Durian Cheesecake

My second daughter Lyanne is a durian monster. She's a very picky girl who loves plain rice and anything carbo but hates meat and vegetables. She isn't an adventurous eater but surprisingly, she loves durian. Love is an understatement. She's mad about durians. Durians aren't available all the time and when it's durian season, she will be pestering her grandpa to get her durians and he will gladly scour the town and get her the best that he can find.

Blueberry Double Cheesecake

Long long ago.... I saw this cheesecake on My Kitchen. That's where the inspiration came from.

My kids dubbed this as their all time fav cheesecake. I told them, it's very expensive to make, LOL.

I made this two years ago, sorry yeah.. was too busy with MFF and AFF that all that I'm sharing now are all old recipes. I'm digging them out each week.

Mango Cheese Charlotte -No Bake Cheesecake #3

MIL suddenly asked us out for dinner with a newly wed couple who are relatives. And asked me whether I can make a cake for them. 22 hours notice!

To make a cake for the newly wed couple as a simple dinner celebration, is not like a birthday cake or a regular cake, I have to incorporate romantic elements into it. I can only make do with whatever I have in hand. I have mangoes, limes, chocolate, coffee and no berries at all in the fridge. So, it's either I make a mango cake or a mocha flavoured cake.

Rainbow Fruit Cheesecake - No Bake Cheesecakes #2

All natural no food colouring, no artificial flavouring, all fruits! It's one of my crazy projects that I made out of the quest for new ideas.
It's quite an expensive cake to make,but worth it, if you are not into food colouring but yet want to make a surprise for kids.

Pistachio Lime Cheesecake - No Bake Cheesecakes #1

This cake was a feat!

I got to know that my BIL’s birthday was on the day itself at 1.30pm. I asked him whether he wants a cake, and he said yeah, cheesecake but egg free please. Then I searched for some cheesecake series and passed the phone to him, asking him to select the one he wants. He chose a lime and strawberry cheesecake.

I had no strawberries on hand but I happened to have some homegrown limes from my brother’s neighbor. That’s perfect! I don’t have limes at home usually and he’s one lucky man! And I also bought a good sum dairy products in baking the day before, so, making a cheesecake will not be too hard. A baked one will take too long as I had to get the cake ready that day itself and ah-ha, since he wanted it egg free, let’s just make a no bake cheesecake, a lime flavoured one.

Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake - Baked Cheesecake #3

This cake was a request from my brother in law. He wanted a pumpkin cheesecake and so, I took this opportunity to try out Rose's recipe.

Largely based on Rose Levy Berenbaum's recipe with quite a lot of adapations. And some regrets too.

Coffee Marble Cheesecake - Baked Cheesecakes #2

I created this cheesecake for a wedding reception of 150 guests.

My husband's cousin got married last November. The groom's mother, our aunt, requested that I bake some desserts for the reception because the only dessert the caterer offered was fresh fruits.

I made quite a number of things and 2 cheesecakes. One of the cheesecakes is this. The other is a light tasting slightly fluffy orange cheesecake. I planned it in such a way that the guests will have some taste and textural contrast, and everything is bite sized. The rest of the dessert was Designer Chocolate Baby Grands, Kumquat Almond Tea Cakes, Vanilla Cream Puffs and Rainbow Jelly. I wanted to make more, but time  and manpower was a constraint. I was the only person doing almost everything until the final 12 hours. Baking is easy, cleaning up is not.

White Wine Cheesecake - Baked Cheesecakes #1

I heard about this cheesecake from Reese and she told me how delicious it was. When I finally had a bottle of opened white wine I decided to try it out for myself.

It was still a boozy even after baking for 1 hour, so the kids were forbidden to eat.

I liked it but my hubby was only ok because he wanted it to be more cheesy. My MIL found it too boozy. So, it's pretty much up to the individual. But I'd say the texture is absolutely beautiful. Smooth and creamy but light at the same time.

Tiramisu - Caffeine Cakes # 1

Recipe made in March 2011 (LOL, more than a year ago!)

Oh my Oh my…. Tiramisu : )

It’s so funny that all the blogging years, I’ve never never attempted a Tiramisu. Nor did I ever felt tempted to try it out. When some people I talk to know that I bake, they ask me, ever made tiramisu? I’d be dumbfounded and said no, not yet. It seems that is the first cake they ever ask me. Is that a pre requisite for someone who bakes? Must every baker make 1 tiramisu once in their life? Well, maybe a lot of people love tiramisu, but I was just so so about it. Most tiramisus I had are very bland, taste more like a coffee cream cake more than anything else. Maybe mascarpone is too bland for me, or those bakeries just didn’t use as much mascarpone to bring the flavour out? It just doesn’t appeal to me so so much that I got to add it in my baking list. Frankly, it is not.

Passionfruit Yogurt Cheesecake - Cheesecake Trio #3

This is my first time trying fresh local passionfruit. Somehow it doesn’t taste like those commercial flavours. It’s very much like Cosway’s Markisa Juice. And after doing some reading up, the local variety available here is indeed markisa. The skin’s pinkish rather than purplish or yellowish. So for those of you who is yearning for some passionfruit bakes but find it hard to get the pulp or fruit, head on to Cosway and get your bottle of markisa cordial. I’ve baked a chiffon with it few years back and it works.
 *** I’m not a Cosway member ***

With Mother's Day just 2 days away, I was thinking of visiting my mother on the day with a cake. She's not expecting me, as she was more worried about me being at 36 weeks (that time). I had no idea what to make for her until I rumaged my fridge to look for ingredients. I saw the pack of almost forgotten fruits. (I had been busy moving) The passionfruits had been lying in my fridge for 6 weeks, wrinkling by the day. The passionfruits seems to have taken on some mould. I washed away the mould and they looked ok. I cut them open and phew, absolutely ok. The skin’s really thick and I didn’t see any penentration of blackish, grayish or greenish stuff on the inside.The inner skin was just plain white and pretty. And they still taste pretty nice, but sourish. If you want to know where I bought them, it's at Subang's Jaya Grocer at Empire. Hahaha, do I live in Klang Valley or in KK, hahaha, take a guess.

I’ve been baking very much without a recipe nowadays. Throwing in whatever I feel like. Not trying to brag, but just to share. When the inspiration comes, I just try to imagine what I want and go about with that. It’s fun!
Oh yeah, I tried out my new oven with this cake, actually it's the 2nd cake as I baked a sponge just before this cake. Baked 2 cakes consecutively and the cheesecake must be the last as it needs to be cooled in the oven. I'll talk more about my oven next time.

To those of you who think I really cincai taruk (simply put in),NO, there still are rules to go by. Like ratio of gelatin to liquid is always 1 tbsp to 500ml liquid (but I might do adjustments accordingly at times). And the rest, is just reasoning. If one likes it creamy, then use some cream, if one likes it lemony, then use some zest and not the juice. But if you like it tangy, then use the juice. If you prefer it better aerated then beat the whites. It’s up to you!

Does this cake look familiar to you? I’m creating this cake based on Secret Recipe’s Raspberry Yogurt Cheesecake, which is Lydia’s favourite. It is not similar, in texture and taste but the inspiration is from there.

Passionfruit Yogurt Cheesecake
Recipe source: Wendyywy

Cheesecake base
250gm cream cheese, room temperature
50gm sugar
2 egg yolks
100ml whipping cream
½ tbsp lemon zest
20gm corn starch

2 egg whites
1 tsp lemon juice
40gm sugar

1. Prepare an 8 inch round spring form pan. Refer here. Prepare some boiling water. Preheat oven to 150C (bottom heat only, if that is not available, wrap top of cheesecake when cake gets too brown. I intend this cheesecake to have a pale top.)
2. Beat cream cheese until smooth (no need to be fluffy), put in sugar and egg yolks and cream until combined.
3. Pour in whipping cream, corn starch and lemon zest, and mix until smooth. Set aside.
4. In another clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy and put in lemon juice. Beat until soft peaks and gradually add in sugar and beat until medium stiff.
5. Fold egg whites into main batter and pour into prepared pan.
6. Bake for 1 hour. Let cake cool in oven with door slightly ajar for 1 hour. Then remove cake from oven and remove base pan that contains water and let cake cool down completely. Chill in fridge (still in pan) when cake has totally cooled.

After chilling cake for at least an hour (or freeze it for 15 minutes for express chilling), prepare yogurt layer

Yogurt Layer
500gm plain yogurt
1 ½ Tbsp gelatin
50ml water
100ml whipping cream
70gm sugar
Extra sugar if needed (due to different level of tanginess of the plain yogurt, especially natural yogurt which is rather sour)

1. Put water into a heat proof bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over water. Let it bloom and then zap it in microwave on high heat for 30 seconds (or place bowl over some hot water to melt the gelatin). Let gelatin mixture cool down to room temperature.
2. Beat cream with sugar until soft peaks and mix in plain yogurt. Taste. If not sweet enough, add more sugar.
3. Run mixer on low and pour gelatin mixture into yogurt mixture.
4. Pour mixture over chilled cheesecake.
5. Place cake into freezer for 15 minutes.
While the cake is going through express chilling in the freezer, prepare the topping.

Topping layer
½ cup passionfruit pulp (derived from 400gm of passionfruit, weighed when still fresh and unwrinkled)
1 tsp gelatin
1 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp sugar

1. Place gelatin into a heatproof bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over and let it bloom for 1 minute.
2. Zap in microwave on high for 15 seconds or melt over hot water.
3. While gelatin solution is still hot, mix in sugar and stir. It’s ok if it’s not fully melted.
4. Mix in passionfruit pulp and mix until sugar is fully dissolved.
5. Remove cake from freezer and touch the surface of the yogurt. It should be wobbly but should not stick to your fingers.
6. Gently spoon passionfruit layer over yogurt. Chill for at least 5 hours before serving.

*If using Passionfruit/Markisa Cordial, then prepare half cup of slightly oversweetened cordial (mix the cordial with some water until sweeter than what u'll usually drink) and mix with the melted gelatin. Skip the sugar, of course, as the cordial is sweetened. Do step1,2, add prepared cordial and then 5 and 6 only

Verdict: 
The cheesecake base is not as heavy and creamy as Secret Recipe's but quite light by comparison. Well recieved by everyone, including my not-so-cake-loving brother, who loves passionfruit and kept on nagging on how I wasted the fruit by making this cake. He also bought some passionfruit the same time as I did and ate his fresh weeks ago after wrinkling them.

Marble Cheesecake for my Colleague - Cheesecake Trio # 2

My colleague ordered this cake for her daughter few weeks back before I moved.

I used Alex Goh's recipe and as always it always crack in my oven.

I didn't whip the cream, and instead used sour cream, still it cracked.

Hated it.

So, I hid the cracks with some make up

And here's the cake

Pn Tan, Hope your girl and your family loved the cake

Hannah's 2 Minnie Mouse Birthday Cakes - Cheesecake Trio #1

 

I made 2 cakes for my dear niece to be cut n day 1 and day 2 of Chinese New Year.
She requested for a Minnie Mouse cake and gosh, a Minnie Mouse cake? She must have caught the bug on her trip to Disneyland last Nov. I turned down her request as I can't figure out how to do that just before CNY. As you all know, fridges are stuffed so so full during this period that keeping a cake with cream in a stuffed full fridge is CRAZILY difficult.

But I felt so bad letting her down. Really felt so so bad. So I googled for Minnie Mouse cake and then I got the idea of instead of making Minnie's face, I could just use her trademark, polka dot ribbons as my deco theme. And use chocolate cut outs to make the Minnies. The cut outs have no facial features, but with those ears and ribbons, no one couldn't recognise it's not Minnie. And further more, she has told me before she loved my Strawberry Mirror Cake and would want to have it again this time, and I also turned her down because I don't want to make repeating cakes for the same person. Well, this request was 2 months before the Minnie request. So, I made up my mind to make 2 cakes for her. One oreo cheesecake to be cut at my mom's and the strawberry mirror cake to be cut at my sis in law's parent's house, since they've never had this cake before. A pink cake is perfect for Minnie. Both are gelatin set cakes, as I didn't want to do frosting and worry about getting them smudged when I shove them into the stuffed fridge. Cake rings are there for a purpose. : p

I went around town scouting for suitable ribbons. It was only at an old shop that I could get it. Those popular fast moving art and gift shops carry only the latest designs and these polka dot stuff are infact, quite old. I've been seeing them around since my school days!!! I finally found one that is suitable.

For the Strawberry Mirror Cake, instead of having the mirror on top, I set the mirror on 2 separate pans.
When they were set, I half froze them. Then I made the bavarian cream filling and sandwiched the mirror layer between the bavarian cream. So altogether there was 3 layers of cake and 2 layers of mirror sandwiched with bavarian cream. Haha, if you have no idea, this is the layout from bottom to top:
Cake, Cream, Mirror, Cream, Cake, Cream, Mirror, Cream , Cake, Cream.
I planned to do white polka dots for the cake, Minnie's trademark, but then I was too tired to do that step. A choc cut out is good enough, Haha

I can't get a picture of the interior as the I didn't see the cake being cut. But the reviews I got was that it was fabulous! Yeah with almost 1kg of strawberries in that cake, how can it not be fabulous! Haha. But the actual fact is that, it's not a common cake. The relatives on my SIL's side have never eaten such a cake, and some of them requested for the recipe.

Ok, now about the Oreo Cheesecake. Well, don't know why I came up with the idea of using Oreos and stacked them to make the cake. But then, initally, I wanted to do a dome with Minnie's ears and ribbons on top. Which was why this cake was so short. But in the end, I ran out of cream. I didn't want to do an empty dome, was worried it'll soften and collapse during the 1 hour journey from KK to Kampar, so, no cream, no filling, no dome, no Minnie ears and ribbon. In the end, I made cut outs and hand sewed the ribbons. I didn't have proper Minnie cookie cutters and had to make do with my bear cookie cutter. The ears where smaller than Minnie's but no one realised it until I told them, it's actually a bear's cut out, not Minnie's. It was totally acceptable for those who saw the cake. Hahaha!! That means, the ribbons did a very good job in portraying Minnie.

I concocted my own formula for this cheesecake, threw in whatever I fancy and used lots of oreos for some stacking effect. I could only do 3 layers as that was all the batter that I have. If I used a smaller cake ring, then I could do more layers.

Oreo Stacked Chilled Cheesecake

Recipe Source : Wendyywy

250gm cream cheese, softened
100gm sweetened condensed milk, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
300gm whipping cream, cold
1 Tbsp + 1tsp gelatin
50gm water
3 tubes of Oreo (more or less)

1. Separate oreo cookies. Discarding all the cream except for 25 pieces of halves.
2. Finely mill the 25 pieces of cookie halves with cream.
3. Press the milled cookie crumbs into a cake ring on a cake board /springform pan. Keep chilled.
4. Put water into a heat proof bowl and sprinkle gelatin over the water. Let the gelatin sit for 2 minutes. It will bloom. Then melt the gelatin either in the microwave (30 secs on high) or over another bowl of boiling water. (method seen here). Let it cool down.
5. Beat cream cheese until smooth and put in condensed milk and vanilla and beat again. Beat in gelatin solution until just combined.
6. In another clean bowl, beat cold whipping cream until soft peaks.
7. Fold the half the cream into the cream cheese mixture using a large whisk. Repeat with balance of cream.
8. Put in slightly more than half cup of cheese mixture into prepared pan. Spread it out. Arrange oreo halves (no cream) all over the cheese.
9. Repeat step 8 twice. You’ll have 3 layers of cookies.
10. Gently pour all the remaining cream cheese over the cookies and level the “cake”
11. Put into fridge to chill for at least 5 hours before unmoulding.

The Minnies were all ripped off by the kids.

Red Berries Tray Bake with Cheesecake Ripple - Berry Week #2

I am a girl and I love pink. Well, maybe a woman now, hehe.

Well, girls seem to be born with this liking for pink. My girls love pink. I never teach them to like pink.

I am not pink crazy that I love my car or room to be pink, dressed in pink from top to toe, pink lipstick and eyeshadow, but when cakes or desserts come in pink, I am totally swooned. Absolutely swooned!!! So, when I saw this cake on Technicolor Kitchen, I just can’t say no to it, and I have half a block of cream cheese left from my Pomegranate Cream Cheese Orange Salad. And I also have strawberries left over from the “tomato sauce” for the Pizza Cake. And I just bought some raspberries too.

Not that I don’t love plums that I don’t want to use them like Patricia did. Red plums are in season now, and I just saw them at RM12/kg. Not too expensive, cheaper compared to using rasps and strawberries. But since I already have those ingredients in hand, so just use them, rather than go and buy 4 plums for this. Plums when baked are very pretty. They have this wonderful pinkish hue from their skin. It doesn’t look as pretty when the fruit is raw, but when baked, the colour is super pretty. You can see how pretty it is in my plum and nectarine cobbler.

At first I wanted to use some blueberries too, but then I don’t want to spoil the “pinkness” in this cake. Feel free to use blueberries or even fresh peaches (Australian peaches in season now!!!!).
Basically, any soft fruit will work with this cake. Substitute with whatever you have on hand. But don't forget to change the name to fit the cake. A cake with blueberries can't be called red berries tray bake, or a cake with peach can't be called a berry cake too, as peaches are stone fruits, a category in its own.
I also changed the method for the cake. I used creaming method, just to reduce slightly the amount of baking powder used. I didn’t reduce the sugar content as my fruits are rather tart. If your fruits are really, really sweet, then reduce the sugar, as the sourness of the fruits seems to intensify after baking.

Red Berries Tray Bake with Cheesecake Ripple
Sources:

As seen on Technicolor Kitchen

Original recipe from : Waitrose

Cream cheese mixture

125gm cream cheese

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cake batter

120gm butter

120gm soft brown sugar

2 eggs

½ tsp vanilla extract

140gm all purpose flour

1/ 2 tsp baking powder

200gm raspberries and strawberries

1. Rinse fruits and set aside to air dry.

2. Fully line a 8 inch shallow square pan with overlapping baking paper.

3. Preheat oven to 160(fan)/180C.

4. Sift flour with baking powder, set aside.

5. Beat cream cheese, vanilla and sugar until creamy, put into a plastic bag.

6. Cut the strawberries and tear raspberries into halves.
7. Cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
8. Add in eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract.
9. Put in half of sifted flour and beat until combined and beat in the balance of flour.
10. Put 40% of the batter into the lined pan, spread it around.
11. Snip a corner (abt 8mm) off the plastic bag with cream cheese in it. Squirt ½ the cream cheese all over the spread out batter.
12. Arrange half the fruits over the batter. Gently press them in.
13. Dollop remaining batter over fruits, press and spread the batter over the fruit.
14. Squirt the balance of cream cheese over cake and arrange the balance of fruits. Gently press the fruits in.
15. Bake for 35 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

Verdict:
Very soft and moist!!! The cream cheese ripple added a special dimension to the taste of the cake. Creamy and dense compared to the soft moist cake. Yummylicious! As predicted, the berries turned tarter after being baked. The strawberries were still fine, but the rasps are…. Hahaha, squince a bit when you eat. But then, the next day, the tartness mellowed and was longer as sharp. Same thing happened to my Stone Fruit Tea Cake 2. It only tasted fragrant and sweet the next day. So, if you ever find the cake to be too sour for your tastebud, keep it for one day, it’ll be much better.

Do not keep it at room temperature for more than 24 hours. It contains cream cheese and you better chill it to prevent it from turning bitter and bad. Warm it in the microwave for 10-20 seconds, and the cake is very nice when eaten warm.

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers March 2011 Fruity March

Orange Cheesecake with Kumquat Compote

When I saw this cheesecake on Zurin's blog long ago, I fell in love with the kumquat crown. It looked so pretty. When I saw kumquats in Ipoh's Jusco, I had to get my hands on some. It's not expensive, at less than RM4 per punnet.

I didn't want to do a rich rich cheesecake that'll take up few blocks of cream cheese. I always prefer light creamy cheesecakes. No, this is not as light as featherlight cheesecake or Japanese Cotton Cheesecake. This is still creamy but not that, that rich. I want to eat cake, not lick on cream cheese. And I also have little bit of cream left from my pineapple tarts and Minnie Cakes (not sure when I'll be posting them, as I'm going themed now), and a opened can of condensed milk. Might as well utilize them.

Well, yeah, this is another dump in cake. Hey, I don't simply dump in things. I do calculations in my brain before I dump them in. How much aeration I want, how sweet and milky I want the cake to be, how firm I want it. I never just throw things in before giving it a second thought. Never. Ingredients are too expensive to be wasted.

Kumquats are a nice fruit to be incorporated into CNY.
So, if you ask me, Is this fruit common?

Well, when I was a kid, my neighbour bought two kumquat trees for CNY, and I asked him , why is the lime so funny, it's oblong rather than round. He said, oh, it's a new variety. Darn, he doesn't know it's a Kumquat 金橘. So, I bet most of you have seen this somewhere in someone's home, or even your own home, but have no idea, this is the kumquat that I'm talking about. It's a longish oblong lime lookalike that has no flesh. The fruit can be eaten whole. Just pop it into your mouth and chew away.

So, who were the eaters of this cake. Don't ask Mike. He didn't even catch a glimpse of this cake. I made this for my friends, that I met up on Day 4 of CNY. They cleaned up the pan very quickly. I never knew kumquat compote tasted so good. I used less sugar than found in online recipes because I found my kumquats to be on the sweet side, rather than being tart. I'm not going to keep the compote at room temperature for ages, so, why use so much sugar? Now with this ratio that I formulated for sweet kumquats, it's just nice for me. Like a light marmalade. The cake may be sweet on first bite due to the compote, but as you go on, it'll be fine. No one complained, but asked for seconds

Orange Cheesecake with Kumquat Compote
Recipe source: Wendyywy

250gm cream cheese, softened
125gm sweetened condensed milk
60gm whipping cream
1 egg
20gm corn starch
40gm cake flour (All purpose should work fine here too)
1 Tbsp (packed) orange zest
60ml fresh orange juice
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar
30gm sugar

1. Prepare and line a springform pan. Wrap pan with aluminium foil to prevent water from seeping into the baking pan. Refer here if not sure how. Prepare a pot of boiling water. Place pan into a slightly larger pan. Preheat oven to 130C(fan)/150C
2. Sift cornstarch and flour and set aside.
3. Mix orange juice and egg yolks, lightly beat for a while and set aside.
4. With a whisk or large spoon, beat cream cheese until smooth and put in condensed milk and mix until smooth. Put in whipping cream and beat until smooth. Put in egg and beat until smooth. Put in sifted flour and mix until smooth. Put in orange juice mixture and and zest and mix until smooth.
5. Beat egg whites until frothy. Put n cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks. Put in sugar gradually and beat until stiff, and the peaks are softly hooked when whisk is turned upright.
6. Fold half of the beaten egg whites into the cheese mixture. Repeat with balance of whites.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and put the whole set of prepared pans into the oven. Pour boiling water into the outer pan until it’s at least 1/3 the height of the inner pan.
8. Bake for 1 hour. Cool cake in oven (door ajar) for half an hour. Remove cake from oven and cool down totally. Chill in fridge for 5 hours before serving. With a skewer/toothpick, poke cake to create at least 30 holes absorb the syrup from the compote.

Kumquat Compote
250gm kumquats
125gm sugar (use more if kumquats are tart)
125ml water or more

1. Slice kumquats about 3mm thick. Remove all the seeds
2. Place all the prepared kumquats into a saucepan and put in water and sugar.
3. Cook on medium low heat until all the kumquats turn translucent. If it's too dry, add a bit more water.
4. Arrange warm kumquat slices over cheesecake and brush remaining syrup over kumquat slices.

Pictures of cheesecake taken with my Sony Ericsson TX5, not as good as usual, right?

Raspberry Lime Cheesecake Bars

I had some digestive biscuits that I bought almost a year ago because they were on offer and Lydia at that time was loving them, but after I bought them she stopped eating them. So, well, I kept them until now.

I had some cream cheese left from my Mango Cotton Cheesecake experiment

I had a bottle of Raspberry jam, newly bought from Jusco the other day.

I had some whipping cream, frozen, left over since the White Chocolate Mousse with Strawberry compote.
When they have been frozen, they can’t be whipped again, therefore can only be used for cooking or cheesecakes.

I have butter, eggs and sugar, definitely at home.

Then I saw this at Peabody’s. Ah-ha, I could just adapt my stuff and make this.

But alas.. it didn’t came up as it was as Peabody’s . Because I used more egg and less cream cheese, the batter was more liquidy and didn’t support the raspberry jam. Oh.. nevermind. Just eat it as cheesecake. Just as nice.

The lime thing was really good. Sour, tangy, and the crust was limey..

Raspberry Lime Cheesecake Bars

Filling
150gm cream cheese
30gm sugar
1 egg
4 Tbsp lime juice (from 4-5 limes)
40gm whipping cream
¼ cup raspberry jam, warmed to liquefy a bit

Crust
120gm digestive biscuits, crushed into fine crumbs
30gm butter, melted
1 Tbsp sugar
½ Tbsp lime zest(from 2 limes)

1. Preheat oven at 160/180C
2. Line a 7 inch square pan with overlapping baking paper.
3. Combine crushed digestive biscuits, butter, sugar and lime zest and mix well. Press into lined pan.
4. Bake crust for 10 minutes.
5. Meanwhile prepare cream cheese filling. Whisk cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Put in egg and mix until smooth. Put in whipping cream and mix again. Then lime juice and mix.
6. When crust is baked, leave it to cool slightly. Pour cream cheese filling onto crust and dot with 1/3 tsp of warmed raspberry jam, all over.
7. Bake for another 30 minutes until filling is all firm and the top has taken on some colour.

** The raspberry jam don't seem to be in dollops are being baked, but rather spread out on the bottom fo the cheese filling ontop of the crust.

Joanna's Pink Heart of Hearts Cheesecake

Joanna is the younger daughter of my eldest brother.
Last year I made a Present Cake, and this year,she requested a Heart of Hearts Cake.

My 2nd sister in law has a cake decoration book, bought just for ogling.
And my brother's daughters plus mine will definately look through this book whenever they can.
Trying to choose their next birthday cake, fantasizing how pretty each cake will be.
And Joanna saw this cake, being an absolute pink girl, she absolutely fell in love with this.

The original cake was made of ice cream, coated with white chocolate and topped with piped dyed white chocolate hearts, but I'm not going to do that. Joanna requested that I make a cheesecake inside but retained the looks of the cake. Kids!!!! They just know how to request.

With the looks fixed, cake type fixed, no headaches but also no room for creativity!!!
I made a Japanese Cotton Cheesecake, but with whipping cream instead of milk.
And to achieve the look, I had to find a way. I don't want white chocolate as I don't find it suitable for a soft cheesecake. So I made Swiss Meringue Buttercream for it in the end. And with some balance of cream, I made the hearts out of buttercream too, instead of piped white chocolates. No wastage. All used up.

So, on the day itself..

Sorry for the layout of the picture. Blogger won't let it stand upright.

 And the kids were excited when it's time to cut up the cake, all peeping in

Here's how it looked like inside. I did some marbling with the Japanese Cotton Cheesecake. My elder brother commented, it was very very good. He said, "I rarely take seconds, and now I am". Frankly I do find Japanese cotton cheesecake taste better and is more stable when made with whipping cream.

 My favourite part of the cake is the white squiggles used as trimming for the base. I just added that after I had excess of uncoloured cream, and I have to say, it's was the prettiest part.  The pipings of the hearts were hedious, ugly, squirmish and uneven. But I passed the kid's test. She smiled from ear to ear when she saw it.

I wonder what will next year's challenge be.

Now that the kids are growing up, they will start to ask.

Not that they'll take anything I make for them.

Hahaha!!

Featherlight Cheesecake

This cake really lives up to its name. Feather light :)

Another recipe from Alex Goh from his ‘Fantastic Cheesecake’ cookbook. I think I’ve made the most stuff out of this book.

Hannah the picky eater ate 4 slices of this at one go. She keeps on telling me it’s so good. And Joanna wants this cake as her birthday cake (The inside of course, outside she wants it all pink).

This cake is on the moist side. You can see why… the amount of liquid used is a lot. Actually I jacked up the whole recipe by another 25% because I had 160gm of cream cheese in the fridge and have a 9 inch square instead of a 8 inch. One mistake that I did was to retain the baking time which in the end could’ve made the cake slightly wetter than it should be because I had trouble slicing the cake. Or maybe I should’nt have jack up the milk by the same ratio of 25%. Nevermind, I don’t think this will be a one off cake. I’ll definitely make this again… for Joanna’s birthday. And she wants it heart shaped and pink. Here’s another reason to get a new pan.

Featherlight Cheesecake Recipe

250gm milk
20gm butter
125gm cream cheese(room temperature)

50gm flour
3 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
80gm sugar

Pinch of salt
½ Tbsp cocoa powder
1 Tbsp boiling water

1. Line the base of a 8 inch square pan and preheat the oven at 150/160C.
2. In a medium sized bowl, cream cream cheese until smooth.
3. Bring milk and butter to a boil and pour ¼ of it into cream cheese and gently stir until incorporated. Pour in another ¼ the milk and stir again. Lastly pour in all the milk and stir until smooth. (At this point, prepare some boiling water)
4. Let the cheese mixture cool down and put in flour. Mix until smooth. Then put in egg yolks and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
5. In another clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Put in salt and cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks. Put in sugar gradually and beat until stiff.
6. Put 1/3 of egg whites into cheese mixture and fold gently but quickly.
7. Pour the cheese mixture into the egg whites and fold until well incorporated.
8. Mix cocoa powder with boiling water until smooth. Put in a few tablespoons of the cheese batter and mix until a smooth chocolatey batter is formed.
9. Pour main cheese batter into prepared pan. Drizzle chocolate batter over main cheese batter.
10. Use a knife and cut through the batter to create a marbling effect.
11. Put pan into slightly bigger but shallower pan. Fill the bigger pan with boiling water until halfway up and bake for 50-60 minutes.
12. When cake is baked, remove from oven and release the sides of the cake from the pan immediately by running a knife between the sides of the cake and the pan. Cake will shrink tremendously but evenly. Leave it to cool down totally and chill until cold before cutting.

Please note that this cake is very fragile and must be handled very gently with much care.

Mango Cotton Cheesecake with Mango Crown

Looked pretty from the top?

Please don't look at the sides. Hedious!!! Absolutely hedious!! Cos I did this in a regular pan and forgot to grease the sides. I tried to release the sides with a knife when it was fresh out from the oven to avoid cracking whilst cooling and I mutilated the cake's side.

This is not a first time baking with mangoes. My 2nd infact. My 1st experience was a birthday cake for Mike, a Baked Mango Cheesecake. He asked me to discard the whole cake. That's how bad it was.
Reason: The whole cake tasted and smelt green, green like grass. The colour was a dirty yellow, like clay in yellow ochre.
Why did this happen?
Because I used Chok Anan mangoes to do it.
Sure or not it's the mangoes fault??? Sure la.... Even the decorative top turned dirty yellow in just 3 hours.
The blog where I got this recipe from said her cake was ok, but she could not recall the type of mango she used, even when I sent her pictures. But she said, it was a Thai mango.

I've got a friend who tried my Orange Yogurt Muffin Cake, and she ran out of plain yogurt and used her cup of mango yogurt instead. She told me the cake turned into a dirty looking cake with a grassy smell. See... It's not me blaming it all on the mango. Chok Anans are one of the most common mangoes for sale here. And it's one of the cheapest too, so I'm not surprised that manufacturers will use this mango for their "real fruit yogurt".

So, it seemed that it's the type of mango used that will affect the cake, not any mango can be used for baking. So which type? I had to experiment.

This time, I used Golden Lily mango, another common Thai mango. And the result was better.

Oh why did I do a cotton cheesecake to try out the mango??
Cotton cheesecakes are easier to eat and finish off compared to regular creamy cheesecakes and the main reason is that it uses less cream cheese :)
I just want to know the outcome of baking with Golden Lily mango.

Mango Cotton Cheesecake

125gm cream cheese, room temperature
3 egg yolks
30gm flour
20gm corn starch
125ml mango puree

3 egg whites
70gm sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 150/160C. Line the base of a 7 or 8 inch round pan, grease the sides
2. With a whisk or mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth.
3. Add in egg yolk one by one, beating smooth after each addition.
4. Mix in both flours until smooth.
5. Combine mango puree until everything is smooth. Set aside.
6. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Put in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks.
7. Add in sugar gradually and beat until stiff.
8. Fold 1/3 of egg whites into cheese mixture.
9. Pour cheese mixture into remaining egg whites and fold until well combined.
10. Pour batter into prepared pan. Put pan into another slightly bigger pan filled halfway with boiling water.
11. Bake for 45 minutes. Cool cake thoroughly before decorating with mango slices. Chill in fridge until time of use.

Mango Crown Topping
Mango slices
1 Tbsp Instant jelly powder
100ml water
1 Tbsp sugar

1. Arrange mango slices on cooled cake. Put cake in freezer while you do the jelly glaze.
2. Mix instant jelly powder, sugar and water in a saucepan.
3. On medium heat, bring to a boil and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat. No need to cool down.
4. Remove cake from freezer and brush glaze onto mango slices. The jelly will harden upon contact with cold mango.

Although not very,very good, but better. The decorative top lasted 18 hours before turning brown and the interior of the cake was orangy brownish, but definately not dirty looking. Taste wise, ok, but it doesn't taste exceptionally mangoey on its own. The mango topping is a must. 

I wonder what sort of mango will give bakes a lovely mango flavour. Maybe Thai mangoes don't work, because they have a faint fragrance, as I read somewhere on the internet that mango flavour and fragrance diminishes upon baking or cooking, and only certain mangoes are suitable, but what sort of mango??? There are hundreds of mango varieties in the world. Will Indian mangoes work? Alphonso or Wira? They certainly taste and smell much  much stronger than Thai mangoes. I can't get Philipines Mango here... so I don't know about them.

Anyone that had success baking with mangoes, please share with me your experience. I am desperate to know. I hope to don't need to buy every mango in the market and test each one out.