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.

Home-made Ribena

During our desaru trip, one of the attractions is the desaru fruit farm. It's educational if you follow the guide throughout the farm tour as they will tell you many interesting facts and uses of the plants and fruits. Otherwise, you will find the farm a bit disappointing cos there isn't that much of fruits available in the plantation as well as very limited fruits available for sale; maybe not the season??

However, we were lucky on the day of our trip as we witnessed the birth of the kid (baby goat) and the mummy goat was licking the kid, with her supposedly placenta (??) still hanging loose.

Anyone heard of Malaysia Ribena? Not that the ribena syrup is manufactured in Malaysia, but the drink that uses one of the flowers - roselle - to concort the drink which is similar in taste to ribena as told by the guide. Initially thought that roselle is only available in Malaysia, not until i went to the supermart this morning and saw that fresh roselle fruit is available in S'pore too. Then i realised that actually i had seen dried roselle sold at many medical halls and some provision shops here, why it didn't ring a bell then? I like it when i saw the packaging that shouted "Singapore Farm Organic Farming", "No fungicide", "No pesticide", "No bleaching", "No preservatives", and it's reasonably priced - $2.60 for 200gm.

It is even more comforting to know from Kin Yan Agrotech's website that the health benefits of roselle fruit are unlimited:- Prevents inflammation of the urinary tract and kidneys- Roselle juice helps in the digestion process- The petals can decrease blood density- Helps those who lack vitamin C- Acts as toxic filter in the body.

Making the roselle fruit drink is very easy. Just boil 3 litres of water and put 200g roselle fruit into the pot and continue to boil for 30mins. Add 100g rock sugar and continue to boil for a further 2-3 mins, and a healthy home-made ribena drink is ready to be served.

Mandalay wild honey

Have been away for 2 short get-aways this month which explains my MIA. There's no time to do any baking although I've been following up with other bloggers' interesting posts all these while. In this post, there's still no baking as i just returned from desaru last evening. However, i want to put up something which had been in my archive since April. You see, my father-in-law last went for a holiday trip and brought back so many bottles of wild honey from Mandalay, Myanmar. Actually he went together with the domestic helper, who returned to visit her family and hometown in Myanmar, and she has been a great help to my in-laws. It was a good trip as they covered places and could buy things, only known to the locals, and at 'local' price. Imagine them lugging their own luggages and many many bottles of honey and other food stuff.

My fil is someone quite amazing; he had suffered a stroke about 4 years ago and until today he still walk with restricted movements. Despite all these, he has been travelling very frequently and independently, very disciplined in his daily exercise regime, and had no problem doing 99% of things any healthy person can do. If i'm not wrong, he exercises twice a day, either running/jogging, cycling, swimming, or climbing up & down the staircase. He does some gardening as well, and he 'owns' a very small plot of land up in the hill next to where he stays. He used to be such a stern person that i hardly hear him talk, but this change after his health episode. I read that person who suffered stroke usually changes their temperaments, characters and behaviours, but alas my fil has changed for the better, at least.

Anway, the wild honey tasted and looked really 'raw' unlike the commercially store-bought honey. These bottles of honey smell a little acidic and there's a tinge of pineapple-like taste, overall it seems just so unique on its own. It's really good just plain, or squeeze some (green) lime juice to boost up the vitamin C, which is what i just did yesterday, for little zak & daddy & mummy (me)! Refreshing & tasty ;-)

Of course, i will eventually use this honey for my baking since there are still 2 more bottles sitting in my fridge!

From wikipedia, honey is said to contain carbohydrates, sugars, dietary fiber, 0% fat, protein, water, riboflavin (vit B2), niacin (vit B3), vit B6, folate, vit C, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc.

Twelve months & a durian cake

Time flies and it was 12 months ago that i baked a durian cake. Last year this time, my aunt ivy requested for a durian cake, and this year she requested the same birthday cake. T was asking why the same cake, and my aunt gave a very good answer "... cos this is the durian season, and we don't get durians during other birthday month(s)"!

Basic Spongecake

Ingredients/ Method:

4 eggs

80g sugar

140g cake flour

1 tsp ovalette

30g olive oil

30g fresh milk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Sift flour and set aside.

2. Whisk eggs, sugar, vanilla essence and ovalette at high speed until light and fluffy (ribbon stage). When ready, whisk another 1 to 2 mins at low speed to stabilise the air bubbles.

3. Gently fold in sifted flour in 3 batches.

4. In a separate bowl, stir oil and milk with a few spoons of flour batter until well mixed. Thereafter pour oil/milk mixture into remaining flour batter until well mixed.

5. Pour batter into lined 7" baking tin and give it a few bangs to release any bubbles in the batter.

6. Bake at pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for 30 mins or until skewer inserted into cake comes out clean.

7. Remove the cake immediately from baking tin, and allow it to cool down.

Durian Filling

(Recipe adapted fromY3K Delicious Cakes)

Ingredients/ Method:

350ml whipping cream

150g durian flesh, pureed

1/2 tsp gelatine, dissolved in 50ml hot water

250g durian flesh, pureed

1. Whisk whipping cream on medium speed until soft peak.

2. Stir in 150g durian flesh and gelatine, until welll mixed.

Durian Topping

Ingredients/ Method:

60ml fresh milk

1/4 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp custard powder

1 tsp gelatine, dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water

70g durian flesh, pureed

1. Combine milk, sugar and custard powder in saucepan. Stir over heat until mixture boils and thickened.

2. Add in gelatine mixture followed by durian flesh.

To Assemble:

1. Slice spongecake into 3 layers.

2. Spread durian fillings on the 1st layer and followed by half of durian flesh. Repeat the same for 2nd layer.

3. Spread top and sides of cake with remaining cream. Put the cake in the fridge for 1/2 hour to set.

4. Remove from fridge and pipe durian topping over the top of cake.

5. Chill well before serving.

Overall, this D24 durian cake is very well-received, and i think my sponge cake has improved abit ;-)

Hand-made with love

Continuing from my earlier post where i set myself to cook at least a meal on Saturday for little zak, I'm happy that i've at least did it for the last few weeks. For yesterday, we had home-made breakfast, lunch and tea-time.

Actually wanted to bake a loaf of bread on Friday for our next day breakfast, but was too tired to do anything by the time i reached home. Before getting to bed, i just browse through some recipes from my to-do list for something suitable for breakfast, and decided on Happy Flour's red bean paste pancake. Simple enough and absolutely yummy yummy! My boy like it so much that he asked for another helping, his eating portion is anytime bigger than mine!

Dorayaki

Ingredients/ Method:

2 eggs
50g sugar
70g cake flour
1/2tp baking powder
30g milk
30g butter, melted

1. Shift cake flour and baking powder, and set aside.
2. Use cake mixer to whik egg and sugar till light and fluffy. (Ribbon stage)
3. Gently fold in flour, and followed by milk.
4. Lastly fold in melted butter until well combined.
5. Cover and rest in fridge for 30mins.
6. Heat up non-stick pan and do not grease.
7. Pour some batter and cook until there are bubbles on the surface and brown underneath.
8. Spread your favourite jam or put a slice of cheese on the dorakayi.

Next for our lunch was not just home-made, but also hand-made - noodles. Whilst preparing, my boy got 'sticky' to me again, and i've no choice but to think of ways to keep him entertained. I thought why not let him play with the dough, by rolling and cutting fun shapes. Of course, the usual half an hour affair turns to an hour of 'entertainment'. Although fun, it's a torture to stay so long in the hot kitchen in this kind of extreme hot weather. I was busying preparing the stock, perspiring & sweating, rolling and cutting the dough, and making sure little zak doesn't mess up my kitchen top or fall down from the chair he was standing on.

Despite the efforts and the cute noodles, little zak does not seem to like my hand-made noodles, he only ate the mushroom and minced meat that i've added in. So sad ;-( Got to think of what to prepare for his next Saturday meal.



Our tea-time was using the same dorayaki but spread with nutella, and decorated like a smiling face ;-) Needless to say, I think i would use this recipe often.

Cream cheese bread

I tried another bread recipe from Blessed Homemaker and it really turns out good! Although oven-baked bread usually turns out better than the breadmaker, this cream cheese bread recipe is comparable. The crust is not as thick as other BM recipes and smells extremely nice! Think it will taste even better if it's oven-baked ;-) Bread making and smell of freshly baked bread is simply addictive!

Ingredients/ Method:


160g water
250g bread flour
50g cream cheese
10g powder milk
15g sugar
3g salt
20g butter
2.5g dry yeast


1. Using my bluesky BM, put in the liquid ingredients followed by the dry ingredients. Yeast to be added last.
2. Select Basic function, Light, 700gm, and press Start.
3. Let the loaf cool down before slicing.

This is our bread for Saturday breakfast. As usual, I like my bread with peanut butter, and another with just margarine to be able to taste how good the bread is. My little zak had the bread with cheese and (store-bought) strawberry jam. I'm contemplating to make homemade strawberry jam, hopefully soon.

Chiffon & Chiffon

My parents' birthdays are just days apart, and we would eat out on my mum's birthday as hers is on earlier date but we would have cakes on both actual day. I've never baked a cake before until last year. And this year i did two different type of chiffon cakes - passionfruit and blueberry, and they are just plain cakes without any decoration.

the appearance did not do justice to the taste

au-naturel blueberry chiffon cake

"star-studded" fresh blueberies are impromptu put-on.

little zak loves it the most!

the texture is different from the usual chiffon cake wonder

is it due to the whipping cream i added?

Blueberry cheese tarts

Blueberries are on promotion these days and 2 punnets cost less than $5. They are very versatile in baking and of course taste good on its own, so can't resist to buy when my baby and i were browsing at the supermarket after our breakfast last Saturday. At the back of my mind, I already knew i wanted to bake some blueberry cheese tarts, which had been in my to-do list for some time.

Ever since i shifted back to our home, Saturdays is an eat-out affair throughout the day - breakfast, lunch, dinner. There are occasional home-made bakes like cakes, breads, etc during teatime treats. I'm going to break the routine and have at least a home-cooked lunch on Saturdays. The only reason, of course, is for little zak. I started cooking a simple porridge last Saturday, and luckily little zak really 'give face' by finishing the whole bowl of porridge with carrot and meat balls.

Back to the tarts, i'd planned to do it during his nap time but before i could finish, little zak woke up and just then, it started to pour and flashes of lightning and came ear-cracking thunder. He started to cling onto me, and forbade me from going near the windows or sitting down on the sofa..... there goes my plan to make him tarts for his teatime treats, and he just ate some cream cheese crackers. Anyway, i only managed to finish baking the tart base and got to prepare the blueberry cheese filling the next day morning, for little zak's breakfast!

By the way, i got myself a customised turn-table through Lydia of My Kitchen, and I got a little excited to take photos with it ;-)

Ingredients/ Method:

Recipe adapted from Reese Kitchen

Pastry:

125g butter

50g fine granulated sugar

250g plain flour

1 egg yolk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp COLD water

1. Sift flour and sugar into mixing bowl.

2. Rub butter into flour until resembles coarse crumbs (rubbing method).

3. Add in egg yolk, vanilla and water.

4. Shape dough into ball and refrigerate (20-30 minutes) before using** (before using, take out from fridge, wait for awhile until dough soften).

5. Place dough onto tart shells, and pooked the base with fork (this is to let the air comes out while baking).

6. Bake at 160-170'C for 10-15 minutes or until brown.

Filling:

250g cream cheese

20g butter

50g fine granulated sugar

1 egg

1. Beat cheese, butter and sugar together until fluffy.

2. Add in egg and beat till well mix.

3. Pour mixture onto baked tart shells.

4. Spoon some blueberries or blueberry pie filling onto unbaked tarts, and use a toothpick to create swirls.

5. Bake at 170-180'C for 10 minutes.

Century egg porridge

I was down with a cold last friday and having no appetite for outside food, i decided to cook century egg porridge for myself. I don't know for others, but there are certain food that bring back many memories for me.

When all 4 siblings were staying together at my parents' place, we will have home-cooked food on most of the Sunday mornings! I supposed it's cheaper to cook than to have breakfast outside since there are so many of us. My mum or dad will cook a big pot/wok of either century egg porridge, san mee, kway teow with yong tau foo, mee hoon kueh (handmade noodles),etc. Before/during and after breakfast, sibling bickerings and fightings and bullying were a common scene then, and my mum would be shouting at us at her top of lungs! (Un)fortunately these are only fond memories! *sob sob* The last time i cooked this century egg porridge was 1.1.2008, it was for my family and relatives who were staying over at my place after our new year count-down.

To prepare this porridge, most importantly is to soak the rice in water added with some cooking oil and dash of salt, at least an hour before cooking or overnight. When the porridge is almost cooked, add in mashed 1/2 century egg and 1/2 salted egg, meat balls, pork liver. Salt, pepper and sesame oil to taste when the porridge is cooked.

Basic bread

I'm craving to bake something last week, and nevermind that it's a working day, cos my hands are really really 'itchy' for not-baking for so long. Did couple of recipe searches and finally chose one that doesn't require baking; contradicting right? Basic bread for breadmachine. Maybe i just wanted a freshly baked bread? Again, i want to say breadmaker is the best and most amazing piece of kitchen equipment!

Ingredients/ Method:
Recipe adapted from Blessed Homemaker


1 cup cold water
3 cups bread flour (or 1 cup plain & 2 cups bread flour)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp yeast (make an indent in the flour and add in yeast)


1. Using my bluesky BM, put in the liquid ingredients followed by the dry ingredients. Yeast to be added last.
2. Select Basic function, Light, 700gm, and press Start.
3. Let the loaf cool down before slicing.


I gave 2 slices of bread to one of my friends to try as she is interested in getting a BM. Her comment is that "it tasted like bread we buy from outside." Another point i wanted to add is: there is no preservatives and definitely fresh!


I like my basic bread with margarine and sprinkle of sugar ;-)