Salmon, pumpkin & cheese mini pies

Since I've been cooking lunches during most of the weekdays, my pathetic knowledge of cooking is really being put to test. Without letting my boy getting bored with my home-cooked lunches, and myself cooking the same old thing, I will try to prepare different dishes for the little one. Luckily, there are many generous bloggers sharing their interesting recipes, so it is not a very difficult feat. The only tough part is choosing which one to cook/ prepare first.

Before bake

Here's another salmon recipe, and using mini-pies recipe which I bookmarked from Domestic Goddess Wannabe. I've also added some pumpkin puree as I like to incorporate vegetables to make our meal more wholesome and healthier. It turned out really easy and delicious. We had it for our lunch, and the next day, the boys re-heated them as their breakfast!

I'm copying the recipe here, with some modifications, for ready reference.

Salmon, Egg and Cheese Mini-Pies
(makes 4 ramekins)
(Recipe from Domestic Goddess Wannabe, with modifications)

Ingredients/ Method:
150g salmon
1/4 yellow onion, diced
3 tbsp pumpkin puree
1 egg, boiled and chopped
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar/mozzarella
Salt and pepper to taste
Black pepper to sprinkle

1. Pan-fried salmon. Roughly mash them using fork. Set aside.
2. In a pan, saute onions for 2-3 minutes in extra-virgin olive oil.
3. Add salmon, salt and pepper. Stir to mix.
4. Add pumpkin puree, stir to mix. Transfer into a bowl to cool.
5. Greased ramekins with vegetable oil.
6. Add a scant tablespoonful of batter, followed by 2 tablespoons of filling and 1-2 tablespoons of Cheddar/mozzarella. Top with another tablespoon of batter.
7. Sprinkle with black pepper.
8. Bake at 180C for 30 minutes, or until the tops of the pies have turned golden brown.
9. Cool completely before removing from muffin pan and storing in fridge (2-3 days) or freezer (up to 3 months).

For the Batter using Ready-Made Bisquick Mix:

1/4 cup Bisquick mix* (pls refer below for homemade bisquick mix)

1/4 cup milk - this can be whole milk or low-fat milk

1 egg

1. Whisk Bisquick mix, milk and eggs in a bowl until combined.

Homemade Bisquick Mix:

3 cups plain flour, sifted

1/2 tablespoons baking powder, sifted

56.7g cold butter or shortening

1. Place flour, baking powder and butter in a mixing bowl. 
2. Use a pastry cutter (or food processor) to cut in the cold butter until evenly incorporated. (I used rubbing-in method.) 
3. Keep in refrigerator for up to 4 months.

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (Oct 2014 Event: PUMPKIN) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Eileen (Eileen's Diary).

Rainbow cake

Another check on my to-do list ~ Rainbow cake! Looking at the cake itself makes one so happy lol.

I'm using my usual vanilla sponge cake recipe to make a 7-layers 4.5" round cake. I'm also using my now-favourite cream cheese frosting. Both the sponge cake and frosting turned out very good!

My frosting skills is still quite bad, so I've to create some "designs" to hide the flaws.

Vanilla Sponge Cake

Ingredients/ Method:
(A)
150g cake flour/superfine flour
1/2 tsp (2g) baking powder
1/4 tsp (1g) salt
10g milk powder

(B)
60g cooking oil
50g water
4 (75g) yolks
80g castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

(C)
4 (150g) whites
90g castor sugar (original 100g)
1/4 tsp (1g) cream of tartar

(D)
Colour gel

1. Sift ingredients (A) and put it aside
2. Whisk yolks and sugar till it turns lemon color
3. Add oil, water and vanilla and mix till well blended
4. Add ingredients (A) and mix it slowly till it forms a smooth batter
5. Whisk (C) till stiff
6. Fold in 1/3 of egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture and gently stir, then fold in the remaining egg white mixture and mix well gently
7. Divide batter equally into 7 portions and into individual small bowls. (I got about 90g for each portion, but I would reduce it to 60-70g the next time.)
8. Add colour gels into batter and mix well gently, and not to deflate too much air bubbles.
9. Pour batter into lined cake tin. (I used disposable aluminum foil-type 4.5" round tin as I don't have so many cake pans.)
10. Bake in a preheated oven 180C for 10-12 mins or when skewer comes out clean when inserted to the centre of cake.
11. Removed from oven and let cake cool in pan for 5 mins on wire rack.
12. Remove cake from pan and let it cool completely on wire rack.

Notes:

1. If using the same size 4.5" round tin and 7 layers, just need to prepare 2/3rd of this recipe. Alternatively, you can bake the balance 1/3rd batter as vanilla cupcakes.
2. As my oven can only bake 4 small tins at a time, I mix the egg yolk mixture and egg white in 2 batches.
3. I used toothpick when adding and mixing colours to the batter, and using a small spatula to give a last few folds to ensure colours are evenly mixed.
4. Insert straws to hold the cake, especially when this cake base is small and pretty tall. 

Cream cheese frosting
250g cream cheese
170g unsalted butter, softened
70g icing sugar, sieved
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar in three batches, then add vanilla and mix till smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. (If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 3 days in airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat on low speed until smooth again.)

Cream cheese sugar roll

This is a quick & easy swiss roll recipe which I had baked a few times, with some variations like passion fruit, orange, vanilla and durian. When I baked it last night, I intended to draw some cute characters to attract the little one but I was so lack of creativity and it was pretty late (an excuse!) to do any research. So I thought maybe some little hearts should be very easy, and went ahead. No sweet little hearts... they turned out so faint that it's almost barely there. So I hid these 'fainted' hearts by rolling them inside, and made a sugar roll instead! Not a bad alternative though ...hehehe.... There's a tinge of strawberry flavour as I used strawberry paste for the hearts. I will try harder on creating designs on swiss rolls the next time!

Cream cheese sugar roll 
Ingredients/ Method:
A) 100g egg yolk (about 6 eggs)
20g caster sugar

B) 160g egg white (about 4.5 eggs)
75g caster sugar

40g unsalted butter
55g plain flour (I substituted with cake flour)
2tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract  

1. Prepare a baking tray (11" x 14") lined with baking paper. Melt the butter than set a side to cool.
2. Using electric mixer, whisk the egg yolks with sugar in a double boiler until thicken and pale.
3. In another bowl whisk the egg whites with caster sugar until stiff peak.
4. Fold the egg yolks into the egg whites then gently fold in the sifted flour.
5. Pour some mixture (4) into a clean bowl then mix in the melted butter, milk and vanilla extract until well combine. Pour back into the mixture of (4) and mix gently until everything well combine.
6. Pour the batter into prepared baking tray and spread evenly.
7. Bake at 190 deg C for 12 to 14 minutes. Be careful not to over bake it.
8. Remove the cake from the baking tray immediately when it is out from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Tear out the side of the baking paper and let it completely cool down and ready to use.

Cream cheese frosting

63g cream cheese
43g unsalted butter, softened
18g icing sugar, sieved
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. 
2. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar in three batches, then add vanilla and mix till smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. (If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 3 days in airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat on low speed until smooth again.)

How to Roll 

1. When the cake is cooled, removed the parchment paper.
2. Put a new piece of parchment paper on the cooled cake. Gently turn the cake using another wire rack (or using the sheet pan).
3. Spread passionfruit cream on the entire cake.
4. Putting a clean dry kitchen towel under the cake makes rolling easier.
5. Lift up the parchment paper and roll the cake about 1 inch and hold to set the position. Using 2 hands, start to roll the cake using the parchment paper, and when in rolling motion use one hand to lift up the kitchen towel and continue to roll till the end.
6. Tighten the rolled cake and place the cake seam side down.
7. Fold the 2 sides of the parchment paper (like a candy sweet) to hold the rolled cake and put in the fridge to set the shape.

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (August 2014 Event: Flour) - organised by Bake for Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Diana from the Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

Red velvet cupcake

A yummilicious pretty cake!

Previously I had reservations on baking red velvet cake as I thought alot of colouring went in there. However that changed after I had a very good RVC and when I saw The Sunday Times' Life Style section featuring a red velvet chiffon cake recipe just last week, I was very tempted to try it. Too much colouring once in a while should be ok, isn't it? I also used the cream cheese recipe from Jane and it's finger-licking good ;) All my guinea pigs gave 2-thumbs up for this cake and the cream, I guess it's a keeper!

Red velvet cake
(yields about 21 cupcakes)

Ingredients/ Method: 

2 tbsp cocoa powder
70g hot water
40g milk
50g unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 tsp red colouring powder (or 1 1/2 tsp red colouring paste)
90g cake flour
5 egg yolks

5 egg whites
100g caster sugar (reduced from 110g)

1. Dissolve the cocoa powder in hot water. 
2. In a small pot over low heat, warm the milk, butter, salt and cocoa mixture to about 60 deg or until the butter melts completely. 
3. Add the vanilla extract and red colouring powder. Stir and mix well. Remove from heat. 
4. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour and cocoa mixture and whisk thoroughly. 
5. Add egg yolks one at a time whilst whisking the mixture. Set aside. 
6. Whisk egg whites in a mixing bowl. When they turn foamy, add sugar teaspoon by teaspoon. Whisk till stiff peak.
7. Fold in 1/3 egg white to the red velvet batter using a spatula. When the mixture is just combined, add another 1/3 egg whites and repeat until all egg whites are incorporated. 
8. Using ice-cream scoop, fill up cupcake liners upto 3/4 full.
9. Bake at pre-heated oven at 170 deg C for 20-25 mins. 

P.s. Original recipe is for 20 cm chiffon cake. Bake at 170 deg C for 10 mins before reducing temperature to 150 deg C for another 35 mins.

Cream cheese frosting
(recipe reference from Jane, and adapted from Martha Stewart) 

125g cream cheese
85g unsalted butter, softened
35g icing sugar, sieved
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. 
2. Reduce speed to low. Add sugar in three batches, then add vanilla and mix till smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. (If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 3 days in airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature and beat on low speed until smooth again.)

The cake is good served chilled. 

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (August 2014 Event: Flour) - organised by Bake for Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Diana from the Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

Salted caramel & oreo cheesecake

This was a birthday cake baked at the last minute as I was not feeling well over the weekend. I've planned to bake this cheesecake long ago and I was even hesitating to present it as a belated birthday cake. Unfortunately I was not able to attend the birthday dinner on Sat and was lying down in bed most of the time. Thankfully I was slightly well enough to do up the cake on the actual day. Happy Birthday T! I will get a "make-up" dinner after-all.

Ingredients/ Method:

Base

6 pieces of digestive biscuits (about 80g)

40g butter, softened

Filling
500g cream cheese, at room temperature
30g caster sugar
20g cornflour, sieved
200ml whipping cream
3 eggs, lightly beaten

A: zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla essence
9 pcs of oreo cookies, roughly crushed

B: 75g salted caramel dark chocolate, melted
1 tbsp cocoa powder, sieved

Chocolate ganache

100g dark chocolate bar (I used 85% cacao) 

25g butter

50g whipping cream

Decoration

1/3 cup whipping cream, whipped with 1/2 tbsp powder sugar

mini oreo cookies

salted caramel dark chocolate 

1. For base, crush the biscuits and mixed well with the butter. Press onto 7' loose base tin. Put into fridge until ready to use. Wrap outer tin with aluminium foil.

2. Preheat oven at 140 deg C.

3. Beat cream cheese, sugar and cornflour until smooth and creamy. Add in whipping cream. Lastly, add in eggs. Divide mixtue into 2 portions.

4. Stir ingredient (A) into one portion of cream cheese. Pour onto base and steam bake for 30 mins.

5. Stir ingredient (B) into one portion of cream cheese. Pour onto oreo layer which has baked through. Steam bake for another 30 mins.

6. Turn off oven and leave cake in oven with door closed for 30 mins.

7. Remove cake from oven and leave to cool completely. 

8. Melt dark chocolate bar, butter and whipping cream. Pour onto the chocolate cheese layer.

8. Cover cake and chill for at least 6 hours or overnight.

9. Remove cake from tin. Decorate as desired.

P.s The chocolate ganache is slightly too hard and should add more whipping cream the next time. The 85% dark chocolate is too bitter for most of them, to use a "sweeter" chocolate the next time.

Chocolate cheddar cheesecake

I've made a couple of cheddar cheesecakes using this original recipe, and had modified it to orange-flavoured one before. Thinking it would be quite straight forward to make it into a chocolate version, but it resulted to something quite different. At first glance, it looks like the Magic Custard Cake, which I've bookmarked but yet to try. Without making comparison to the original cheddar cheesecake and to eat this cake on its own merit, I would say it's pretty good. 

Chocolate cheddar cheesecake

(makes a 8" x 8" square pan) 

Ingredients:
6 slices of Cheddar Cheese
100ml fresh milk
100g unsalted butter
6 egg yolks
6 egg whites (preferably cold, place in fridge after separating)
100g caster sugar
75g cake flour
25g cocoa powder 

Method: 

1. In a heatproof saucepan, place the butter, fresh milk and tear up the cheddar chesee slices in. 
2. Place saucepan over medium low heat and stir gently until all is melted and mixed in together. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool before use. 
3. Ladle big spoonful of the milk mixture into the egg yolks. Mix well and then add in the rest of the milk mixture in. Stir well. 
4. Sift in the cake flour and cocoa powder into the egg yolk mixture and make sure no lumps. 
5. Preheat the oven to 155 deg C with a water bath. 
6. Grease and line an 8x8 square baking pan. 
7. In another large mixing bowl, add the egg whites in and beat till foamy. Add in the sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks. 
8. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites portion into the cheese mixture. And repeat with the other 2 portions and careful not to deflate it.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the surface. 
10. Bake the cake in the oven for 50 minutes or till the tester comes out clean.
11. Chill the cake before serving. 

Orange cheddar cheese cupcake

Another breakfast treat! Modified from the original cheddar cheesecake and just as soft & fluffy, but not cheesy enough.

I'm also submitting this to Little Thumbs Up April: Orange hosted by Ann of Anncoo Journal.


Orange Cheddar Cheese Cupcake
(makes 8 cupcakes)

Ingredients:  
3 slices of Cheddar Cheese
50ml fresh orange juice
50g unsalted butter
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites (preferably cold, place in fridge after separating)
50g caster sugar
50g cake flour
zest from 2 oranges


Method: 

1. In a heatproof saucepan, place the butter, orange juice and tear up the cheddar chesee slices in. 
2. Place saucepan over medium low heat and stir gently until all is melted and mixed in together. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool before use. 
3. Ladle big spoonful of the milk mixture into the egg yolks. Mix well and then add in the rest of the milk mixture in. Add in orange zest and stir well. 
4. Sift in the cake flour into the egg yolk mixture and make sure no lumps. 
5. Preheat the oven to 155C with a water bath. 
6. In another large mixing bowl, add the egg whites in and beat till foamy. Add in the sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks. 
7. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites portion into the cheese mixture. And repeat with the other 2 portions and careful not to deflate it.
8. Pour the batter into the baking case. 
9. Bake the cake in the oven for 20-22 minutes or till the tester comes out clean.

Cheddar cheesecake

With a block of Philadelphia cheese being so expensive these days, this is a very good alternative cheesecake using slice cheddar cheese. And a quick, easy & delicious too!

I'm copying the recipe here for easy reference. The original recipe is here. 

Ingredients: (makes 8x8 square pan) 
6 slices of Cheddar Cheese
100ml fresh milk
100g unsalted butter
6 egg yolks
6 egg whites (preferably cold, place in fridge after separating)
100g caster sugar
100g cake flour

Method: 

1. In a heatproof saucepan, place the butter, fresh milk and tear up the cheddar chesee slices in. 
2. Place saucepan over medium low heat and stir gently until all is melted and mixed in together. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool before use. 
3. Ladle big spoonful of the milk mixture into the egg yolks. Mix well and then add in the rest of the milk mixture in. Stir well. 
4. Sift in the cake flour into the egg yolk mixture and make sure no lumps. 
5. Preheat the oven to 155C with a water bath. 
6. Grease and line an 8x8 square baking pan. 
7. In another large mixing bowl, add the egg whites in and beat till foamy. Add in the sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks. 
8. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites portion into the cheese mixture. And repeat with the other 2 portions and careful not to deflate it.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the surface. 
10. Bake the cake in the oven for 50 minutes or till the tester comes out clean.

Souffle cheese cupcakes

It has been a long time that I've updated my blog. During this period of absence, I've done very little baking. Not too sure what I had been up to, but I'm left with little time and energy to bake after busy work week, dramas. It also doesn't help that I've no idea what I want to bake.


Whatever, I've a block of cream cheese that's going to expire very soon, and also that my younger brother had organised a housewarming on Good Friday, it seem a perfect calling for me to bake something on this day. This 'something' took a while to conceive as I'm totally clueless these days ~~ but definitely has to include cheese ~~ which is this month Aspiring Bakers #6: Say Cheese, hosted by Noms I Must. It was only till the eleventh hour that I decided to bake and finally deciding on baking this Souffle cheese cupcakes.



I'm happy with the outcome, and my family and relatives like them very much. The texture is very soft and tender, and resembles the Cotton soft Japanese cheesecake that I baked previously. Comparing, this Souffle cheese cupcakes is much easier to prepare and bake than the Cotton soft Japanese cheesecake. Taste-wise, both are equally good.




Souffle Cheese Cupcakes
(Recipe adapted from SeaDragon, with slight modifications)
Makes about 15 cuppies

125g cream cheese
60ml milk
40ml canola oil
3 egg yolks
40g caster sugar (reduced to 25g)
20ml lemon juice (extracted from 1 lemon)
30g cornflour, sifted
3 egg whites
70g caster sugar (reduced to 60g)

1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Place a large tray of hot water inside the oven just below the shelf where the cheesecakes are to be baked.
2. Line 15 muffin holes with paper cups or use cupcake holders.
3. Soften cream cheese with milk and oil in a bowl placed over simmering water, or in a double-boiler. Whisk until smooth, remove from heat and let cool until lukewarm.
4. Beat egg yolks with 25g sugar until combined, beat in lemon juice. Gradually whisk in cheese mixture to combine. Lightly whisk in sifted cornflour, mix well.
5. Beat egg whites until foamy. Then gradually beat in 60g sugar, spoonful by spoonful, until firm but just under stiff peaks stage.
6. Fold 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the cheese mixture until thoroughly mixed in. Repeat two more times with the remaining egg white mixture.
7. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups using ice-cream scoop, filling each cup nearly to the rim.
8. Place the muffin tray on the shelf just above the tray of hot water.
9. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the tops of the cheesecakes are lightly browned. Test doneness when skewer inserted come out clean.

Chocolate Swirls Cheesecake (II)

I was happily typing the title of this post, without realising that I had written a post with the same title "Chocolate Swirls Cheesecake" before. Scatter-brain. Referring back, the ingredients are quite identical except for the portion of each of them. And of course, I have forgotten that I had written in my earlier post that the (250gm) butter is excessive and I would like to cut it down. Anyway, this is another tasty chocolate swirls cheesecake shared by Bakericious, and again this taste like brownie to me. I guess I'm "infatuated" with swirls, chocolate + cheese (*_*)

Ingredients/ Method:

(A)

250g cream cheese, softened (reduced from 300g)

40g castor sugar (reduced from 50g)

1 egg

lemon zest from 1 lemon (not added in original recipe)

1. Beat cream cheese with sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add in lemon zest and give a few strokes to just incorporate into cream cheese mixture.

3. Beat in egg until well-mixed and set aside.

(B)

250g butter, softened

145g castor sugar (reduced from 165g)

4 eggs

4 tbsp cocoa powder

160g self-raising flour

1 1/4tsp baking powder

1 1/4tbsp chocolate milk (replaced with full cream milk)

1. Sieve cocoa powder, self-raising flour and baking powder and set aside.

2. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Batter should look pale in colour.

3. Add egg one at a time and beat until well incorporated into the butter mixture.

4. Alternate flour and milk into the egg mixture, and beat on low speed until well-mixed.

5. Pour half of chocolate batter into prepared cake tin, followed by cream cheese mixture, and lastly the remaining chocolate batter. (I did mine in 6x6' square tin, and there are enough batter for another 6 medium-sized cupcakes.)

6. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for 45 to 50 mins or until skewer comes out clean. (I bake the cupcakes first at 180 deg C for 20 mins, i guess 18 mins should be good enough.)

You might notice that the colour of the

chocolate in these cupcakes are not "rich"

enough, that's because I had scooped the

mixed batter from my square tin after realising

my 6x6' tin can't "accomodate" all the batter.

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 @>

Oreo lemon non-baked cheesecake (Icebox cheesecake)

Many times i got stuck in what i want to write in my blog, and how to start writing or have an opening statement... just like now.

Perhaps i should just leave it as Wordless Tuesday, or maybe not?

This Oreo Lemon non-baked cheesecake (aka icebox cheesecake) is made especially for my youngest aunt steph, whose birthday falls on this Thursday. We had a little celebration on Sunday and we will be getting a birthday treat from her this Friday. It's celebration-makan-and celebration-makan and more celebration-makan since Dec and it does not seem to end anytime soon ;-) That's how fortunate coming from a very big family like us!

Ingredients/ Method:

(Recipe adapted from Food-4Tots with modifications)

Crust

11 slices of digestive biscuits

55g unsalted butter, melted

1. Crush the biscuits and mix with melted butter and press firmly in 8" round springfoam baking tin.

2. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Filling

1 tbsp gelatine powder

3 tbsp hot water

250g cream cheese, room temp

40g caster sugar

2 large egg yolks

zest from 1 large lemon

3 tbsp lemon juice (i doubled the amount and it was too sour)

2 tsp cointreau (can omit)

150g diary whipping cream

Oreo topping

6 pieces of oreo biscuits, crushed finely

1. Dilute gelatine powder with hot water in small bowl until dissolve. Set aside.

2. Beat cream cheese and sugar until soft and creamy.

3. Add in egg yolks, followed by lemon zest. Mix well and set aside.

4. Pour dissolved gelatine powder into cream cheese mixture and mix quickly.

5. Add in lemon juice and cointreau. Mix well and set aside.

6. Whip cream with hand whisk till creamy and soft peak. Do not overbeat the cream.

7. Fold in whipped cream into cream cheese mixture until well combined.

8. Spoon filling onto crust. Smoothen the surface.

9. Spread crushed oreo biscuits onto the cake and press lightly.

10. Cover the baking tin with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours (best overnight) until firm before serving.

Fruity cheesecake

For the first time, T requested me to bake a cake and that's for his mum/ my mil. Something using fruits, and can't be sweet. I kept thinking of what to bake, doesn't want to repeat what I have done before, flipped through couple of recipe books, and finally found 1 that seems interesting.

Interesting it may seem, but alas it didn't taste what i expected it to be. I don't think i will try this recipe again so won't be posting the recipe here. Better luck in trying out other recipes then ;-)

Chocolate swirl cheesecake

Ever since i baked a brownie cheesecake months back, i was looking out for other brownie cheesecake recipes which would yield creamy and fudgey texture. There are a few brownie recipes which i have found but yet to try, but this one caught my eye with its fabulous pictures and description of the cake! Although it is not exactly a brownie, but it did taste like one!

The outcome of cake is close to what I was looking for, except that i did not do a very good job with the swirls which resulted in a not-so-even mixed of chocolate and cheese. Furthermore, the butter used in the recipe seems way too much, hence it is not so healthy for a regular treat! However, i would want to give this recipe another try, except maybe to replace the chocolate portion with another chocolate recipe. Wonder how it would turn out?

Ingredients/ Method

(A)

250g cream cheese, softened

80g castor sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

1 egg

(B)

120g plain flour

20g unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4tsp baking powder

(C)

250g unsalted butter, softened

120g castor sugar (reduced from 160g)

1/8 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

1. Preheat oven at 180 deg C.

2. Sift (B) and set aside.

3. Mix (C) till well incorporated. Set aside and use as the cream cheese batter.

4. Mix butter, sugar and salt of (A) till creamy. Add in eggs gradually till well-mixed. Fold in (B) till just blended. Set aside and use as chocolate batter.

5. Spoon both cream cheese and chocolate batter alternately onto lined 20x20cm cake tin, until both batters are used up. Swirl around the batter with knife or chopstick to create marble effect. Swirl enough to have a good mix of cheese and chocolate batter.

6. Make sure surface of batter is even before putting into oven and bake for 45 mins or till cooked through.

7. Remove cake from oven and let it rest in tin for 10mins before unmoulding. Let the cake cool completely on the cooling rack.

8. Store in airtight container once it's cooled or serve chilled.

Triple layered cheesecake

After baking for 1 year plus of birthday cakes, i'm not the least tired of doing it over and over again. However, sometimes it make me wonder whether the audiences are tired? Definitely my cakes are not comparable to the bakeries, and they are not of consistent standard, sometimes they are good and sometimes just edible. One thing for sure, the ingredients are fresh and no unnecessary addictives.

Naked cake without decoration (yet)

Whenever there is a birthday approaching, I like to think "what design would the birthday boy/girl like?", "what type or flavour is suitable and to their liking?", etc. I would go through these questions many times in my head, until i decided on the best suitable one for the birthday boy/gal.

Whilst preparing the birthday cake for T, he asked me the same question as he asked same time last year "Do u bake the birthday cake to satisfy your own (baking) desire or to bake the cake specially for my birthday?" The answer is both. I won't be baking if either of the reason are not present, right?

Anyway back to the birthday cake i made for T, the recipe was taken from Y3K Delicious Cakes with some modifications done. So coincident that the cake i did last year was triple chocolate, and this year is also a triple, but a cheesecake. The original recipe is for a 9' cake tin, but i only have a 7' cake tin. I only realised after preparing all the filling ingredients. So now i'm left with 1/4 portion of the cheese filling in the fridge, waiting to be bake into something else.

Ingredients/ Method:

Base

8 pieces of digestive biscuits (about 110g)

60g butter, softened

Filling
750g cream cheese, at room temperature
90g caster sugar
30g cornflour, sieved
300ml whipping cream
4 eggs, lightly beaten

A: 100g chocolate, melted
2 tbsp cocoa powder, sieved

B: zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla essence

C: 1 3/4 tbsp instant coffee powder, dissolve in 3/4 tbsp hot water


Decorations
1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped
1 tbsp cocoa powder
assorted fresh fruits

1. For base, crush the biscuits and mixed well with the butter. Press onto 7' loose base tin. Put into fridge until ready to use. Wrap outer tin with aluminium foil.

2. Preheat oven at 140 deg C.

3. Beat cream cheese, sugar and cornflour until smooth and creamy. Add in whipping cream. Lastly, add in eggs. Divide mixtue into 3 portions.

4. Stir ingredient (A) into one portion of cream cheese. Pour onto base and steam bake for 30 mins.

5. Stir ingredient (B) into one portion of cream cheese. Pour onto chocolate layer which has baked through. Steam bake for another 30 mins.

6. Stir ingredient (C) into one portion of cream cheese. Pour onto lemon layer which has baked through. Steam bake for another 30 mins.

7. Turn off oven and leave cake in oven with door closed for 30 mins.

8. Remove cake from oven and leave to cool completely. Cover cake and chill for at least 6 hours or overnight.

9. Remove cake from tin. Decorate as desired.