Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Pressies from my friends and colleagues

I love Yami Yorgurt. One of the sweet treats my two colleagues got for everyone in the office. Yum! Yay to all pressies from my colleagues. I can't bear to open them till X'mas is over.
I love receiving flowers. The last time I received one was from my gfs for my birthday this year. A nice and sweet surprise X'mas pressie from a good friend of mine. Thank you!
                                   
The Britney Spears cd was from my wish list. I wished for the latest album from Britney Spears as I love the song 'Womanizer'. I got the singles' collection from her first album to the latest. It was great!!

A wonderful gift from another good friend. Thank you!


Thank you thank you thank you. Merry Christmas everyone and have a wonderful holiday!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

No Bake Cheesecake



Made this no bake cheesecake on a workday morning @ 6am since I was too tired to get started right after dinner. Beauty sleep is so precious to me. Topped the cheesecake with strawberries (or any fruits you desire) after my dinner plus chilling out session with a good friend, ie. 3ish in the morning (24th Dec 09). Decided not to top with any jello due to time constraint. My upper back is aching, not sure if it is due to too much baking over the weekend. It hurts tooo. Sigh... You can go to here for the recipe. =) Enjoy!

Monday, December 21, 2009

The time of giving

I love Christmas. That is a time where I will prepare a modest pack of goodies bags for my colleagues and selected priviledged friends. I love the joy of giving. Love the smile on each and everyone's faces upon receiving of a tiny surprise. It made them happy. It made me happy too. I think I spent a significant amount of money in my goodies this year. A large bulk of the money spent goes to the slightly pricey Japanese chocolates called Royce. They are not as premium as Godiva but they are still quality chocolates (Thorntons is always my favourite UK brand of chocolates). I paired these chocolates with some sweets, lollipops, crackers etc...

I always feel a tinge of regret when I commenced packing these sweet treats. I need to ensure there are an equal number of goodies in each bag by counting away.

I feel like I'm some packer working in a factory. Took me a good 1hr 30mins to finish the packing.

Finally, my finished products! Yay!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Almond London Cookies

A very fulfiling Sunday. Baked cocoa brownies for an order from a friend. Was kinda busy last weekend, so I postponed the baking order to this sunday.



The brownies are meant for 15-20 people, so I can cut a larger piece for the brownies.

Feeling underaccomplished, I decided to bake almond london cookies. I have been baking from 3pm to 945pm. My feet are so sore now. =( The only time I sat down was during my dinner time. I didn't count the number of london cookies which I rolled into a ball. Having to decorate them was such a chore. At the same time, I hate to serve them plain looking.


See, aren't they cute? I love the sprinkles from Wilton.



The recipe is adapted from Sweet Jasmine. I will post the recipe when I have the time. Kinda drained at the moment... =)

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Risotto

Risotto. Risotto is a traditional dish in Italy. It is one of the most common ways to cook rice in Italy. The main feature of a risotto dish  is the maintainance of starch at the end of the cooking that binds the grains together as a cream. Explanation is extracted from Wikipedia. My first experience of risotto was in some restaurant 3 years ago. 3 years later, I had them again in Prego, an italian restaurant in Singapore and I fell in love with them since. I love the cheesy taste and smell cooked with some mushrooms especially but my friend (you know who you are) will reject a risotto dish with mushrooms. Mushrooms are good for you. Trust me.

I wanted to go cheap and went to buy a box of risotto 2 weeks ago. I spent a good 15 minutes trying to select the most yummylicious pack of risotto. I made my choice and chose , 'Risotto in Four Cheese from Riso Gallo'. It is  fairly easy to cook them. You just need approximately 12 minutes to cook R. I added mozzarella cheese and ham to them. My family is not a fan of italian food, so I cooked a humble portion of Risotto for myself. My mum saw me cooking R and she gave me a 'Yucky' look. Haha... My R turned out well and yum (solely in my own opinion)!






Enjoy!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Christmas Shortbread cookies

I needed a change. I'm in the mood for cookies. I have had enough of cakes. My weekends, especially Saturdays, are very precious to me. I'm not one for major changes but changes are good sometimes for the better. I love surprises. I enjoy planning for one and love to receive one too. Life is such that no one didn't seem to realise that surprises be it small or big ones will brighten that special someone's day. I do not know why the topic of surprise suddenly comes into the picture. It has no relation to what I am baking today. In my opinion, I feel that sometimes you do not need a reason for doing certain things. Most importantly it makes you happy and the ones you care about happy, plus it is not anything against the law. =)





I am baking shortbread cookies adapting the recipe from Joy of Baking. Loved the shortbread cookies from Walkers. Yum! Life is good when you're surrounded by so many yummy food. Life is even better when you can make fresh bakes as and when you feel like it provided you have the time and the ingredients are easily accessible.



Recipe:

2 cups all purpose flour ( I replaced 1/2 cup of all purpose flour with 1/2 corn flour)
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter ( I use Lurpak unsalted  butter)
1/2 cup icing / powdered confectionery sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Beat the butter until smooth for about a 1 minute. Add the icing sugar to the butter and mix about 2 minutes untill smooth. Beat in the the vanilla extract.

Gently stir in the cornflour and all purpose flour until just incorporated. Flatten the dough into a disk shape and chill in the fridge for at least an hour till firm or overnight.

Pre-heat the oven at 300 degree F (150 degree celsius) with the rack in the middle of the oven.

On the lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch (0.5cm) thick. Cut whatever shape you desire using lightly floured cookie cutter. Place the cookies on the prepared cookie sheet and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. This will firm up the cookies and maintain their shape while baked.

Baked for 20-23mins or until light brown. Cook on rack.

Notes: I read that subsitute 1/2 cup of all purpose flour with 1/2 cup of cornflour will give the cookies a 'melt in your mouth' texture. And yes, it is so true. The use of confectionery sugar gives a smooth texture to the cookies too.




How I wish I can courier these X'mas cookies to my friends in  Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and UK.

This recipe is definitely a keeper for me! Enjoy!

Friday, December 4, 2009

New York Cheesecake II

I made New York Cheesecake (NYCK) again last Sunday. Made them for my favourite Reina, baby of my friend, K. She is one bubbly baby at 15 months old. My parents love her too especially my mum. Reina just knew how to win the hearts' of many who met her. Back to my cheesecake. I beat the eggs lightly first before  mixing them with the rest of the ingredients. You can refer to here for the recipe. My cheesecake looked kinda yellow for the second bake. I wonder if there is any difference between beating with whole eggs and beating with lightly beaten eggs. Whatever the case may be, my NYCK turns out fine. No water bath method used for this round but the cake is still moist and soft. Cheers to fresh bakes!



Saturday, November 28, 2009

Pandan chiffon cake

Weekend is here again. I am gonna bake one of my childhood favourites: Pandan Chiffon Cake (PCC). My mum requested me to bake it too. I have some friends from Hong Kong who love the PCC from Singapore. I will always bring some over whenever I visit Hong Kong. To me, baking PCC is a big challenge for me. I kept procrastinating in baking this whenever I look at the recipe. 9 egg whites!! 8 yolks!! Whisking the egg whites with caster sugar till stiff peaks is an art in my opinion. When do I know I've reached the peak? Search me. I've seen pictures which illustrated how soft/stiff peaks look like. Still, there is always this unexplained 'fear' in carrying out this mission. Yes,  a Mission. Mission Possible or Mission Impossible? *Shivers*

I have been studying recipes after recipes for PCC. Finally, I decided to adapt the recipe from Little Corner of Mine . And the result: I succeeded in baking my first Pandan Chiffon Cake. It didn't sink after the cake was left to cool on the wire rack. Hip hip, Hooray!!! Hip Hip Hooray!! I have this urge to open a bottle of champage to celebrate. I know I know, I was overreacting. I was feeling so nervous waiting for my PCC to finish the baking process. I read horror stories of the failure of PCC, so you can't blame me for getting so uptight. :) The texture was soft and fluffy but tasted a tad too dry. I should have followed the recipe all the way and not tweaked it since I'm not an experienced PCC baker. I will attempt to make this again.

I posted some pictures on the step by step procedures on whisking the egg whites till stiff peaks.

Whisk the egg whites till foamy which resemble like the foam present in beer.


Add the caster sugar slowly into the egg whites and whisk till shiny and stiff peaks.




Fold in the egg white mixture gently into the egg yolk mixture using a big spatula.







Recipe:
(A)
1 3/4 cup plain flour (I use 1 3/4 cup cake flour, sifted twice)
1 tbsp baking powder ( I use 0.5 tbsp)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp salt

(B)
1/2 cup canola oil (I use sunflower oil)
3/4 coconut milk (I use coconut cream)
1 tsp pandan paste
6 egg yolks

(C)
6 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup caster sugar

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 175 deg celsius.

Place (A) in a bowl and stir well to blend. Add (B) in and whisk till smooth using electric mixer.

Beat (C) till moist peaks formed. Add cream of tartar. Gradually add caster sugar, beating until stiff and shiny peaks are formed. Fold in 1/3 of egg whites into the egg yolk mixture, fold to mix and then add in the rest of the egg whites. Fold in gently but thoroughly. Pour batter into ungreased tube pan.

Bake for 60 mins or till a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Invert pan and cool completely in pan. When cooled, loose the edges and shake the pan to remove the cake.




Enjoy!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thank You, Pushy Panda! Thank You, SL!

I have a brand new look for my blog. NOt a big change, I merely change the plain-looking blog title with a banner. Yay!!! I can never be happier. There is a LOT of EFFORT in creating this beautiful banner. Every single detail is designed as closely to the theme of my blog title, ' Confessions of a Baking Addict'. Yes, I am an addict, an addict in baking. I always look forward to the weekend, so that I can study which recipe to explore. I will do my utmost best to carefully distribute the desserts loaded with calories to my family and friends after each baking session.

Back to my new blog look, the creative minds behind this banner are my super duper nice babe's boyfriend, A aka Pushy Panda and the babe is SL (she created this cutesy baking addict with A enhancing the image). This is A's link : http://pushypanda.blogspot.com/ . I saw one of A's works, he is very good with animation. Do check out his website if you need some help in designing website domain and many others. I was extremely, yes, u heard me right, EXTREMELY pleased when SL presented to me the almost completed first draft of the banner. I was in awe/overwhelmed/elated/excited/ecstatic when I saw the final product. Ok, I'm thrilled. I feel more complete with a banner too which is meant solely for my food blog. Unique and special.

Thank You, Pushy Panda! Thank You, SL!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Gone are the days of late nights. I feel 'ten' years younger now. Life is fantastic, especially so when I am given more opportunities to bake. Life is even better when you bake while enjoying a glass of wine. In fact, I have never done that before. Does one cook or bake better when you drink? Oh well, I am yearning to give it a try. I promise I won't get drunk on the kitchen table. I promise. As I am feeling alittle under the weather, I shan't drink and bake this time round. =)

Missed baking last weekend and I am starting to experience 'withdrawal symptoms' already. I wanted a simple recipe with just making use of a few ingredients. Choice bake for the weekend: Cream Cheese pound cake. I love pound cakes especially the ones from 'Sara Lee', the most trusted brand. I had them since I was a young girl. I love the chocolate pound and the butter pound ones. They taste so rich and dense. Once you start, you can't seem to stop. If I were to make a choice between brownies and chocolate pound cake, I would choose the latter.




The heating circulation in my oven is not even. I must remember to rotate the pan should I try baking this again, if not, I get a 'yin yang' cream cheese pound cake.

Recipe adapted from: All recipes ( I tweaked the recipe slightly)
Ingredients:
250g cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cup butter ( I use 250g of  Golden Churn butter and 1/2 cup buttermilk)
3 cup white sugar ( I use 2 cups)
6 eggs, room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160degree celsius. Grease and flour the 10inch tube pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add buttermilk and mix until just incorporated. Add sugar gradually and beat till fluffy.
3. Add two eggs at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour all at once and mix in. Add vanilla extract.
4.  Pour into the 10inch tube and bake at 160deg celsius for 1hr 20mins. I lowered the temperature to 150 deg celsius for the remaining 35mins. Check for doneness at 1 hr. Insert a toothpick in the centre and it should come out clean.








This pound cake is heavy and dense. Although it has a yin yang look, they are thoroughly baked. The sweetness is just right for my taste buds. I hope I don't get any nightmare by savouring this piece of cake at 2ish in the morning on a Sunday.

Enjoy!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

New York Cheesecake


Made New York Cheesecake at the request of my friend, K as his wife loves them. Constant baking made me rather broke. I find that baking can be an expensive hobby if you bake very often. I swear by certain brands for some key ingredients of my bakes. I learned my baking mistakes through trial and error or EOI (exchange of information, nothing to do with OECD if one may wonder) among friends who love baking like me. Anyways, K decided to sponsor the cream cheese for the cheesecake. Thank you, K.




Going through the cookbooks I have in my possession, I found the NY Cheesecake recipe from Marcus Wareing.




Recipe adapted from: Marcus Wareing

Ingredients:
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 graham crackers  crumbs ( I used oreo biscuits, crushed)
500g cream cheese at room temperature ( I used Philadephia cream cheese)
1 cup granulated/ fine sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream ( I used thickened cream )
3 tbsp cornstarch/ cornflour
1 tbsp of lemon juice (optional)
4 large eggs, beaten

Method:
Pre-heat the oven  to 120deg celsius.

Mix the melted butter with crushed oreo biscuits. Press firmly over the bottom of the springform pan (23 x 8cm). I used 2 disposable aluminium pie tray (base diameter 14cm).
.
Put the cream cheese in the mixing bowl. Add the sugar, cream, cornstarch and the eggs and beat together until smooth. Pour the mixture over the oreo base.

Bake the cheesecake for 1hr 30mins in the oven until just set but still wobble in the centre. Let cool to room temperature before removing the sides of the pan.

Notes:
- I baked the cheesecake using water-bath method. I simply placed the cheesecake baking tray on another baking tray and I filled the latter with some water, say approximately 1/2 inch in height. This is to maintain the moisture in the cheesecake after baking. I will take a picture of how water bath looks like in my next bake of cheesecake.

- Pls do not use the pie tray above. It will be hard to cut up the slice cheesecake (it will be a messy cut) as compared to no baked cheesecake (since it has already became jelly-like texture). Springform pan is the best choice for baked cheesecake in my opinion. I cut up the sides of tray using scissors before slicing up the cheesecake.






Enjoy!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Mini cheesecake with minis

Come November onwards, a new commitment will not allow me to bake any recipe during the weekdays. I will have to make sure I have 8 hours of sleep every day and to jog around my neighbourhood in the evening 4-5 times a week. And hopefully, I will be in a tip-top condition when I visit the beautiful beaches (part of my travel agenda in 2010). I do not wish to do a diservice to the swim sets I bought in Hong Kong a couple of months ago. The thought of soaking under the hot sun on a beautiful beach gives me the adrenaline rush. How I wish I can jet off to Phuket right now! Glad no one caught me smiling to myself in the comfort of my bedroom. =) My mum may think I was being silly smiling and typing away...


Promised to make some mini cheesecake for my friends on Saturday during a dim sum lunch outing. These minis are quick and easy, not to mention that they're yummy too. Size does matter. Bite size desserts are preferrred these days. Besides, they look really adorable because of the petitte outlook. I added lemon juice to the mini cheesecake to minimise the strong smell of vanilla extract.


The 25th to 29th cheesecake are baking in the oven.





Recipe:
Makes 28 -29 mini cheesecakes (if you're using the mini muffin baking tray)

Ingredients:

Cheesecake filling:-
250g Philadelphia cream cheese
1 egg
1/3 cup caster/granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon lemon juice -optional
Lemon zest ( I added a pinch) - optional

Base filling:-
150g crushed digestive biscuits
3 tablespoons melted butter plus 2 tablespoon boiling water

Method:
 Pre-heat the oven to 190deg celsius. Mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter. Put the biscuits mixture on the paper liners and press them down firmly. Leave them in the fridge to chill while you start on your cheesecake filling.

Mix the cream cheese with the egg until just well incorporated. Add the sugar, vanilla extract, lemon juice, lemon zest and beat at medium high speed for 2 minutes. The batter should look creamy and smooth.

Pour the cheesecake filling into the paper liners and bake for 15 minutes or until when the surface does not look glossy. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely. Chill the minis in the fridge for 2 hours before serving.

Enjoy!



Monday, October 26, 2009

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!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

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.

Friday, October 23, 2009

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!