As a purist, I have never been a fan of sour cream in cheesecake. I have made dozens and dozens of cakes over the years and this is my go to recipe:

Start oven at 350 degrees

Graham Cracker Crust: 2 Cups of finely crushed graham crackers (add more if you like thick crust) 2 tablespoons sugar 1/2-1 stick of butter (depends on how well it's all blending together and getting clumpy)

Mix in bowl then pour into well buttered (including sides up to top of cake) bottom of spring-form pan. Flatten out with bottom of cup or spoon. Place in fridge for butter to solidify (15+ min). Some people believe in cooking the crust. That's fine. I've tried both ways and don't really seem to notice a difference.

Cake: 4 - 8 ounce packages of cream cheese (room temperature) 1 2/3 cups Sugar 1/4 cup Corn Starch 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract 2 eggs (room temperature) 3/4 cup heavy or whipping cream (room temperature)

\if not a room temperature will not mix correctly, it will be lumpy, and cook unevenly. Cooking unevenly is what cases brown spots and cracking.*

Mix 1 package cream cheese and 1/3 cup of sugar and corn starch until creamy. Scrape bowl often throughout process. Blend in remaining cream cheese on block at a time. Don't over mix or air will get into the batter. Mix in remaining sugar and vanilla (scraping often). Then add eggs one at a time. Then add cream just enough for it to be completely blended.

Take the pan out of the fridge and wrap the entire outside bottom and sides with aluminum foil (takes 2 pieces). Gently pour batter into the pan. I do this slowly to avoid air pockets. I also let it sit for a couple minutes then drop it a few times from about a 1/2" to force air bubbles out. Any air pockets left will contribute to uneven cooking.

Place the cake into a shallow pan (I use a turkey pan) full of hot tap water about 1" up the side of the pan. Place in oven for about 75 minutes (in some ovens I have to go for 85-90 minutes) until top is lightly brown. The water bath is key to keeping everything moist and more importantly, even cooking.

Take out of oven, place on a wire rack (I use a cookie rack). Place another piece of tin foil over the top and then a large bowl over the whole thing (I use a big plastic bowl). The idea is to make the cool down as slow as possible. Just as important is even cooking is very slow, even cooling. Some people say to just turn the oven off, but I always ended with an over cooked cake. Just leave the cake there for 4-6 hours. I usually leave it like that over night.

Remove the bowl and all tin foil. Place the cake in the fridge for about 4-6 hours (might want to put a paper towel underneath to avoid a potential mess from water). Place the cake in the freezer for 4-6 hours. The cake should be more or less frozen but still in the pan.

Key to removing cake from bottom of spring-form pan: I turn a burner on the stove to as low as I can get then place the frozen cake on top for a minute or so. This should liquefy the butter in the crust and it will come off the spring-form pan perfectly. Rarely, I'll use a long icing knife to get the cake to come off the pan. Normally the heat from the burner is fine.