Orange baked cheesecake

Hello to all who is still reading my blog, and sorry for the exceptional long period of absence here. My usual excuses are - busy (lazy?) and the breakdown of my laptop. Now I'm using a new laptop which my brother's friend has so kindly bought on my behalf during last month's IT fair. Why did it take another 3 weeks to update my blog is because we all fell sick one after another, it first started with Zak having a viral fever which took almost a week to recover, followed by myself and then T. It's good that we are now alright, except that both T and me are still recuperating from our lack of sleep!! It's real tough at times, and is wondering how to find the time to really really have a thorough rest eg deep sleep for 24 hours?? I was previously quite addicted in baking, blogging and blog-surfing, but after being away from these "vices" for so long, I can now curb my addictions and without any major withdrawal sypmtoms ;-) Of course, not forgetting I still have a 3 year old toddler who needs alot of attention these days, alot of things have to take second, third, etc priority. Nevertheless, I'll try to update and bake as often as I can as there are still many interesting recipes which I wanted to try it out.

If you have been following my blog, I've a big family and therefore many birthdays. So far, I think I have missed out 3 birthdays and 2 special occasions, where I didn't bake anything at all . Will see whether I can make it up next year? The most recent bake is this Orange baked cheesecake which I would like to share with you all. This is a birthday cake for my aunty Ivy. Other than the slightly dry chocolate base, perhaps due to the over-mixing which deflated most bubbles, I think this cake is worth a try. Maybe adding chocolate chips into the chocolate sponge would be a good idea too!

Chocolate Sponge Cake (23cm or 9" round tin)

Ingredients/ Method:

(A) 5 egg yolks, 20g sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

(B) 5 egg white

(C) 110g sugar

(D) 90g plain flour, 20g cocoa powder. Sift and set aside.

(E) 60g corn oil or 60g butter melted

1. Pre-heat oven at 180 deg C.
2. Whip (A) until light and fluffy. The mixture should look pale in colour.
3. Whip (B) in a clean and dry bowl, until soft peak. Keep a very close watch as it only take a few seconds for it to turn from soft to stiff.
4. Add in (C) and continue to whip till stiff.
5. Mix egg white mixture with (A) until well-blended.
6. Next, fold in (D) in 3 - 4 batches and mix until well-combined.
7. Scoop some batter into (E) and mix well. Add this back to the batter and mix until well incorporated. Be careful and do not overmix as the air bubbles will be burst.
8. Pour into greased and lined round cake tin.
9. Bake at 180 deg C for 25 mins or until skewer comes out clean. Remove the cake immediately when baked.

Orange cheesecake layer

(A) 250g cream cheese, 20g sugar, 1 orange zest

(B) 3 egg yolks

(C) 30g orange juice, 80g sour cream

(D) 25g plain flour, sifted

(E) 3 egg whites, 45g sugar

1. Pre-heat oven at 160 deg C.
2. Grease and lined the sides and bottom of a 23cm or 9" round cake tin. Wrap the outside of the cake tin with aluminium foil.
3. Cream (A) until light. Add in (B), cream until smooth.
4. Add in (C), cream until well-blended. Add in (D) , mix until well-combined.
5. Whip (E) until soft peak.
6. Mix the whipped egg white with cheese mixture until well incorporated. Do it gently and try not to deflat too much air bubbles.
7. Place a 2cm layer of chocolate sponge cake at the bottom of the cake tin. Pour the cheese mixture over the cake. (My chocolate sponge cake was badly deflated and hence I use the entire sponge cake for this.)
8. Bake in water bath at 160 deg C for 1 hour.
9. Remove the cake from oven and let it cool before removing from the cake tin.

Decoration

I added shaved chocolate, and thinly sliced orange peel on the cake. Sift some snow powder on the cake as desired.

There is another cake - Coffee cream cheese cake which I had made in May, but I got to find where I scribbled the recipe before I post it here. Stay tuned if you are interested @>