White chocolate cheesecake and lemon cream cheese cupcakes

Merry Christmas to all visiting my blog. Ya, its christmas, but I am not capable of baking a log cake so with an expiring packet of white droplet chocolate and Philly cheese (good offer in NTUC now), I tried the white chocolate cheesecake from 孟老师's book.

The cake is a little on the sweet side, perhaps due to the white chocolate. Its also a little harder than those cheesecakes that I tried from coffee joints. My kids can't even finish a small piece, but they can finish the whole piece (which is bigger) bought from the coffee joints. This probably means that the cake isn't to their liking too. Had problem with the white chocolate too. The instructions told me to melt it and have it on standby ... I melted it and took it out of the hot water and it turns hard again when I am ready to use it. However, I am surprised that I cant turn the harden white chocolate back to "melted" state.

Here's the white chocolate cheesecake.


Besides the white chocolate cheesecake, my friend has provided me with a lemon cream cheese cupcake recipe. It's straight forward and doesn't require mixer so I went ahead to try out too. The cupcakes rises a little in the oven but sank when they are cooling, however, my friend's did not sink.

The cupcakes are so soft and light, and they taste fantastically nice. Both my kids had two on the first try. The down side is the sugar and butter involved. My friend advise to cut down on sugar and butter, so will have to try the recipe again with new proportion.

Here's how they looked. (Sorry, I do not know how to "collage" them)





吃完了凤梨芝士蛋糕，看到那包白巧克力在二月就要到期了，赶紧翻查食谱，就在孟老师的书里找到用到白巧克力和芝士的食谱。我的白巧克力乳酪蛋糕就诞生了。这蛋糕超甜，还好只是个6寸的，一人一小片，再给我妈和老弟，第二天就解决了。用剩的100克芝士刚好用在一位朋友给的柠檬芝士小蛋糕。这个小蛋糕真赞，不知怎么形容，反正好吃就对了。我孩子还一口气吃两个。

Pineapple cheesecake

Made this cake because I have the ingredients at hand.
This is an easy recipe from the "Easy Stir n Bake Cakes' book by Kevin Chia.
I became the proud owner of 3 new cake making books 2 weeks ago and one of them is this. This book's recipes guarantee 100% success rate (just what I need, isn't it?). I especially love this book because the recipes do not require mixer, just require simple mixing or a few stirs, perfect for lazy people like me.

I had not much of a trouble at all throughout the whole process, and my boy loves the cake so much that he asked for 2nd helping. He even ask me to bake it again.

After trying two recipes from this book, I really did not have any trouble getting good tasty cake. Perhaps all thanks to the extra baking powder, bicar, alot of oil and alot of egg. My mother says, all cakes with alot of oil and eggs taste good. So, I should start to experiment with same recipes by putting in less oil.

So I share with you the recipe and my bake below.

Ingredients

180g cream cheese
120g caster sugar
90ml corn oil
3 eggs
130g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
170g canned pineapple (diced)

Method

1) Grease and line a 10cm x 20cm (4 x 8 inches) loaf pan. Preheat oven to 170dC.
2) Stir cream cheese and sugar over simmering water until soft and smooth. Remove form heat. Stir in oil and eggs until well combined.
3) Combine flour, baking powder and soda. Fold into cheese mixture together with pineapple dices until well blended.
4) Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Bake in oven for 40 - 45 minutes or until cooked. Stand for 10 minutes and turning on to wire rack to cool.






超市的芝士有折扣，所以赶紧买了两块回来（还是最后的两块，幸好我手快）。加上打算拿来做比萨的罐头黄梨，这“凤梨起司蛋糕”就诞生了。它是个手拌式蛋糕，食谱出自于蔡高晋老师的书，书名“手拌式蛋糕”。我这个懒虫，最喜欢易做，少功夫的事，况且还是100巴仙成功率的食谱。可惜，这些食谱的油和蛋份量蛮多，相信日后需要尝试看减少油的份量，否则我不久就会升级变超级大肥妈了。

p/s : Sorry, somehow the features for formatting my text is gone, so I can only arrange the recipe as neat as I can.

Pumpkin cakes and more pumpkin cakes

Since the school holiday started, I am busy in bringing the kids out and about, so did not really bake alot. Anyway, the kids accepted my pumpkin "cup"cake so I tried the recipe again since I did not add ground hazelnut previously. The kids still like it. Good :). I still bake in cups since it is more convenient.

My sister in law also tried her hands on the same recipe, and her cake look more like the one printed out in the book. I am thinking if it makes a difference grating the pumpkin or shredding it by knife so I baked two batches on last friday night.

Indeed, the pumpkin in the batch where pumpkin is shredded by knife shows well but not in the grated batch. Anyway, both taste nice. I gave some to my friend whom I met on saturday morning and she gave good reviews.

This time, I only put in 100ml of oil. The cakes still taste good to me.

I still have half of a big pumpkin in the fridge. Mother in law gave it to me. I am sick of doing the same thing .. so got to look for new recipes.

Here's two samples from a batch with ground hazelnut. I did not picture any from the last batch since its the same thing.




学校假期开始后，我忙着带孩子出去走走， 所以并没有专注于烘焙。不过，上回的南瓜蛋糕没用ground hazelnut, 所以这次特别买来加进去。我也减少了油，只放了100ml. 我还是在星期五的晚上大概十点才开工，因为想隔天拿些给朋友试吃。还好朋友与她家人都说不错。虽然我孩子还是喜欢，但我还是要用别的食谱来解决还在我冰橱的那半粒南瓜。

Couch potato - chinese dishes

This is not the name of some bakes. I just finished watching Kylie Kwong on Discovery channel - Travel and living. This is one of my favourite channel where I catch programs from travel and cooking. Kylie cooked Kung Bao chicken, and Ma Po To Fu and a few other dishes today. The seasonings she put into the dishes are namely brown sugar, then soy sauce to balance the sweetness and then black vinegar to balance the oil, then the chinese wine and sesame oil. It seems like a standard, and all the dishes looks shiny with the oil coating the ingredients. So lovely looking. How to be healthy when tasty dishes are often pretty oily. My mother used to tell me that my grandma would always tell her to cook with alot of oil, else the dish would not taste good. My mother in law's dishes are often oily too .. but of cos they are tasty.

Another program that I always watch is Nigella Express. Can often pick up some tips here and there, but I usually do not jot down and they get forgotten. Anyway, if I am to use pre washed ingredients, ready made ingredients, with all the right utensils lying around readily to be pick up and used, and do not need to do wash up after that, I believe cooking will be much enjoyable and fast too.

Ok, I just want to jot down what I have seen in Kylie's program just now.

Kung Bao Chicken (only manage to see her start from stir frying the chicken)
She mentioned corn flour coating the chicken pieces making them shiny. I think she then add the peanuts, then the seasonings, then the dried chilli, then dish up.

Ma Po Tou fu
She start with pounding a chilli paste with dried chilli flakes and szechuan peppercorns. Add oil to bind the mixture. Heat up the wok with oil, then stir fry garlic and ginger, then the prepared chilli paste. In goes the minced meat, then soy sauce and then water to "create" the sauce. I forgot what is the order of the standard seasonings thou. Then in goes the diced tofu, quick stir and dish up.

She also stir fry a dish of shitake mushroom with tomato. Looks good, but mushroom with tomato? Cant remember much of the dish now. *sigh* Thats how short my memory is. But I think the final picture of the dishes has carrot and sugar snap or snow pea.

I am not a good cook or baker, but I can sit all day just to watch all the cooking programs.

Pumpkin cake in cups

I chanced upon this pumpkin cake from the blog (Pure enjoyment) by KWF.
I always like mixer free bakes, and pumpkin is a very nutritious fruit/vegetable that I would like my kids to take. They do not like pumpkins cooked in anyway (so do I) and since they love cakes, this would be a good try to get them take in pumpkin. I have learnt that the size of cake pan matters in the success rate of the cake, but I really do not have the right size loaf pan, so I give it a try with the cups. I chose the original recipe but replace caster with brown sugar since I feel that brown sugar is healthier.

Look at the shimmering tops of the pumpkin "cup" cake. A pity I did not take note of the time that I use躲 on this batch.



My girl and hubby love it, so did my mother. I also gave a few to my boy's classmate's mummy and she too commented that it is good. I think it is a little too sweet (not sure if its the sugar or pumpkin, but the raw pumpkin is sweet) and it is too oily ... perhaps I have omited the ground nuts, thats why? My boy didn't really like the taste, and I am not sure if it is the aroma from the brown sugar. I told him I will give it a go with caster sugar just for him.

I have just gotten hold of ground hazelnut and the right size loaf pan. Will buy pumpkin tomorrow then will have to find a time to bake it. I think I am also going to get this book.

Here's the dissected pumpkin cake.



南瓜是一种营养丰富的瓜果，但我和家人都不爱吃煮炒方式的南瓜，所以看到这则南瓜蛋糕食谱，非常兴奋。
以上图片就是成果了。不知是黄糖味重还是什么，唯有我儿子不爱。我朋友也说好吃。那南瓜本是甜的，所以不知那蛋糕的甜是来自黄糖还是南瓜。还有就是油了点，但不知是否是因我没放花生粉。
明天我就要去买南瓜，加上刚买的花生粉，用普通糖，再做一次来诱我儿子。
有谁知道南瓜可生吃吗？因我爱上生南瓜！

Play Cheat Chilli Tuna Puff

I came across a blog or somewhere in the net that
mention using roti prata to make the skin of curry
puff, so since I have two frozen prata slices, i open
a can of chilli tuna and try it out.

I have to half the round prata, wait for a while for
the skin to thaw, put in the filling, fold and seal
it by using a fork to press all round the edges. Then
egg wash the puff and send it to oven.

I made 4 puffs with the pratas, only one is presentable,
cos by trial and error, I only manage to seal my puff
properly with the ok amount of filling. Anyway, after
baking for sometime, the puff still breaks open (goes
to show that I did not seal it properly still) due to
the "boiling" chilli tuna sauce (guess I must drain more
of the sauce off).

Another problem is that the puff are flat on one side
since it is place flat on the baking tray ... so still
not so presentable leh.

Anyway, can eat can liao, fast and good and tasty.
Maybe next time try other filling.

最近不知何故，总感觉很累所以少上网。这puff是我十月尾尝试的。做法
再简单不过，最适合我这种懒人。就只是拿现成印度煎饼当puff皮，里边
放料，包起，外皮涂蛋液，就放进烘炉。这是我在网上看到的做法但我已
不知资料源头在哪儿了。不过，成品是好吃的。

A report on 2 past "projects"

Wao, its almost a month that I have not been baking. No doubt
I hope to start baking frequently soon, but I have other jobs
at hand at the moment, plus a lousy mood these few weeks.

I have previously baked the "Mash potato cheese muffin"
featured in small small baker's blog. Not very successful
(like not well cooked and cheese is burnt!) , so I will not talk
about it here till I get it done well enough. But this muffin is
really very tasty, even my kids asked me to bake again. I
guess they love the cheese taste.

Then I tried my hands on self made ice cream (which is my
favourite food). I made toblerrone ice cream using the recipe
from small small baker too. It really taste so yummy and rich.
I find that it has the texture of italian gelato that I have eaten
in italy during my honeymoon many years ago. My mum thinks
it really taste like ice cream, but my hubby said it did not make
him want to eat more when he finish a small portion (even
thou he said it is tasty). Anyway, I am happy I can make ice
cream. Here's mine.



最近心情不是很好，又忙于一些琐碎事所以没烘焙。不过几天
前还是在晚上烘了small small baker 介绍的mash potato
cheese muffin。但是成品不理想，所以不提了。
然后我跟着small small baker 的冰淇淋食谱自制冰淇淋想讨
自己欢心。虽然没人能证实我的冰淇淋成功否，但我妈妈吃了
说好吃，像。除了老公。他说虽好吃，但吃了却没有想再吃。
其实那不是更好，我可以独吞。哈哈。