Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake

Dessert: 15-Mar-2011

This cheesecake really lives up to its name... being very very soft & cotton-y....  :-)  Its texture is more like a light sponge cake, not the heavy baked or refridgerated cheesecakes...


Recipe obtained from Diana's desserts website.

Ingredients: 50g/2 oz. butter  250g/9 oz. low fat Philadelphia cream cheese  100 ml/3 fluid oz. low fat fresh milk or full fat (35%) cream (I preferred using lactose free low fat milk but for a more creamy texture, use full fat cream) 140g/5 oz. raw caster sugar 1/4 tsp. salt  1/4 tsp. cream of tartar 6 egg whites  6 egg yolks 1 tbsp. lemon juice  60g/2 oz. cake flour /superfine flour  20g/1 oz. cornflour (cornstarch)

Note: I used Anchor Lighthouse cake, biscuit & pastry self-raising flour. This is a specialty flour that makes cakes much lighter as it contains less protein.  Admittedly, I have not tried using normal self-raising flour, and so don't know if it makes a huge difference. I might do that one day when I'm desperately wanting to eat this cake and have run out of this flour but can't be bothered to go out to buy a box of it... LOL! Instructions:  1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. 2. Whilst mixture is cooling, in a separate bowl, mix well, egg yolks and lemon juice. Add cooled cream cheese mixture to egg yolk mixture. 3. Fold in the flour and the cornflour into the yolk mixture. 4. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and salt and continue beating until egg whites are stiff & glossy. 5. Put 2 - 3 spoons of egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture & mix well. Egg yolk mixture should lighten & not be as heavy. 6. Gently fold in 1/2 of egg yolk mixture into egg white mixture until well mixed. Gently fold in remaining 1/2 of egg yolk mixture into egg white mixture until well mixed. 1 slice is never enough! Yum! 7.Pour into an 8-inch round cake pan (Lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper).  8. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hour 10 minutes to 2 hours or until set and golden brown at 160 degrees C (325 degrees F).  Note: I tried & it works, putting into a approx 23cm with paper lined base, non-stick round cake tin & baking at 170C in a water bath for about 1.5 hours... hence lessening the baking time - nice! For a nice variation, add 1 tbsp black sesame seed powder. Makes 1 (8-inch) cheesecake, 12 servings.

Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake

Birthday Robot Cake

Birthday Cake: 19-Mar-2011

Made this cake as a special request from a friend, Karen for her son, Seth... Enjoyed baking & creating it... Blessed 8th Birthday Seth!


Robot cake idea was copied from here: http://www.kulturblog.com/2009/07/robot-cake/

Karen's blurb:

Karen, the cake was a BIG hit! The kids went crazy over the lollies and icing (of course!), the adults really liked the strawberries and the vanilla sponge.  We all had seconds! :) I still hv the robot's head in my fridge and slowly savouring it! Absolutely delicious!  Sponge cake was just right, not too dry.  Even tho strawberries were a little sour, I thot it went well with the icing.  Personally, icing was a little too sweet for my liking tho.


A HUGE thank you for doing this.  Seth loved it!  We weren't allowed to eat its head! but a few days' time, he'll soon realise its gone! ha! You did very well with decorating the cake.  Its exactly what I wanted..colour, lollies deco and the mashmallows...all turned out well, even the last minute chopping board! :P  Overall a fantastic job well done.  

Cake & Filling Recipe: 
The cake was made using the recipe I blogged about just before, the japanese strawberry shortcake. I doubled the recipe & baked it in 2 tins, a 7" & an 8" square tin, lining just the bottom of the tin with baking paper & sprayed some oil onto it. When cake has cooled completely, cut cake horizontally twice, so that you end up with 3 layers of cake.


The filling was also the same recipe as in the japanese strawberry shortcake recipe complete with fresh cream & strawberries! :-)


Coloured Frosting Recipe:
The colored icing on the outside was made using Martha Stewart's Sprinkles Strawberry Frosting.


I made 2 lots of frosting using 500g unsalted butter & put 4 tbsp strawberry puree instead (as I did not want it too pink) & 6 cups of pure icing sugar. After frosting was prepared, I measured out about 1 cup of frosting & added about 1/4 tsp of color that I needed (except for the black, where I used 1/8 tsp - as I want grey not charcoal! LOL!). 


The blue required about 3 - 4 cups of frosting, whilst the green & grey only required 1 cup of frosting each.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup strawberries, cut small & blended into puree (you will need 4 - 6 tbsp of this strawberry puree)
500g unsalted butter
2 pinches of sea salt
6 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla essence


Method:
1. Process strawberries using a barmix or blender until pureed.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together butter & salt on medium to high speed until light & fluffy (butter changes to a lighter color & lighter consistency).
3. Reduce speed & slowly add icing sugar. Beat until well combined.
4. Add vanilla & strawberry puree (save any remaining strawberry puree for another use). Mix until just blended. 
5. Do not over mix or frosting will incorporate too much air. Frosting consistency should be dense & creamy, like ice-cream. (Although I like my frosting to be a little lighter so I actually beat it mine a little more).

Assembly of cake: 
I used the smaller cake (7") for the body & cut up the 8" cake for the head, saving the off cuts for the hands & feet. I then used Pascall's White Mega Mallows (I have to find out where to buy this from, as Karen had them in her pantry & passed them to me... and I've not seen pure white marshmallows in Safeway or Coles for the longest ever time...) for the arms & legs, neck, ears & eyes. Additional lollies for decoration.

Birthday Robot Cake

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake

Dessert: 6-Mar-2011

Made a really light & yummylicious cake to celebrate the birthday of the best brother in the whole wide world!!  :-D It was huge & fed about 24 people (incl kids)

Recipe was adapted from Aunty Yochana's recipe, found here: http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/2007/03/japanese-strawberry-shortcake.html


Choc disc from Michel's Patisserie,
I added my brother's name & dots...





Ingredients:
Cake:
180 gm. cake flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
75 gm. sugar
75 gm. melted butter 
75 gm. vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
6 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla essence
6 egg white

1/2 tsp cream of tartar
100 gm. castor sugar

Decoration:
600 ml thickened cream (full cream as less fat cream will not whip)
1/2 cup confection sugar
12 Tbsp. Kirsch
2 punnets strawberries - diced (for filling)
1 punnet strawberries - thinly slice (for deco)
2 Tbsp. Strawberry jam + 2 Tbsp. hot water + 1/2 tsp powdered gelatine - for glazing fruit


Note: each punnet is about 250g.

Method:
1. For cake: Sieve cake flour, baking powder and 75 gm. of sugar into a bowl and mix thoroughly.
2. Mix egg yolk, vanilla essence, butter and oil together and then pour into flour mixture and stir till smooth.


3. Whisk egg white till slightly frothy, then pour in 100 gm. sugar & cream of tartar gradually and whisk till stiff & glossy.
4. Fold egg white with egg yolk mixture slowly and then pour into a 24cm round springform cake tin.

  

Cake anyone?? Yummylicious!



5. Bake in preheated oven at 150C for about 60-80 mins. or till cooked.
6. Cool cake completely in cake tin upside down then remove & slice cake into 3 slices.
7. Brush each layer of cake with the 4 tbsp kirsch in each layer.
8. Whip up the whipping cream. Mix approximately 1/2 of cream with diced strawberries and then spread whipped cream & strawberry mixture onto each layer. Repeat till the last layer of sponge cake. 

9. Spread the cake on sides & top with remaining whipped cream. Arrange sliced strawberries on top overlapping one another.
(8) Boil strawberry gel with water then brush it over the sliced strawberries.
(9) Chill before slicing and serve.

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake

Choc Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

Finally I get to make this most divine yummyliciously rich cake... for my own birthday... I couldn't find anyone who was going to volunteer to make this particular cake for me... so I had to do so on my own... & it was most deliciously decadent...  :-)

Recipe from: http://www.notquitenigella.com/2011/01/19/chocolate-peanut-butter-cup-cheesecake/

BTW, Check out Not Quite Nigella's website its totally awesome full of yummy goodies!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

An original recipe by Not Quite Nigella (mousse adapted from Willow Bird Baking)

Ingredients:
Crust

• 2 packets x Arnotts Chocolate Ripple biscuits - crushed finely
• 100 g melted butter (approximated)
• 1 x large Cadbury's Flake milk chocolate flakes

Filling

• 750g Philadelphia Light cream cheese 
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup raw caster sugar
• 200g Kraft light smooth peanut butter
• 2/3 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1/2 tsp plus a pinch of sea salt

Mousse topping

• 1 tsp gelatin
• 1 cup Lactose-free thickened cream (or normal thickened or heavy cream)
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 50g cooking milk chocolate, chopped
• 10 Lindor peanut butter balls (bought from Lindt Cafe in Chadstone)
• 3 packets of Reese’s peanut butter cups (each contains 2 cups)

Method: 

Huge cake!

1. Preheat the oven to 160C and find a baking tray that will fit your 22cm - 25cm good quality springform tin in so that you can make a water bath for the cheesecake that goes halfway up the cake.

2. For the crust, mix the butter and biscuits and press up the sides of the springform tin. Sprinkle milk chocolate flakes on the bottom. Set aside in the refrigerator.

3. Put a kettleful of water on the boil.

4. For the filling, beat cream cheese, sugar and salt until smooth.
5. Add eggs one at a time and the peanut butter and beat until smooth but do not overbeat. Mix in the chocolate chips.
6. Take out the biscuit base. Put 2 layers of foil around the tin to prevent any water from the water bath from getting in. It’s useful to have that wider foil for this task if you have it. I didn’t and it was still ok though.
7. Place cake tin in a deep baking dish and pour the cream cheese filling into the foil lined tin. Submerge the Lindor balls into the cheesecake.
8. Pour the boiling water from the kettle around the cheesecake so that it sits in a bath being careful not to splash any on the cheesecake itself.
9. Carefully transfer to the oven and bake for 1 1/4 hours although you may want to check at 1 hour. The outside should be set and the inside with a hint of wobble which will firm up in the fridge. Remove the foil and cool on a wire rack and when cold, place in the fridge overnight covered with clingfilm.

10. For chocolate mousse, dissolve the gelatin in a little bit of warm water.
11. In a saucepan over moderate heat, cook the cream until it bubbles around the edges.
12. In another bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar. Temper the eggs by pouring about 1/2 cup hot cream into the egg yolks slowly while whisking vigorously.

13. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the saucepan of cream (whisking constantly) and add chocolate. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 3 minutes.

14. Remove from the heat and whisk in the gelatin. Place mixture into a wide bowl to allow it to cool for a bit, then chill it for just a little while — not until set, but until it’s not so runny. Pour the mixture onto the top of the cheesecake and refrigerate at least one hour or overnight.

15. Decorate with chopped Reese’s cups, if desired.

Enjoy! Although a piece is enough for each  round... You'll be back for more the next day... it was most yummy!

Choc Peanut Butter Cup Cheesecake

Lime Marmalade Muffins

Breakfast: 14-Jan-2010

The best marmalade muffins ever... been making these for quite a few years now... its very more-ish... the kids have just about eaten almost all of them... Loooovvveee the taste... I think because its a citrus flavored muffin, its very appetizing... :-)

Recipe was adapted from "Australian Quick 'n' Easy Cakes & Muffins Biscuits, Slices & More" by Robyn Martin, Recipe: Lime Marmalade Muffins, pg 8.

Ingredients:
1. 2 cups plain flour
2. 4 tsp baking powder

Best Marmalade!

3. 1/4 cup raw caster sugar
4. 1/2 cup Lime Marmalade (Best is: Buderim brand)
5. 2 eggs
6. 1 cup milk
7. 50g butter - melted

Notes:
1. You can substitute the plain flour & baking powder with 2 cups self-raising flour if you want!
2. Original recipe mentions you can use any marmalade but suggests lime marmalade as the best.
3. I used low-fat Lactose-free milk due to lactose intolerance in both myself & my daughter.

Just before baking

4. Original recipe uses 50g butter but I have changed that to 50g olive oil which measures to 1/4 cup.

Method:
1. Sift flour & baking powder into a bowl.
2. Stir in sugar. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
3. Beat marmalade, eggs, melted butter or oil & milk together.
4. Pour milk mixture into dry ingredients.
5. Mix to just moisten.

Just after baking

6. Three-quarter fill greased, deep muffin tins or jumbo muffin tins (I used small silicone muffin cups as pictured)
7. Bake at 200C for 15 mins for regular muffins or 20 mins for jumbo muffins or until cooked. (Mine took about 15 mins).

Recipe makes approximately 26 small muffins.

Enjoy a most yummy breakfast with these muffins!

Removing from the moulds

Lime Marmalade Muffins

Super-sized Baptism/Birthday Carrot Cake – Double the Carrot Yum!

Dessert : Wed, 5-Jan-2011 - a very special day indeed!! :-D

Maureen's Blurb:
In celebration of my 40th birthday and birth into God's kingdom, Karen made a double carrot cake for this dual celebration. Two carrot cakes in one making a tower of a cake all fenced in with yummy miniature Corinthians chocolate wafer rolls and topped with choc Lindt balls. To add additional glitter to the event, the writing on the cake was sparkling and glittery. It is the first birthday cake anyone has baked for me. Thanks to my sister in law and now in Christ for her pure and kind heart and her ability to bless us with her creative talents.

The cake and cream were very yummy but so big that between 6 adults and 3 children, we were only able to make our way through just over a quarter of the cake in one sitting!

My Blurb:

This is the best ever carrot cake... love the recipe... which originated from Susan Chan... thanks Susan for sharing it.. its the yummiest ever cake recipe!!  :-D

Now as for having made it... well... the girls (my SILs & Suz) are always wanting to watch what they eat... so emmm... decided to go for a healthier option (as my original was to try out my black forest cake... but my MIL doesn't like chocolate... so I stuck to the carrot cake option instead... oh plus my oldest boy who doesn't like vegies actually love this cake... funny that!)

Pictures of the cake you see here are actually emmm... 2 lots of cake recipe... so its actually heaps bigger than it would otherwise have been, with double quantities of cream cheese topping too... It is also because I decided to put 1 mixture into a bigger cake tin & much to my dismay was obviously heaps shorter even though it did rise... (Duh!!)  So I had to quickly bake a 2nd lot as well... hence the result of a giant sized cake! *haha*  :-D

Anyway, since my OSIL only ever comes once a year... (hoping it'll be more in the future), we have to of course celebrate her birthday early... seeing as it was a benchmark birthday too... the BIG 40...  *hehe* So the BIG 40 combined with a great baptism was celebrated with a BIG carrot cake *hehehehe*... Glad you enjoyed the cake... as huge as it looked... LOL!  :-D  Don't forget how special you are yah... Love you sis & congratulations!!

Susan Chan's Moist Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

Cake:

1. 1 cup oil (I used olive oil)

2. 1 cup brown sugar

3. 3 eggs

4. 1 1/2 cup self-raising flour

5. 1 tsp bicarb of soda

A lot of cake left!

6. 1 - 2 tsp cinnamon

7. pinch of salt

8. 2 large carrots - grated

9. 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Cream Cheese Topping:
1. 250g Cream Cheese (I use Philadelphia brand)

2. 1/2 cup icing sugar

3. 2 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Hand beat eggs with a fork till light & fluffy.
3. Add in oil and sugar and hand mix until well combined.

3. Add sifted flour, bicarb of soda, cinnamon & salt and hand mix until well combined..

4. Fold in grated carrot & walnuts.

5. Pour into greased 20cm round cake tin.



A slice of cake for your enjoyment! Yum!

6. Bake 45-50 mins until cooked fully in the centre (In my oven it takes about 60 mins - so please check properly that the centre of your cake is fully cooked).

Cream Cheese Topping:

1. Cream the cream cheese, sugar & lemon juice together until desired consistency with a mixer.

2. Spread over cooled cake.

Note: I actually like to cut cake into half horizontally then spread cheese on bottom layer before putting top layer of cake back on & spreading cream cheese over the whole exterior of cake...

Super-sized Baptism/Birthday Carrot Cake – Double the Carrot Yum!

Char Siew Pau or BBQ Chicken Bun

Morning / Afternoon Tea: 12-Jan-2010

I feel inspired to make char siew pau today, using the recipe that was given to me by my sister's MIL, A Margaret... I couldn't remember the exact recipe & so decided to wing it a bit... A. Margaret, hope I've done it some justice, & will pass your standards... :-) 


This time around though, I thought I'd try out my mum's recipe for the bread part... hopefully it'll turn out nice... :-D Hmmm... I think it didn't turn out too nicely... I must experiment a bit more before I put my mum's recipe down... I think the dough didn't have too much elasticity for some reason... not sure why. Anyway, I have decided to go with A. Margaret's bread recipe instead, which is really just from the steam bun cake flour packaging...  


(Great discovery there A. Margaret... :-D)...


Ingredients:

For Meat filling:
1. approx 1 kg skinless boneless chicken thigh fillets (you can use pork too) - cleaned, fat removed & diced to quite small pieces (this part took me the longest so I relaxed in front of the TV & watched a show whilst cutting *hehe*)

2. 1 x onion - diced to small pieces

3. approx 3 - 4 tbsp fragrant chinese sesame oil

4. 2 tbsp olive oil
5. 3 tbsp light soy sauce
6. 3 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce
7. approx 6 - 10 tbsp dark soy sauce (to taste)
8. 1 tsp 5-spice powder
9. approx 1 - 2 tsp pepper (to taste)
10. 4 tbsp raw caster sugar (to taste)
11. 1 x 340g (drained weight) can whole water chestnut (ie. 1 x 567g (nett weight) large can) - drained & diced to small pieces & set aside
12. approx 3 tbsp sesame seeds - lightly fried & set aside

For Bread/Pau:

1. 1 x 397g bag Rooster brand steamed buns cake flour (has a picture of the steam bun in front & red print) - as pictured on the right.
2. 1 cup fresh milk (I used long life low-fat lactose free milk - also, 1 cup was rather wet, so I would put 1/2 cup in first then add in more if too dry)
3. 1/2 cup sugar
4. 1 tbsp cooking oil
5. Grease proof paper (or medium sized plain greaseproof cup cake cases - I was too lazy to cut little squares out... LOL!)


Method:
For Meat filling:
1. Heat up olive oil in large frying pan then add onions in. Fry onions till soft (but not brown).
2. Add chicken & brown lightly.
3. Add sesame oil, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, vegetarian oyster sauce, 5-spice powder, pepper and caster sugar to meat & mix well. Make sure meat is properly cooked & is to taste.
4. Add in water chestnuts, mix well.
5. Allow to simmer, occasionally mixing, until liquid has reduced.
6. Once cooled, add sesame seeds and mix well just before making buns.

For Bread/Pau: 
1. Remove 2 tbsp of flour from the packaging & leave aside for later use.
2. Mix the remaining flour in the package with 1/2 cup of fresh milk & 1/2 cup of sugar.
3. Knead dough well for 10 mins (adding more milk if necessary - up to 1 cup milk total, add the previously set-a-side-flour if too sticky) and then add 1 tbsp of cooking oil. Continue to knead again. Leave aside to stand for 30 mins.
4. Divide the dough into 12 parts.
5. Roll each piece into small, flat circular sheets.
6. Place filling into the centre of each rolled out sheet & fold the sides over the filling to enclose filling within.
7. Place each bun on a piece of paper/cup cake case.
8. Place the steamer filled with water on heat & boil well, add 2 tbsp of vinegar into the water to whiten the buns.
9. Steam for 10 mins, lift off the cover to remove any condensed water. Continue to steam for a further 10 mins.

10. Remove buns from the steamer & enjoy your hot delicious & ready to eat buns!! Yummy! :-D

Note: I have a metal Bellini electric steamer which I use instead & it works well, but will need to increase the time to 15 mins each time instead.

Char Siew Pau or BBQ Chicken Bun