden, which was starting to melt by the time it arrived. Both Sugaraholic and Adnohr encouraged me to go to Olive Garden before this Pastry Wednesday--according to them, it's "the best" and "so good". I will have to go for some dessert sometime.

Olive Garden Pumpkin Cheesecake

And the last from The Cheesecake Factory, which had crashed a little during transport.

The Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake

There was no clear winner though. Here is how everyone voted:

• Both Adnohr and Colonel Mustard chose Tulie Bakery's pumpkin cheesecake.
• Mr. Blenderhouse and a visitor voted that The Cheesecake Factory's was the best.
• Rx2Fx voted for the Costco cheesecake above all the other fancy ones.
• Sugaraholic was torn: her usual favorite is Olive Garden's, but she said that The Cheesecake Factory's was "pretty darn good".

If I only had a chance to vote too--I chose a bad time to miss out on Pastry Wednesday! Gah!

Have you tried any of these pumpkin cheesecakes, and if so, which one is your favorite?