Chocolate Streusel Cake

I made Chocolate Coffee cake on Dailydelicious blog site. Pook at Dailydelicous calls this Chocolate Coffee Cake because she thinks that this goes well with coffee. But I think I prefer to call it Chocolate Streusel Cake.

Streusel is a German word which means - something scattered or sprinkled, generally referring to a crumb topping of butter, flour, and white sugar that is baked on top of muffins, breads, cakes. (abstract from Wikipedia)

I thought this cake was normal. Nothing very impressive about the streusel topping. D doesn't think very well of the cake either and he doesn't like the cinnamon topping.

Despite all this, I think Pook's photos are very well taken. Hope I could take photos like that one of these days too.

Longan Tart

I have bought loose bottom tart tray few months back. Since then, I have been thinking of what to make with it. Looking at the Crostata recipe at Dailydelicious website makes my heart flutter. As berries are not very popular in my family, I have decide to use a more tropical fruit - canned longans.

I have used the pastry cream and sweet crust pastry from JoyofBaking for my masterpiece above.

Marshallow Chocolate Cupcakes

When I saw the recipe that uses Nuttella to dress a cupcake from Flavours magazine Mar-Apr 2011 edition, I told myself that I had to make it. I was quite disappointed that I could not find the mini coloured marshmallow from NTUC and had to resort to cutting large white marshmallow into small bits. The recipe in Flavours actually drizzled melted chocolate on top of the marshmallow but I had problem melting the chocolate buttons I had at home, so in the end, I gave up and just left the marshmallow white.

The cupcakes with mini M&M were more popular as compared to the ones with marshmallows. These were yummy!!

Happy Birthday Dad! Chiffon Cheesecake

Happy Birthday Dad! Wishing you good health always! (sorry for the wrinkles on the cake. :P)

Thanks dad for providing for us and bringing us up. He may not be the type of dad that chats with us and plays with us but he shows his love and concern in other ways. During our younger days, we tend not to know how to appreciate his care and concern and gets frustrated when he impose or nags at us too much. As now I am a parent myself, I learn to appreciate what dad has done for us in the past.

Dad came over last weekend for dinner at my place. Besides making the birthday cake and a Longan Tart. With the help of my MIL we cooked : Curry Chicken, Stir Fry Garlic chives, Cream prawn dip, Sotong Yew Cha Kuay and Steam Fish.

Chiffon Cheesecake Recipe
Egg White Batter:
6 egg white
1/4 tsp tartar powder
140g castor sugar (I reduced to 120g )

Egg Yolk Batter:
6 egg yolk
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100ml milk
60g cake flour
20g corn flour

Method:
Preheat oven 160degrees.

Place cream cheese, butter, milk in a double boiler, stir till all dissolved and cream. Sieve the mixture to ensure batter is lump free. Add in egg yolk when mixture is cooled. Sieve in corn flour and cake flour. Mix well.

Beat egg white and cream of tartar till foamy. Slowly add in castor sugar. Whisk till soft peaks.

Mix egg yolk mixture into egg white mixture. Stir till combine. Pour into an 8" baking tin. Bake in water bath for 1hr 10mins or till cooked.

Once baked, keep in oven to cool slowly. Do not take out the cake immediately as it will cause the cake to collaps.

Happy Birthday YL! No Baked Oreo Cheesecake

Happy Birthday YL!!

It has been another year. It was quite unfortunate that YL had gotten some allergic reaction from some food items recently. Till now she is still not sure what is causing outbreak of rashes. Anti-allegric medication doesn't seem to help but she has concluded that it could be things such as eggs and seafood that is causing her outbreak. As she likes cheesecakes, I have decided to make a No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake for her birthday.

This cheesecake is free of egg and gluten and best of all, it is no bake! I am sorry for the slip short photos. However, due to the lack of time and a demanding toddler, I can only settle for normal snaps of pictures at the moment.

YL commented that her cake looked like a clock with the mini oreos round the edge which was the same thoughts that I had when I placed the oreos round the cake. :P. I wanted to make the whipped cream stars before topping up with the mini oreos, but I ran out of whipping cream, thus have to settle with the mini oreos laying flat on the cake. Anyway, even though the cake don't look as pretty as it tastes, but it was nice and YL commented that it tastes better than the baked ones as this no bake version is lighter in cheese taste.

No Bake Oreo Cheesecake (8" round tin)
Crust
24 pcs of large Oreo Cookies (with filling removed)
100g butter (melted)

Filling
300g cream cheeese
150g sugar
9g gelatin powder (3 gelaltin sheets)
20 ml water
600 ml dairy cream
5 pcs large Oreo Cookies (with filling removed)

Deco
Whipping cream; Mini Oreos

Method:
For Crust: Crush cookies and mix with melted butter. Put crumbs into a spring form baking tin. Press evenly and chill till required.

For Filling: Bloom gelatin sheets in 20ml of water. Heat mixture till gelatin dissolve, put aside. Double boil cream cheese and sugar till sugar dissolve and cheese is soft. Add gelatin liquid into cream cheese and mix well. Whip up dairy cream till soft peaks. **(be careful to watch your cream carefully and not have it overbeaten and turn to curds of butter) Mix cheese mixture into the whipped cream. Pour 1/2 into the baking tin, place cookies over in a circle, pour the remaining cheese mixture on top of the baking tin.

Chill overnight.

For Deco: Decorate with whipping cream and mini oreos.