Oreo Cheesecake

Sorry I haven't got time for the picture but I just baked this yesterday morning at 6am.

Oreo Cheesecake
750g cream cheese
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
26 oreo cookies plus 3 tbs melted butter

• Smash up 18 cookies and mix with melted butter as cake base.
• Cream the cream cheese with sugar, then add eggs 1 at a time. Finally throw in the vanilla essence.
• To answer yummymummy's question: Once the cream cheese sugar mixture becomes smooth, it's good enough to add eggs. Overbeating causes bubble built-ups which lead to cracking of the cake.
• As for the remaining oreos, you could either smash it up and fold into cream cheese mixture or alternatively sprinkle them on the top of the cake for the black effect, before putting into the oven.
• 175degrees C for 45 minutes. But my oven's bit hot. Next time I'll just do it for 40 min under.

Chill overnight before serving.

After that, I used the remaining cream cheese (250g) to bake the following.

Mini Oreo Cheesecake (Muffin size)
250g cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
Vanilla Essence
8 oreo cookies
About 8 muffin liners, adjust accordingly to the size of your muffin tray

This one is super easy.

• Cream cheese method as per above, the only difference is use half the cookie, the side with icing on as the base of your mini cheesecake.
• Scoop cream cheese mixture and then top it off with the mashed up remainder of the cookie halves.
• Bake for only 20 minutes.

Christmas 2009

As promised, this is my Christmas cake! I have forgotten to bring the decorations and the best I could come up with is a Christmas looking Thai wordings tag.


Also Tesco ran out of icing sugar, so I had to improvise with my Braun hand held musher. The outcome was not as good as a blender but what's one to do?

Marzipan...

I'm betting that it says Merry Christmas???

Delia's Fool-proof Xmas Cake

My one and only tip is that before you embark on baking 2 cakes at the same time i.e. doubling up on the recipe, please check if there is any hand folding of flour plus over 1 kg of dried fruits involved. The total of 2 hours laboring in the dining room resulted in lower back pain and pulled hamstrings in both my legs. Pregnant women should NOT stand for a prolonged period of time.

Few key pointers:-

1. Should've reduced more of the sugar. Could've easily cut off by 50g for each cake.
2. When baking more than one cake on the shelve, the cake furthest in the oven, is browner than the rest. It didn't burn though.
3. I substituted currants with sultanas. I don't like currants.
4. You could be much more generous with the brandy used to season the fruits. 3 tbs for that amount of fruits is really negligible.
5. Grating 2 lemon zest and 2 orange zest is really not as easy as it seems. Start early on that.
6. I cannot ice the cake until few days before Xmas or else the marzipan will dry out. For picture from last year's iced Xmas cake, please click 2008 Xmas.
7. Lowest shelf!!! And 4 1/2 hours is a tad too long. Maybe 4 hours is ok, and check before then. 4 1/2hrs resulted in crusty top.




(Grated orange and lemon zest)








THE CLASSIC CHRISTMAS CAKE

Ingredients
1 lb (450 g) currants
6 oz (175 g) sultanas
6 oz (175 g) raisins
2 oz (50 g) glacé cherries, rinsed, dried and finely chopped
2 oz (50 g) mixed candied peel, finely chopped
3 tablespoons brandy, plus extra for 'feeding'
8 oz (225 g) plain flour
½ level teaspoon salt
¼ level teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ level teaspoon ground mixed spice
8 oz (225 g) unsalted butter
8 oz (225 g) soft brown sugar
4 large eggs
2 oz (50 g) almonds, chopped (the skins can be left on)
1 level dessertspoon black treacle
grated zest 1 lemon
grated zest 1 orange
4 oz (110 g) whole blanched almonds (only if you don't intend to ice the cake

Method

You need to begin this cake the night before you want to bake it. All you do is weigh out the dried fruit and mixed peel, place it in a mixing bowl and mix in the brandy as evenly and thoroughly as possible. Cover the bowl with a clean tea cloth and leave the fruit aside to absorb the brandy for 12 hours.

Next day pre-heat the oven to gas mark 1, 275°F (140°C). Then measure out all the rest of the ingredients, ticking them off to make quite sure they're all there. The treacle will be easier to measure if you remove the lid and place the tin in a small pan of barely simmering water. Now begin the cake by sifting the flour, salt and spices into a large mixing bowl, lifting the sieve up high to give the flour a good airing. Next, in a separate large mixing bowl, whisk the butter and sugar together until it's light, pale and fluffy. Now beat the eggs in a separate bowl and add them to the creamed mixture a tablespoonful at a time; keep the whisk running until all the egg is incorporated. If you add the eggs slowly by degrees like this the mixture won't curdle. If it does, don't worry, any cake full of such beautiful things can't fail to taste good!

When all the egg has been added, fold in the flour and spices, using gentle, folding movements and not beating at all (this is to keep all that precious air in). Now fold in the fruit, peel, chopped nuts and treacle and finally the grated lemon and orange zests. Next, using a large kitchen spoon, transfer the cake mixture into the prepared tin, spread it out evenly with the back of a spoon and, if you don't intend to ice the cake, lightly drop the whole blanched almonds in circles or squares all over the surface. Finally cover the top of the cake with a double square of silicone paper with a 50p-size hole in the centre (this gives extra protection during the long slow cooking).

Bake the cake on the lowest shelf of the oven for 4½-4¾ hours. Sometimes it can take up to ½-¾ hour longer than this, but in any case don't look till at least 4 hours have passed. Cool the cake for 30 minutes in the tin, then remove it to a wire rack to finish cooling. When it's cold 'feed' it – make small holes in the top and base of the cake with a cocktail stick or small skewer, then spoon over a few teaspoons of brandy, wrap it in double silicone paper secured with an elastic band and either wrap again in foil or store in an airtight container. You can now feed it at odd intervals until you need to ice or eat it.

Jingle Jingle Jingle

It's one of my favourite times of the year! I love it when they put up the Christmas decor in the shops, on the streets and luckily this year's Orchard Road's Christmas decor is much nicer than last year.

I am excited because I shall be baking my Christmas cakes today! This is 3rd year in a running, with a fool-proof Delia's 31 years old recipe. Of course the anticipation of finding out whether the cake is tasty or not (on 25th Dec) adds to the whole zing as well.

Wish me luck! Will post pictures once they are done.

Howl At The Moon - 2nd July 09

It has been a very long time since I've gone clubbing on a weekday, well not that it makes any difference to me. (In fact if I want to, I could drink anytime of the day, any day! Ha) A friend of mine turned 31 yesterday and we took her to this place called Howl At The Moon at Emerald Hill. Frankly speaking, I did not know what to expect. After all, most places are so pretentious these days, and I mean both the bars and their patrons.

When I got there around 8.30pm, I was very surprised that the band(mainly Caucasian but 2 locals) was already playing. On the stage they had the usual setup; drums, guitar (?) actually I don't think there was a guitar.

In fact, the band stood out simply because they had 2 baby grands, drums, saxophone, trumpet (?) and perhaps a couple of other musical instruments. And at ALL times, the stage have 2 singers on piano singing. Towards the end of every hour, all the other band members get on stage to perform before replacing the first 2 singers on piano. This means that in order to qualify to join the band, you have to play ALL the musical instruments. How impressive is that? I met one of the guys and he told me that he learnt the piano in 8 months! They made up songs as well, rude of course.

It was very spontaneous, entertaining and engaging. This is the first club that I have been to that plays ONLY live music. The band does not take any breaks, you don't have to listen to stupid techno. Not to mention that they get patrons to play games. Birthday girl had to do crazy shot, then with another friend they had to dance to "I'm a Little Teapot," and I had to compete with 3 other people and say the phrase "Suck it to me" as many times as possible in 60 seconds. My friends had high hopes for me, unfortunately after a bottle of Cloudy Bay, my tongue was tied and I burst into laughter. This other guy was pretty good but when he said it quickly, he sounded like he was saying "sodomy." His friend went last and he was good. All he said was, "suck me suck me suck me," which was both smart and funny.

I was chatted up by a guy and when I told him that I am married, surprise surprise, he owned up to being married too. *Men*. No swapping of phone numbers, instead we were comparing our kids' photos! That's a first in a club.

I suppose we all have the most fun when we least expect it.

Red Velvet Cupcakes:

2 1/2 cups (250 grams) sifted cake flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons (15 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk (I personally find vinegar better than lemon juice)

2 tablespoons liquid red food coloring

1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar

1 teaspoon baking soda (please note baking soda, not powder!!! i made this mistake few weeks ago. it still turned out alright)

Cream Cheese Frosting:

4 ounces (113 grams) cream cheese, room temperature (i didn't bother with the rest, only cream cheese and some lemon juice)

(And the writing in yellow is simply because I ran out of other colors, and the icing ran)

4 ounces (113 grams) Mascarpone cheese, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup (60 grams) confectioners' (icing or powdered) sugar, sifted

3/4 (180 ml) cup heavy whipping cream

Read more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/RedVelvetCupcakes.html#ixzz0KCzLJ73a&C