Chocolate cupcakes in different forms...

I managed to shake off the lazy streak in me and get ready my baking materials for Cupcakes. Yay!! I love cupcakes. I tried baking cupcakes last christmas but they looked 'weird'. They resembled like cupcake but it tasted like some chinese chewy cakes for offering to the Buddha. Pardon me if I'm citing a rather bad example. So I guess something must've gone wrong somewhere but I can't pin point what went wrong exactly. Oh well, failure is the key to success. That's what my primary school teachers used to tell us and from  the cheesy soap operas.

I decided to give another shot in baking cupcakes again and I used chockylit's recipe. She has baked so many different types of cupcakes and got me droooling. As my buttercream icing failed me or should I say, I failed the buttercream icing, I didn't pipe any cream on top of my ice cream cone cupcake. =( I need to practise on my piping skills, I really do.

I put some of the batter on the paper souffle cups and they, thankfully, they turned out nicely. I bought some sprinkles from Wilton a while back and finally I got a chance to use them. My mum is thrilled to see the sprinkled on cupcakes. I promised I will save one cupcake for her and one for my dad, else my mum will be jealous. Haha!

Should I bake or should I not?

Feeling lethargic on a sunday evening... I kept asking myself, 'should i bake? should I not?' If there are flowers in my house, I will pluck out every petal to decide. I've  already prepared all the ingredients I needed for my choice bake. Must be the evening jog that is making me tired. Or my mum's constant nagging that is making me tired. Ok, I am not serious on the nagging part. Dad, if you're reading this, I am really kidding!! =) I love my mum ( I really do) even though she resents the fact sometimes that she can't stop me from buying more and more baking tools.  I am finding 101 reasons not to bake tonight. Probably, I should spare my neighbours from the sound of beating the butter, sugar, egg etc etc for the night for once.  It's already 10pm now, Singapore time.

I decided. NO baking today, period.

Strawberry Jello No Bake Cheesecake

I have another week of holiday break before I start to bury myself in work again. Finally... my bumming days will come to a complete halt. I am gonna try baking as often as I can for the remaining 8 days to the end of October 2009. 

Last December, I tasted a no-baked cheesecake during a x'mas gathering. I was in awe seeing the pretty creation. The cheesecake was topped with strawberry in the form of heart-shape followed by a jello coating. The taste was awesome too. It made everyone who tried it happy including me, of course.

This July I attempted making a no bake cheesecake using Florence recipe and I succeeded after two tries. It failed the first time because I didn't whipped the whipping cream till mousse state. Whatever the case, the no bake cheesecake  recipe is definitely a keeper.

Decided to make strawberry jello no bake cheesecake today. I bought the cheapest strawberries available in the supermarket and expensed off my last block of philadelphia cream cheese. Yay!!

Recipe adapted from: Florence (I tweaked the recipe slightly.)

Base:

300g digestive biscuits (crushed)

60g melted butter plus 2 tablespoon boiling water

Cheesecake filling:

250g cream cheese

2tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup caster sugar

100ml whipping cream plus 1 tbsp icing sugar

Grated lemon zest (optional)

1.5 tbsp gelatine plus 3 tbsp boiling water

23 strawberries

Jello topping:

1 box of strawberry jello powder

250ml of boiling water

250ml of cold water

Method:

Pour the strawberry jello powder into the boiling water and stir till it dissolves. Add 250ml cold to the jello mixture, mix well and leave it aside to cool.

Line the 9 inch baking tray with aluminium foil. Mix the melted butter with the crushed digestive biscuits . Press the crushed biscuits in the tray and put the tray in the fridge to chill to harden.

Beat the whipping cream till mousse state and set aside. Beat the cream cream with sugar till smooth. Add lemon juice, gelatine mixture and mix well. Add the whipping cream and mix well.

Pour the cheesecake filling into the tray and chill for 30 mins. Remove from the fridge and add the strawberries on the cheesecake and put inside the fridge for another 30 mins. Spoon the cooled jello mixture into the chilled cheesecake gently. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours before serving.

Enjoy!

Mini cheesecake

Needed to utilise the baking ingredients sitting in my mum's fridge before they are no longer good for use. First on my priority list is philadelphia cream cheese. I love cheesecake, who doesn't? I drags making the usual springform cheesecake pan. So, I decided to make mini cheesecake on a boring sunday. Yes, a boring and humid as always sunday.

I have been going on a mini shopping spree on the baking tools ranging from paper liners, mini muffin tray, checkerboard cake trays, cutesy birthday candles etc... I can't resist myself. And when I bring these home, I will try to hide them from my mum's view by walking straight to my bedroom. She will complain that I have too many of these 'nonsense'. To me, they are my babies; my pride and joy. I think my mum has accepted the fact that she can't stop me from indulging in these baking gadgets. Probably, it is better than getting a gucci bag.

To make sure my mini cheesecake hold its shape nicely, I use my mini muffin baking tray for my mini cheesecake. To avoid making a mess, I placed paper liners on the tray. Oh my, they looked so cute, so puny and so yummy! Two bites is enough to finish this dessert. I am so going to make this minis again.

(Makes 29 mini cheesecakes)

Recipe:

250gms of cream cheese

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

12 oreo biscuits crust (remove the cream)

2 tbsp melted butter

Fruits (optional)

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 190 deg celsius.  Place the oreo biscuits inside a ziplog bag. Use the base of a mug or a rolling pin and hit on the bag of oreo biscuits.Add melted butter to the crushed biscuits and mix well. Place the crushed biscuits on the base of the paper liners and press firmly so that the biscuits will hold together. Then place them in the fridge to chill for 10 mins.

Beat the cream cheese and egg till creamy. Add vanilla extract and sugar and mix well  until it becomes a smooth creamy batter. Spoon the batter into the paper liners close to the rim of the paper liners. Put the mini cheesecake in the oven for 15 mins or when the batter doesn't look glossy anymore. Place an oven safe cup of water inside the oven when u r baking the mini cheesecake.

Once baked, remove from the oven to cool for 20mins.You topped the cheesecake with any fruits of your choice. Once cooled, keep the mini cheesecake in the fridge until they are ready for serving. Enjoy!!

My very first checkerboard cookies

I have not started on my new job, hence I seems to be baking all the time. As I have 'all' the time in the world at this present moment, I'll attempt to bake as much as I can. I decided to bake checkerboard cookies. My very first and probably my last as I find the baking process very timing consuming (especially so when I'm not a veteran baker).  I came across this unique and interesting looking cookie when I was watching my favourite (still is) korean drama ' My name is Kim Sam Soon' a couple of years back.

I would imagine and try to visualise how to make this checkerboard cookies but nothing can come out of my head. I gave up. I decided to look for my best friend, the internet, to assist me in searching for a recipe which teaches me how to make this cute looking cookie. I needed the step-by-step instructions to guide me through this baking process. And thank goodness, I chanced upon Florence's  checkerboard cookies recipe.

I didnt think I did a great job in making the checkerboard cookies. The action I kept reperforming was chilled the shaped dough, rechilled again , rechilled again and more rechilled of the cookie dough. Weather in Singapore is extremely warm. Nevertheless, it was a good experience. For recipe and method, please kindly go to here .

Enjoy and have fun!

Cocoa Brownies

I made brownies again. This time round I used cocoa powder instead of semi-sweet chocolate chips for my brownies batter. The recipe is taken from Lily Ng's food blog where the original source is adapted from Alton Brown's recipe from Food Network. 

This is how the brownies looked like after being removed from the oven. Note: this is the back of the brownies.

These brownies are meant for a picnic outing at the Singapore Botanic Gardens on Sunday. My friends and I are going to watch a free movie screening in the park. The event is called 'Great Classics under the stars'. Sounds romantic, yeah? =) And the movie is .... 'The Last Emperor'. Uhmm... still romantic I think. ;)I enjoys watching open air movie screening or plays at the park. My last experience at the park was at Fort Canning Park 2 years ago where I watched Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. If only I have a nice picnic basket to put my sandwiches, cakes, fruits etc, it will be fantastic! Oh well, Glad containers work just fine as well... haha...

I just can't get enough of having ganache on my brownies. =)

         

I didn't include chopped walnuts for cocoa brownies, I simply topped them with a piece of walnut for decorative purpose.

                                     

Recipe:

Chocolate ganache:- (optional)

- 100ml whipping cream

- 100g semi sweet baking chocolate (I use those from Phoon Huat)

Method:

- Heat the whipping cream. Turn off heat and add the baking chocolate. Keep on stirring till the chocolate melted and becomes glossy. Let aside to cool.

Brownies batter:

- 250g butter (I use golden churn brand), melted

-3/4 cup granulated sugar, sifted

-3/4 tightly packed brown sugar, sifted

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-1/2 cup plain flour/ all-purpose flour, sifted

-1 cup cocoa powder, sifted ( I use cocoa powder from Phoon Huat)

- 4 eggs

Method:

-Pre heat the oven to 150 degree celsius.Grease the 23cm by 23 cm baking tray.

- Beat the eggs till pale yellow and foamy. Add both sugars, plain flour, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, melted butter and mix well.

- Pour the mixture into the baking tray and place inside the oven for 45mins. Insert a toothpick or a fork inside the brownies. If it comes out clean, it means the brownies are baked thoroughly.

- Remove the tray from the oven and leave the brownies to cool completely.

- Place the brownies inside the fridge for 2 hours. Remove from the fridge and pour the chocolate ganache over the brownies, spread evenly and put inside the fridge for 2-3 hours to set the chocolate ganache.

- Cut the brownies into any shape you desire and serve! :))

Notes: There is no necessity to buy expensive brands of cocoa powder or baking chocolate chips. Just get the ones you can afford. Cocoa powder and chocolate powder are two different items. As I reside in Singapore, I get most of my baking ingredients from Phoon Huat:  http://www.phoonhuat.com/ .

Enjoy!

My favourite comfort food: Mac and Cheese

Mac n Cheese is one of my favourite comfort food. I do not scout for the best mac and cheese in town as I used to think all mac and cheese taste the same. I was so wrong. There are so many variations to the recipe and one can use from 2 types of cheese to 7 types of cheese to prepare this yummylicious serving of M n C. All the different type of cheese sound greek to me. From swiss gruyere, emmanthal to mimolette blah blah blah ... What are they? Yes, cheese. I know I know... I 'think' I know. Since young, I only know cheddar cheese, blue cheese etc. Never had I for once come across such exotic cheese names. One day, I decided to try making mac & cheese, so I stumbled upon Chubby Hubby on a random search for M n C recipe. I tried his other recipe on Mexican wedding cookies before and it worked well for me, so I've full confidence in his recipe.

It wasn't easy getting Mimolette cheese though I understand Chubby Hubby mentioned where he got his. As I don't drive, I prayed hard that I can get M cheese in the supermarket in town rather than the one located in Dempsey Road (unless I am left with no choice). Finally, I found my M at 'The Market Place' in Tanglin mall shopping centre. Yay!! They sell kinds of cheese. And if you want to learn more about cheese, you can go to cheese.com .

Recipe from: Chubby Hubby

Since this is my first attempt, I approximately half all the ingredients mentioned in his recipe. I omitted bay leaf and kirsch.

Ingredients:

200g marcaroni

400ml

300ml water

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

50g mimolette, diced

50g swiss gruyere, diced

50g emmanthal, diced

20g parmesan, grated

100g mozzarella, shredded

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Pour the milk into a pot and add the water in. Add salt to the liquid and bring to a simmer.  Add the macaroni and cook until al dente.  Al dente is an adjective which describes pasta that has been cooked so as to be firm but not hard. Explanation provided by wikipedia . Drain the macaroni and kept aside. Keep the liquid ** used to cook the macaroni.

Pre-heat oven to 175 deg celsius.

In a pot, melt the butter in low heat. Off the heat, add the flour and stir quickly until completely combined. Bring the pot to the heat, add the liquid** slowly into the pot and keep stirring constantly until the liquid simmer and thickens abit. Keep aside a small handful of diced cheese and add the remaining diced cheese and mozzarella to the sauce and continue stirring slowly till all the cheese melted. Add the macaroni to the cheese mixture and mix well for a minute. Pour the macaroni into a baking dish. Sprinkle the top with the diced cheese and parmesan cheese and bake for 30 mins.

Notes: Mimolette cheese takes a long time to melt, so it is better to dice the cheese to much smaller bits compared to gruyere and emmanthal.

Enjoy!

Walnut Brownies

Brownies have always been one of my favourite desserts and that I am always exploring different recipes of brownies to get the ideal moist, heavy and chocolate rich taste. After reading through many food blogs, I decided to use the Cocoa Brownies recipe posted by Lily Ng. I simply adores her blog, each recipe is very comprehensive and makes me drool... I included chopped walnuts (100gms) and instead of cocoa powder, I used semi-sweet baking chocolates ( I needed to get 'rid' of the bags of  baking chocolate chips still sitting in my mum's fridge first ) and I spreaded ganache on my brownies to cover up the cracks on them.

Ingredients

Ganache topping:

- 1 cup of semi - sweet baking chocolate chips

- 1/2 cup of whipping cream

Brownies:

- 1 cup butter ( I use golden churn), melted

- 200gms semi-sweet baking chocolate chips, melted

- 3/4 packed brown sugar, sifted

- 1/2 cup granulated sugar, sifted

- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

- 1/2 cup all purpose flour, sifted

- 100gms of chopped walnuts (optional)

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

-4 large eggs

Steps:

1. Pre-heat oven to 300F. Butter the 8-inch baking tray.

2. Beat the eggs until fluffy and light yellow.

3. Add in both sugars and remaining ingredients and mix until well incorporated.

4. Pour mixture into the tray and bake for 45 mins.

5. While waiting for the brownies to bake, bring the whipping cream to a boil. Then turn off the heat. Add the baking chocolates into the whipping cream and stir slowly till smooth and glossy.

6. Insert a fork into the centre of the tray and it should come out clean.

7. Leave the brownies on the wire rack to cool completely, spread the ganache on the brownies' top and decorate with a peice of walnut.

I tried cocoa powder before and the brownies turned out wonderful. I will post brownies bake using cocoa powder next time. Don't forget a scoop of vanilla ice-cream to go along with the brownies. Forget about dieting, diet can always start tomorrow! =)