Blueberry Yogurt Cake

This cake was initially supposed to be decorated with buttercream and decorated with some other stuffs on top and of course I was thinking of having a 'themed' birthday cake for Hubby but I failed miserably in trying to coat the cake with buttercream. All the crumbs were running 'wild' here and there while I was trying to coat the cake. On top of that, the buttercream was somehow not at the 'spreadable consistency'. So I resulted in my contingency plan. The blueberries were used to top the top of the cake and almond flakes at the sides. Phew! Luckily, the end result is not really as 'eyesore' as I thought it would be.

A portion of the cakes were sliced and Hubby's name were piped on the cake board.By the way, in case you were wondering whether today is his birthday, the answer is NO. Hubby's birthday is still a week plus away but since we will be going back to his hometown meaning I wouldn't be able to bake anything on the exact date, I am baking this cake earlier for a pre-birthday celebration for him with his friends.

Ingredients

Sponge cake
360g sponge mix
6 eggs
90ml milk
90 butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla essence

Yogurt cream
200g fresh cream, whipped
150g plain yogurt
1 can blueberry

Garnishing
Almond flakes


Methods

1. Sponge cake: Preheat oven at 180 Celsius. Greased a 9 inch cake tin.
2. Beat sponge mix, eggs and milk in a mixer with high speed until light and fluffy. Turn to low speed, mix in essence and fold in melted butter until well blended.
3. Spread batter into prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely. Split into 3 layers.
4. Cream: Stir yogurt into whipped cream until blended.
5. Spread yogurt cream onto a layer of cake follow with blueberry. Sandwich with another layer of cake. Continue till finished. Coat cake with remaining cream. Sides with almond flakes and decorate with blueberries on top.

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Beer Cheesecake

I had decided to bake a cake to bring over to my office on Monday as a token of appreciation to our team 'AH KUNG' as we fondly called him. Just in case you are picturing an old guy with the age similar to your grandpa; you were wrong. He's a funny, and capable mid-age man that took care our team for last few months; so in another word - he's our boss. It's a pleasure to have him looking after our team for the past few months; we definitely learnt a lot from him.

Since he is a drinker and love beer; this cake is definitely something I hope he'll like - beer cheesecake. I was looking thru the recipe book when I saw this recipe. Something creative and innovative to try. The result - there's a slight bitterness taste in the cake, but not really very 'beer' taste but still taste good.

Wondering how to make the biscuits base for the cake? Have a look at the photos below.

Note: you can use any type of biscuits e.g. digestive biscuits, oreo biscuits, marie biscuits and cream cracker biscuits. For this cake, I had chosen cream cracker base.

To have a no messy kitchen - prepare a zip lock bag to place the crackers

Rolling pin used to smash up the crackers

End result - Smashed cream crackers ready to be mixed with melted butter to be used as the cake base

Since this cake was meant to given out as a gift, it was suppose to be flawless but it was cracking up in the middle of the baking process. Aargh! That's what I am hoping not to happen but eventually it happened. I thought the 'cracking up' incidence will be lower since I was using the 'water bath' method while baking. Sigh, I guess there's no 100% guaranteed method.

Grrrr! Why my cake cracked? That's my first reaction when looking at the cake halfway thru the baking process..

So to cover up or shall I say 'mask up' my failure, I had made another trip to the nearby grocer to buy some strawberries. Strawberries besides being used as a good snacks for fruits, they can be used for other purposes as well. Yeah, BINGO! You got it right! I am using them as my decorative items for my cheesecake. I had glazed the cake with some clear fruit glaze first and then strawberries were placed on top of the cake. The strawberries were glazed again to make them look shiny and pretty. The end result? Look at the photos yourselves.......

Strawberries - good decorative items which can cover up the flaws

My very own - beer cheesecake topped with strawberries.. The crack were hardly noticeable anymore...

Ready to be place on the box

The outer look of the box. Hope to find nicer looking ones in the future.. This design is not really my 'cup of tea'

Ingredients

Cake base

160 g cream cracker biscuits, crushed

100g melted butter

Filling

(A)

500g cream cheese

100g cheddar cheese

(B)

150g sugar

20g cornflour

(C)

3 eggs

1 egg yolk

(D)
1/2 lemon zest, grated

1/2 orange zest, grated

(E)

50g whipping cream

100g beer

Decorative

100g strawberries

Methods

1. Grease the cake tin. Press the cream cracker biscuits on the bottom of the tin. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
2. Cream (A) till smooth. Add (B) and cream until light and fluffy.
3. Add (C) one at a time and cream till smooth. Add (D) and mix until well blended. Add (E). Cream until well combined.
4. Pour the mixture over the biscuits base. Bake in water bath at 160 degrees for approximately 60 minutes or till golden brown and centre is almost set.
5. Run a small knife around the rim of the tin to loosen the cake. Set aside to cool.
6. Cover the cake and refrigerate for 5 hours or over overnight.
7. Decorate as you desired.

Clear Fruit Glaze
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup fruit juice
2 tablespoons corn syrup/honey

Methods

1. Bring sugar and 1/2 cup juice to a boil
2. Dissolve cornstarch in the remaining juice.
3. Add to the boiling juice and cook till thick.
4. Stir in corn syrup and bring back to a boil and remove from heat.
5. Cool and drizzle over fruit.
   

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Banana Cake with Frosting

Tonight there will be a gathering for dinner among a few friends in conjunction with my birthday and another friend of mine YH. So since this will a DOUBLE celebration, I had decided to bake a cake to bring over during the dinner. The cake that I had decided to bake is banana cake using the recipe from Pillsbury since I have a box of butter cake mix sitting quietly on my kitchen cabinet waiting to be 'summoned'.

Ingredients

1 box Pillsbury Moist Supreme butter cake mix

1 cup ripe banana, mashed

1 cup water

1/3 cup oil

1 cup water

3 eggs

Frosting

1/2 cup butter

3 cups of icing sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3-5 tbsp milk

Methods

1. Preheat oven to 180 Celsius. Grease bottom only 9 inch pan with butter.
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, mashed banana, water, oil and eggs; beat with electric mixer at low speed until moistened. Beat 2 minutes at high speed. Pour batter into pan.
3. Bake at 180 Celsius for 35-40 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely for about 1 hour.
4. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Cook 4 to 6 minutes, stirring constantly and watching closely; until butter just begins to turn golden (butter will get foamy and bubble). Remove from heat. Cool for 15 minutes.
5. With electric mixer on low speed; beat icing sugar, vanilla and enough milk until frosting is smooth and desired spreading consistency. Frost cooled cake.
6. Decorated the cake as you desired.

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Chocolate Praline Layer Cake

I had decided to make this cake to bring back to my Mum's place in conjunction with the occasion of shifting to our new house. The feedback for the cake was okay but room for improvement will be to cut down the sugar content of the cake due to my Dad's health condition. So my dear Daddy didn't dare to have a bite of it due to the overly sweetness of the cake. So I am hoping to make a more healthy type of cake to bring back during my next visit back to hometown. Oh, by the way, I failed miserably in assembly the cake. Presentation wise of the cake was a total failure. Sigh.. I need to improve further on this.

Ingredients

1 box of Pillsbury chocolate mix

1 1/4 cup water

1/3 cup oil

1/2 cup butter

1/4 whipping cream

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecan

Topping

1 3/4 cup whipping cream

1/4 cup icing sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

chocolate flakes/balls for decoration

sponge fingers for decoration

Methods

1. Preheat oven to 170 Celsius. In a small heavy saucepan, combine butter, 1/4 whipping cream and brown sugar. Cook over low heat just until butter is melted; stirring occasionally. Pour into two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans; sprinkle evenly with chopped pecans.
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, water, oil and eggs; beat at low speed until moistened. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Carefully spoon batter over pecan mixture.
3. Bake at 170 Celsius for 35 to 45 minute or until cake springs back when touched lightly at center. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pans. Cool for 1 hour or until completely cooled.
4. In a small bowl, beat 1 3/4 cup whipping cream until soft peaks form. Add icing sugar and vanilla; beat until stiff peaks form.
5. To assemble cake, place 1 layer on serving plate, praline side up. Spread with half of whipped cream. Top with second layer; praline side up; spread top with remaining whipped cream. Garnish with chocolate flakes/balls and place sponge fingers as decoration. Store in refrigerator.

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Chocolatey Cocoa Brownies

The batter - it tastes good even before baking..

Brownies in the making

Can we cut it now..?

Brownies.. A slice for me?

Heavenly chocolate flavour.. Yumm..

Today is a day to remember in our house.. It's the official ribbon cutting ceremony for my oven which has been placed at our kitchen untouched since the day we moved in last year.. Well, like the saying 'It's better late than never'. Haha.. I decided to give a try on the brownie recipes I found in Lily's blog. This recipes definately a keeper as she had mentioned in her blog. The brownies are moist and as i named it SO CHOCOLATEY! Thumbs up for the richness of the chocolate flavour in it and of course the texture as well, SO MOIST! I shall say it's a heavenly pleasure for chocolate lovers.. Do give this recipe a try when you have time...

Ingredients

Soft butter, for greasing the pan

Flour, for dusting the buttered pan

4 large eggs

1 cup sugar, sifted

1 cup brown sugar, sifted

8 ounces melted butter

1 1/4 cups cocoa, sifted

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup flour, sifted

1/3 tsp salt

Methods

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degree Celcius.
2. Butter and flour an 8-inch round pan.
3. Beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow.
4. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.
5. Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes.
6. Check the doneness of the brownies with a cake tester. The cake tester should come out clean once it's done.
7. When it's done, remove to a rack to cool.
8. Cut it when it is completely cool.
   

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White Chocolate Mud Cake

9th June 2008, its been a year since we had ROM-ed. Its been exactly a year ago since I had signed the paper. Wow! Time really flies fast. Therefore, I had baked this cake yesterday to commemorate our first ROM anniversary. So, today we had a mini celebration for our first anniversary with this white chocolate cake and red wine.

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter, chopped

150g white chocolate, chopped

2 cups caster sugar

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted

1/2 cup self-raising flour, sifted

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, beaten lightly

pieces of chocolate - decoration

Ganache

300g white chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup thickened cream

Methods

1. Preheat oven at 160 degrees. Meanwhile, grease a deep 22 cm round cake pan; line base with baking paper.
2. Combine butter, chocolate, sugar and milk in a pan; stir over low fire until chocolate melted and sugar is dissolved. Transfer mixture to a large bowl; cool for 15 minutes.
3. Stir in flours, vanilla extract and eggs. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
4. Bake, covering with foil halfway through cooking for 1 1/2 hours. Stand cake in pan for 3o minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
5. To prepare ganache, combine white chocolate and cream in a pan. Stir over low fire until chocolate is melted and mixture smooth. Pour into a bowl then refrigerate until thick and of spreadable consistency.
6. Spread ganache over top and sides of mud cake. Decorate with pieces of chocolate.

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Oreo Cheesecake

19th May is my birthday. Instead of going out, I had chosen to stay at home to bake myself a cake this year since me and hubby had my birthday dinner last nite. Out of so many kind of cakes, I had chosen Oreo Cheesecake since cheesecakes is always my favourite cake. Me and hubby went out to a nearby hypermarket to buy all the ingredients needed to bake the cake after having our breakfast.

Ingredients

18 oreo cookies, crushed ( I had increased to 25 oreo cookies to have a thicker crust)

80g of melted butter
24 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk (I had reduced it to 410g to make it less sweet)

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

Methods

1. Mix Oreos and butter.
2. Press them down in a greased 9inch spring form pan .
3. In a large bowl, cream together remaining ingredients until well blended.
4. Pour into spring-form pan.
5. Sprinkle a bit of the crushed Oreos cookies on top of the batter.
6. Bake for 45-60 minutes at 150ºC.
7. Don't bake till it cracks.
8. Cool to room temperature and chill in the refrigerator before removing pan.
   

Comments: I had placed some Oreos cookies on top of the cheesecake as decorations since I have some leftover of Oreos.

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