I didn’t know a cheesecake had cheese in it!

[CormoranStrike]

Okay, not these days, cos I’m a sophisticated and cultured woman now, but I can clearly remember being utterly astonished as a teenager to find out a cheesecake had cheese in it.

In my defence, the only cheese in my house till then had been blocks of cheddar, or cheese slices. I had no idea that cheese could be anything other than orange!

What were your WTF discoveries, which seem even more bizarre through the lens of time?

I knew there was cheese in it, and (weird confession coming up) if I think about it having cheese in it when eating it that's all I can taste and it puts me off.
My first 'taste' of cheesecake was as a very small child and my Mum bought a Green's packet mix, and like you @CormoranStrike cheese was yellow and in a cube, or at Christmas maybe some exotic Brie and Edam.

I thought narwhals were mythical until embarrassingly recently. In my defence, I’d only ever seen stylised cartoon pictures of them so I’d mentally put them in the same category as unicorns.

Until my child enlightened me.

I’m educated to a postgraduate level and wouldn’t say I’m generally dim.....though others may disagree!

That Lancelot was called so as he used a lance a lot....

I love the wtf faces I get in my class when we look at the life cycle of a dandelion and some of the 11 yo kids realise for the first time that the white seed heads are the same flower as the yellow dandelions.

My partner and I are making a carrot cake later, he is amazed it will contain actual carrot rather than essence of carrot. He isn’t lack of exposure to carrot cake, it is his favourite cake!

I was well into my 20s (closer to 30 than 20...) before I made the link that cheesecake contained cheese

@DrMadelineMaxwell

I love the wtf faces I get in my class when we look at the life cycle of a dandelion and some of the 11 yo kids realise for the first time that the white seed heads are the same flower as the yellow dandelions.

That was me ... last year! Fifty fucking two!

I've lived in the countryside all my life, how the fuck did I not know that!

I was the same! Well, sort of. I misunderstood the type of cheese, thought it was the only type of cheese that I knew 😂 I remember as a child refusing it for years because I thought a cake made from cheese was just wrong. Once I tasted it, I realised how much I'd cheated myself

I am the same with carrot cake, if I start thinking about it and seeing the bits of carrot-then it's game over. But if I don't-carrot cake is lovely.

Like many others, as often becomes evident on Mumsnet, I thought CentreParcs were constructed under a giant glass dome, woods and all, so the weather wouldn’t spoil your holiday. I thought this until I actually went there, in my late 30s. Looking back, I can’t understand how I thought this was possible in so many ways, I suppose I just didn’t give it that much thought.

I don't even want to remember how old i was when i found out it was Trick or Treat and not Trickle treat. In my defense i never ever did it so didnt really under stand the concept either...

That people who had speedboats out on the water in summer had won them on Bullseye

Do you know what Soy Sauce is made from?

DH has announced he didnt know this either until last year - he is 54!

He didnt know how to use a lint roller

and had no idea Paul McCartney could play the guitar!

Sometimes I wonder how he gets himself out of bed!

Oh or that Yogurt was made from milk!

I thought that the popular fillum Pitch Perfect was about football, a bit like Bend It Like Beckham. The kids were watching it last Summer and I realised it was about a different sort of pitch....doh

I have always n own carrot cake has carrot in it. I have made carrot cake. I love carrots.
However each time I read about or see a carrot cake or recipe I have a small jolt of surprise about the carrots.
Weird.
Not dissimilar to my lack of understanding of egg nog which I’ve had since a small child. The egg bit.

We used to make a ready made cheese cake you bought in a box

So I was shocked when I found it it was actually made with soft cheese as are a number of desserts

Do London Cheesecakes have cheese in ?

@DrMadelineMaxwell

I love the wtf faces I get in my class when we look at the life cycle of a dandelion and some of the 11 yo kids realise for the first time that the white seed heads are the same flower as the yellow dandelions.

Well that’s my discovery of the day! Thanks @DrMadelineMaxwell

@DavidsSchitt I'm scared to ask

As a mid teen, I was astonished to find that the tongue my mum was cooking ( it was the 80s) was an actual tongue and not a type of fish. Was one of the key moments in my journey to becoming veggie. Why would anyone in their right minds even think about eating tongue? Bleugh!

Do you live outside London op?

Do London Cheesecakes have cheese in ?
I lived in London as a child in the 60s/70s we used to just call a london cheesecake , cheesecake and no they dont have cheese in them. it wasnt really until my teens that we started having cheesecake made out of cream cheese and a biscuit base

I refused to eat mince pies until my early twenties, as I thought they contained mince beef. I always thought that minced beef, fruit and pastry was a rank combination .

I love when people realise that the channel tunnel doesn’t actual go through the water