Oreo Cheesecake

Oreo Cheesecake

Sadly, this is the one and only picture I have of the cheesecake I baked during the week last week. I had made this for Mom's friends who came over from China for tea last weekend. It was also because the only satisfying cheesecake I've ever made was my own Blackforest Cheesecake, a recipe from my aunt when she lived in Brussels years back.

Since then I've made a few other cheesecakes to try. Some were too cheesy, others too creamy that you don't taste the cheese at all. Rather disappointing.

Now this Oreo cheesecake was adapted from here and it surely is a cheesecake - and oreo. Not mixed. I thought twice about posting this cake purely because I had wanted to try mixing the cream of the Oreo cookie with the cream cheese. And lessen the sugar. I am certain it'll work. Leaving the guilt feeling of throwing those cream filling away free. I guess we shall just leave it for another day :)

Oreo Cheesecake
Adaptation from http://dailydelicious.blogspot.com/2010/12/oreo-cheesecakeoreo-again-i-never-have.html


Ingredients
18 Oreos
60g butter, melted
200g cream cheese
100g sour cream
120g caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
6g gelatine
300 mls cream
4 Oreo

How to make
Line and grease a 9in springform tin

Remove the filling of 18 Oreos. Pulse in a food processor or bash with a rolling pin those Oreo biscuits. Put in a bowl and pour in the melted butter. Combine well and press down on the base of your tin. You can do the sides as well and pressing down with a tall glass. Refrigerate while attending to other ingredients.

Cream the cream cheese till creamy (don't you just love the sound of this), soft and smooth. Add sour cream to the mix and blend well. Add the remaining ingredients - sugar, lemon juice, gelatine - mix well. In another bowl, whip cream till soft peaks and fold into the cream cheese mix.

Pour only half into the tin. Remove the cream filling of remaining 4 Oreo biscuits. Top onto your cream cheese mixture in the tin encircling the cake, leaving about 1/2 inches side. Top with remaining cream cheese mixture. Smooth the top with a spatula as best you can.

Leave refrigerated until set. It can take up to 12 hours. I left mine overnight.
Can be served straight from the fridge, cold. Or room temperature.
Enjoy! :)

Blueberry Cake with Cream Cheese frosting

It is still May so it still means that I have every reason in the marriage book to comply to bake a cake to celebrate. Not that I need a reason to bake but it seems more special and meaningful to celebrate occasions with  a homemade cake :)

So here's to a short and loving 3 years of marriage filled with ups and downs, tears and laughter, rich and poor, big and small, sickness and health, successes and failures, hugs and kisses :)

Blueberry Cake with Cream Cheese frosting


Ingredients

150g flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
120g butter
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
100g sour cream
3 tsp milk
110g fresh or frozen blueberries


How to make:
Preheat oven to 180c
Grease and dust an 18cm ring mould


Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in a separate bowl. Cream butter and sugar together til light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition.

Add the sifted flour and mix till well incorporated. Then pour in sour cream and milk in the mixture. Blend well. With a spatula, mix blueberries carefully as to not break them to pieces.



Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 mins. 
Mine took 20 mins.
Cake should spring to the touch and golden in color.


*This recipe can be easily doubled or tripled if you want a bigger cake. I only have a 18cm ring mould and it didn't even come up halfway through. If you want to make a round or square cake, I suggest inserting a small knife or chopsticks in the middle to check if the cake is done. There should be no cake sticking to you knife or chopsticks.


As for the cream cheese frosting, I just used leftovers from Mia's birthday cake. I put them in a bowl and freeze them. Thaw them nicely and whip it up again. Lovely ~ You may use your favourite cream cheese frosting because hey - everything tastes good with cream cheese, nothing can go wrong :)

~ Blue Bayou ~

If you're looking for that fudgy-dense pound-cake like dessert, stick this into the fridge and eat cold. This can also survive frozen. Not that I've had the chance to try.

Easy Apple Crumble

Easy-peasy yummy apple crumble!

This weekend we managed to spend it rather usefully and mostly at home. Although we did some celebrating at Concorde for their scrumptious buffet dinner on Friday night commemorating our 3 year wedding anniversary :) I  had happily smothered my face with countless amount of salmon belly and fresh oysters.

So on a beautiful Sunday morning I set myself up in the kitchen, peeling, coring and slicing apples to make this super easy apple crumble.

Ingredients
4 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored, cut into small chunks
1/2c brown sugar (take 2 tbsp out)
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp water

3/4c flour
60g butter - cold, diced
semi crushed toasted peanuts

How to make:
Preheat oven to 180c
Toss apple chunks with cornflour, 2 tbsp brown sugar and cinnamon. Mix well.
Layer apples on a baking dish.
Combine lemon juice and water. Sprinkle over apples
Put remaining sugar together with flour and butter in a separate bowl. Rub them together with your fingertips till you get fine crumbs. Toss peanuts in mixture and top them on apples.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 mins.
Uncover, bake another 30 mins.
Serve warm with ice-cream or spoon cold from fridge :)

Sweet Potato Biscuits with Maple Butter

This one I suppose can also be called scones. Don't really know why the Southeners call them biscuits but who cares really when it is this easy to make with the exception of time consuming. Only because it take an hour to bake the sweet potato. I woke up in the morning and the first thing I did was head to the kitchen, get some foil, slap my sweet potato on it and drizzle some olive oil. Wrap it up and chuck it into the oven. Only then my morning rituals starts :)

Sweet Potato Biscuits with Maple Butter

Sweet Potato Biscuits with Maple Butter
taken from http://www.thekitchn.com


Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into cubes
1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potato, cooled
1/2 cup buttermilk, plus additional as needed

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoons real maple syrup

How to make:
Preheat oven to 190C
Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add the butter cubes and lightly mix with the tips of your fingers til you get fine crumbs.

Combine mashed sweet potato with buttermilk in and mix well.
Fold sweet potato mixture to your crumbled flour mix. You will get a well round dough that pulls from the side of your bowl. Adjust by adding a tablespoon at a time milk or flour to get a doughy consistency but still a bit on the sticky side.

You can fridge the dough for 30 minutes, but it's early in the morning and it's a public holiday. I also have a little toddler waiting for her mid morning snack so I skipped this step.

Place the slightly sticky dough on a well floured surface. Pat it out to about an inch thick with your hands. As with making scones, never roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Stamp out rounds (i used a scone stamp) and place on a baking sheet. Bake 15 mins.

This biscuits (or scones) shall not be eaten without its companion. The Maple Butter! Let cool completely and make the maple butter. Combine both butter and maple syrup in a bowl and mix. YUM!

Chocolate Banana Cake

On Sunday morning we had spent half the day at the paeditrician. Our lil bugaroo had to use the nebulizer and she hated it (as any little 2 year old toddler would).

So to cheer the household a little I decided to bake! Yummy ho!
Dear hubby had been pestering for this for days. He found this recipe by Dorie Greenspan of the best flavour combo ever. Chocolates and bananas!

Now we all know banana cake. That soft but slightly dense with an intoxicating smell cake. And we all know chocolate cake. Rich, heavy dark cocoa. And we also know chocolate chip cookies! The crunch and the suddenly gooey choc chip in every bite. So imagine a cake with all three components put together. sigh..



Chocolate Banana Cake


Ingredients
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Sea Salt
¼ tsp Baking Soda
1 Stick (8 Tbsp) Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
¾ Cup Sugar
½ Cup (packed) Light Brown Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 Ripe Bananas, mashed (just tear the bananas with my fingers)
¾ Cup Buttermilk
3 oz Bittersweet Chocolate, coarsely chopped, or ½ cup store-bought chocolate chips

How to make
Preheat oven to 180c

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

Cream butter on medium speed then add the sugars. Add eggs one at a time. The mixture will look creamy and has a ribbon-like effect when lift with a spatula. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the mashed bananas.

Add the flour mix in 3 addition. Ensure flour is well mixed from each addition. Add buttermilk and mix. Lastly add chocolate chips and mix til well combined.

Pour batter into a 9"x5' loaf pan that has been greased and lined.
Bake for 30 minutes. Cover loosely with foil then bake again for 40-45 minutes to prevent top from getting too dark. Insert a small knife or a stick through the middle of the cake to check if it is cooked through. I take mine out when some cake still sticks to my stick/knife. Leave cake to cool before inverting it onto a wired rack. Slice up and serve rich cake warm with dollops of whipped cream. Yum!



Slightly crumbly, moist and gooey where the chocolate chips had melted. Soft yet dense cake at the same time. Then the aroma of bananas and chocolate. Heaven :)

Creme Brulee French Toast with Caramelized Bananas

Ahh.. yes.
Some time in hand and photos.

You see there isn't a lot of bakeries produce good quality breads and loaves here. Whenever I enter a bakery, it is mostly filled with colorful slices of cakes, savoury or sweet buns and pastries or the usual white or wholemeal bread loaf. There will be the occasional French loaf or baguette but that's it. I'm after a variety of bread types. More of like ciabatta, baguette, brioche or maybe focaccia.

Soon after delivering our precious lil girl, my beloved father and a proud, proud grandfather now asked what I'd like as a gift. It was a tough choice between a KitchenAid and a bread maker but to cut a long story short, we went home with a bread maker in hand.

So now that lil gadget sat on my kitchen bench on a Thursday night working its way into making a beautiful French cakey-bread famously known as brioche. I took half the loaf and turned them into Creme Brulee French Toasts for a weekend indulgence :)

Brioches soaked overnight

Creme Brulee French Toast with Caramelized Bananas

Ingredients

1 small loaf of brioche (you can use any type of bread)

4 eggs

1 1/3 cups milk

2/3 cups cream

1/3 cups sugar

1/4 tsp salt

a swipe or two orange zest

a glug of vanila extract or one vanilla bean

How to make

Slice your brioche or bread into thick, thick slices. Perhaps an inch to inch and a half.

Combine all ingredients in a wide bowl. Soak in the fridge overnight - no need to turn. You can also soak 30 minutes each side of bread.

Preheat oven to 180c

Line baking sheet with foil or baking sheet. Bake for 30 - 35 mins turning once if you wish - I couldn't be bothered :)

Now, for the crunchy top.

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp water

Combine and put on medium heat. Do not let you eyes off it and do not use any utensil to stir. Just watch. Swirl the mixture once or twice. Soon the sugary mix will bubble aways and turn into dark amber. Take pan off the heat and toss in a few sliced bananas.

Creme Brulee French Toast with Caramelized Bananas

Top french toast with caramelized bananas. Serve warm.

Note: What to do with those extra custard? Make more french toasts using those plastic white bread. Yummers! Extra brioches or bread can keep well in the freezer for those times when you're rushing to work and no time for breakfast just grab a piece. It'll thaw nicely on your way to work and tastes great eaten cold! :)

Valentine's cuppies!

Love is in the air once again!

These are lovely mini cuppies from fairy cakes with dark chocolate ganache frosting and yellow wafer flower. I must say, the cake is so moist and soft topped with thick bitter-sweet choc ganache. Heaven!

This is the first baking session for 2011. I've made two decorations out of these for the office. They're having Valentine's dedications and selling heart shaped balloons, roses and cards. I've completely forgotten that I've promised them these cuppies to sell until Sunday morning! From 2 batches of cake I managed to get 36 mini cuppies. By mid-day half of these cuppies were gone. If I were to make them again, I'd go with regular sized cupcakes for the cake were just divine. And easy to make too! I'll post up the recipe soon! :)