jelly cheesecake

I used to go to a neighbourhood bakery in Tiong Bahru area for their jelly cheesecake, which comes in 2 flavour: green (with lime flavoured jelly) and red (with strawberry flavoured jelly, if I am not mistaken). I prefer the green over the red simply bcoz I like the complimentary taste of the sourness of the lime jelly against the sweet, creamy and rich backdrop of the cheesecake.

But after shifting house and moving away from that area, I seldom go back. So when this recipe came out in the Straits Times, I simply had to try!

Jelly Cheesecake

9 McVitie's Original Digestive biscuits
70g butter, melted
250g cream cheese (room temperature, I used low fat)
295g condensed milk (I cut down to 2/3)
juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp gelatin
50ml hot water
strawberries for decoration (optional)
One 90g lime-flavoured jelly crystals (I used Tortally brand, as recommended in the newspaper recipe)

1. Crush the biscuits, they should resemble fine bread crumbs. (I put mine in a clean plastic bag and crushed using hand)
2. Put the biscuit crumbs in a bowl, add the butter and mix well.
3. Pour the biscuit mixture into a 8-inch round or square baking tin. Press the mixture and pat down firmly.
4. Chill the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour.
5. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until it is smooth.
6. Add condense milk and lemon juice. Continue to mix.
7. Dissolve the gelatin in the hot water. Strain it if there are insoluble granules. Add to cream cheese mixture and mix well.
8. Pour the cream cheese mixture into the baking tin and spread evenly.
9. Bisect the strawberries, cut out the stalk and trim if necessary.
10. Arrange the strawberries on the cream cheese mixture according to pattern desired. Gently push them into the cream cheese mixture slightly, deep enough to ensure that they will not slide.
11. Leave in the fridge to refrigerate overnight.
12. Follow the instruction on the jelly crystals box to make the jelly solution. Let it cool to room temperature.
13. Pour the jelly mixture until it covers the strawberries (or more if desired)
14. Put the tin back into the fridge to refrigerate until the jelly has set.

Recipe adapted from Jelly Hearts recipe published in the Straits Times (I didn't record the date)

The cheesecake tasted exactly how I remembered it to be: delicious, refreshing, and with interesting contrasting texture.

The bakery's version is plainer, without the strawberries. But I find that the strawberries complemented the jelly and the cheesecake well and they looked so pretty set in the jelly. I should have used more for a more elaborate pattern.

For those that experienced the jelly cheesecake for the first time (like my hubby and mum), after getting through the initial shock of the striking green colour, they actually like the cheesecake, esp my mum.

Earl grey tea cake with lemon syrup

Earl Grey tea is one of my favourite scent, not drink. I love love love the smell of it, whether raw or freshly brewed, but I am a coffee person, period. Baking with tea, especially with Earl Grey tea, has always been on my to do list.

Last weekend, I finally got down to try experimenting with it. It went a slightly more winded route than I originally planned...

When I was making the cake batter, I felt something was amiss but couldn't make out what was it. The moment I mixed everything together in the final step, put baking pan into the oven and close the oven door, it struck me: I forgot the sugar!!

Too late to do anything but in order to salvage my effort, I thought glazing may be the answer if the cake batter can hold it's shape. So I frantically searched the Internet for glazing recipe that goes well with Earl Grey tea cake while the cake was baking in the oven.

Having found quite a few recommendations that lemon syrup compliments Earl grey tea cake, I set out to work, my heart wishing hard that the cake will not collapse or be too tough since it lacks sugar to hold the structure. According to Ask The Experts, sugar plays multiple roles in the science of baking.

In the mean time, from the window of the oven, I can see that the cake has risen well but that doesn't guarantee it will not collapse after being taken out from oven. When the baking time was up and toothpick inserted confirmed it was done, I took the cake out and poured all the syrup on the cake. 30 mins later and realizing that the cake was still holding strong, with all the syrup absorbed, my heart jumped with joy...

But wait, how about the taste?? Slicing one slice for myself, I almost couldn't believe that it was simply awesome! It was soft, fluffy and moist, with just enough sweetness and lots of flavours. Seriously, I think it was the most memorable cake I ever made, mainly bcoz I was expecting it to fail.

Too bad that the cranberries and chocolate chips all sank to the bottom, I should have floured them slightly, but the overall taste was good. As for the Earl grey taste, it was really mild. The next time I make it again, I will either increase the tea leaves amount or cut down on the cranberries, since I find it overpowering the tea taste.

So cake without sugar?? Not that I will go down that route often, but maybe for this recipe, I will try again :)

Earl Grey Tea Cake with Lemon Syrup

2 Earl Grey tea bags
1/4 cup boiling water
1/3 cup milk
100g unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs
2/3 cup caster sugar (totally missed out in my case)
1 1/4 cups self-raising flour (I use cake flour + 1 tsp salt + 1 tsp baking powder)
1 cup cranberries (optional)
1/4 cup chocolate chips

juice of 1 lemon
zest of 1 lemon
3 tbsp icing sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C, grease pan.
2. Empty tea leaves from tea bags into a cup and add the boiling water.
3. Set aside for 3-5 mins
4. Stir in the milk and transfer to a mixing bowl
5. Add the butter, sugar, eggs and flour.
6.  Use electric beater on low to beat until just combined.
7. Increase the speed to medium and beat until mixture is pale and creamy (may look slightly curdled)
8. Bake in a preheated oven for 20-22 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean

9. While cake is baking, add the juice, zest and icing sugar in a bowl.
10. Mix until the sugar fully dissolved.

11. Pour the lemon syrup onto the cake once it's out of the oven
12. Wait until syrup fully absorbed by the cake before turing the cake out from the pan

recipe adapted from nigella lawson's community recipe and flick your food for the lemon syrup.

Since I have done the cake without the sugar, I am not too sure if the cake will be too sweet  if full sugar amount is used. Unless if you have a really sweet tooth, I would recommend cutting down the 2/3 cup of sugar to maybe 1/2 or even 1/4 cup. And if you really have moderate capacity for sweetness like me (I like my dessert/cake/muffin mildly sweet but full of flavours), you may even try omitting the sugar? Well, part of the fun of baking is experimenting to suit your own taste right?

layered mini cheesecakes

Have you ever bit into a cheesecake that has a delicious thin bottom crust and secretly hoped that you can have more of that crunchy texture mixed with the cheesecake in every bite? No? Well, I know I did and I have been tinkling with the idea of having multi-layered crust cheesecake for awhile. When I saw that the theme for Aspiring Bakers April 2012 is Layers of Love, I decided to make some.

Layered Mini Cheesecakes

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs (I used digestive biscuits)
2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp butter or margarine (I used butter)

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp orange juice
1/2 tsp grated orange zest
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
fruity preserve or jam of choice (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 165 degree C. Line muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the cracker crumbs, sugar and margarine with a fork until combined. Measure a rounded teaspoon of the mixture into the bottom or the muffin cup, pressing firmly. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 5 minuted, then remove to cool. Keep the oven on.
3. Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, juice, zest and vanilla until fluffy. Mix in the egg.
4. Pour the cream cheese mixture into 6 of the muffin cups, filling about 1/2 full. Transfer the crusts from the other 6 unfilled cups into the filled ones. Top up with the remaining cream cheese mixture. Bake at 165 degree C for 25 mins. Cool completely in pan before removing. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
5. Top with preserve or jam of choice before serving.

Recipe adapted from allrecipes.

One great thing about these mini cheesecakes is the controllable portion. Seriously, how many of us, urban cubicle dwellers with hardly any weekly exercise, will ever whoop down a giant piece of cheesecake without feeling a single ounce of guilt?

Another great thing, they are absolutely tasty and so easy to make. I am the sort of baker that will be happy to try any interesting recipe as long as it does not take up too much of my free time. My baking philosophy is always - simple, tasty and sustainable (to let me have to energy to keep on baking), period :).

Oh, these cheesecakes actually have a small indent on them after being baked, which will hold the preserve/jam topping nicely as well.

One complain I have of them is that the crust crumbles ever so easily... I tried to google whether there is any solution to it, some people suggested chilling the base. Well, maybe next time I will try it.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #18 Layers of Love (April 2012) hosted by Sam of Sweet Samsations.

coffee swirl yogurt cake

I love coffee ... and sometimes, crave for coffee tasting treats. I have been searching the net for coffee cake recipes for quite awhile but, to my surprise (well, I may be uninformed), coffee cake mostly refers to cake that goes well with coffee, not coffee tasting cake.

But... I am looking for coffee tasting cake recipes. Choices are really limited. So when I finally stumbled across this coffee swirl yogurt cake, I just went ahead and tried.

I made twice, first with fresh expresso coffee from my Nepresso machine & olive oil, then with Ipoh White Coffee 3-in-1 powder & butter.

This is the one done with fresh expresso and olive oil.

This is the one done with Ipoh White Coffee and butter.

Both of them couldn't be more different in outlook and taste. The one with Ipoh White Coffee & butter definitely tastes better and with stronger coffee taste; the one with real expresso coffee has really limited trace of coffee but the olive oil makes it looks so much prettier, with a sheen of dark brown crust.

From this 2 trials, I realised coffee tasting cake may be limited simply bcoz it's not easy to bring out the coffee taste in cake.

And I did learn a valuable lesson, ingredients play such a HUGE role in baking result.

Lastly, I think it's such fun to experiment with simple recipe... provided, the result turns out ok and there are enough people in the household to help you finish it :).

Oh... and my search for coffee tasting cake recipe continues...

citrusy yogurt semolina cake

Chinese New Year came and is almost over soon, but I hardly had the time to fully soak in the atmosphere. It was so hectic..... I was busy preparing to get back to my hometown and hubby's hometown with baby for the 1st time, worrying about him adapting to all strangers (relatives actually) and preparing him for infant care starting tomorrow, as well as worrying about him adapting to more strangers (teachers at the centre).

With all that going on and more (my iPhone 3 almost blacked out on me), I was actually surprised that I managed to bake 2 cakes within the time frame of 2 weeks, despite the fact that they are both yogurt semolina cakes.

A pack of semolina flour had been sitting inside my cabinet since after Chinese New Year last year, when hubby suddenly felt like making sugee cake. But he didn't get to make any at all. And this year, I suddenly felt like making semolina cake before Chinese New Year, and using that pack of flour, I made not only 1 but 2 cakes :) .

I experimented with fresh orange for the 1st trial and fresh lemon & almond for the 2nd. My personal preference is orange flavour as it is less tangy and has a more robust taste. I also find that the almond bits (I used 1/4 cup) do not add much flavour to the cake, in fact they kind of dilute the clean fresh fruity taste. I think this recipe is so versatile that it will turn out great regardless of what type citrusy fruit you choose to use.

Citrusy Yogurt Semolina Cake

1 & 1/2 cup semolina flour

2 cup plain yogurt (low fat if you like)

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 sugar (increase to 1 cup if you have really sweet tooth)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp lemon zest (or zest of whatever citrusy fruit you like)

a pinch of salt

for the syrup

1/4 cup water

1/4 fresh lemon juice (or juice of whatever citrusy fruit you like)

1/2 cup sugar

1. Beat yogurt and sugar until the sugar dissolves

2. Add oil, zest, baking soda and salt.

3. Once the wet ingredients are mixed well, add the semolina flour.

4. Mix and let stand for at least 2 hours (according to achefsmelody, this enables the semolina to soften and the cake to turn out fluffy)

5. Pour the batter into a greased tray and bake in oven preheated at 175 degree C for 25-30 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for 15 mins.

6. In the mean time, prepare the syrup, heat the water and sugar until the sugar dissolve.

7. Turn off heat and pour in lemon juice.

8. Pour the warm syrup on the warm cake evenly.

9. Let the cake rest for half an hour to fully soak up the syrup.

Recipe adapted from achefsmelody.

This is how the cake looks like fresh out of oven.

This is with all the syrup poured on. Don't worry about it not being absorbed immediately.

This is how moist the cake looks like after all the goodness of the syrup has gone into the cake.

The cake is really moist and very flavourful. It is best eaten on the day it is made, served warm just after the syrup has been absorbed fully by the cake. If you have leftover to keep for the next day, remember to wrap it with cling film to preserve the moisture. I didn't do that for the lemon cake and the top become slightly dry the next day.

light lemon cheese cake

Determined to start trying recipes from the recipe books I bought, I picked one of the cake type that I had been trying to stay away from all these while - cheese cake. Though I like the idea of eating a small slice of cheese cake once in a while, the thought of having to work off all the calories from finishing a whole cheese cake is definitely not encouraging.

So when I came across this light lemon cheese cake 柠檬芝士（轻奶酪）蛋糕recipe in 贝太厨房, which definitely packs less calories compared to a conventional cheese cake, I decided to give it a try.

Light Lemon Cheese Cake (for a 6-inch cake pan)

Cream Cheese 200 g

Eggs 2

Yogurt 75 g

Cake flour 35 g

Sugar 50 g

Lemon juice 20 ml

1. Separate the egg whites and egg yolks and put into 2 different containers

2. Put cream cheese in a bowl, place the bowl in a pot filled with water over small fire. Whisk the cream cheese until forming a smooth paste.

3. Pour the lightly beaten egg yolks in 3 separate portions into the cream cheese, each time mixing evenly before adding the next.

4. Repeat the same for 30 g sugar then the flour. Add in lemon juice and yogurt and mix well.

5. In the separate containers, beat the egg whites, adding the remaining sugar in 3 separate portions, until the whites reach soft peak form.

7. Pour 1/3 of the egg whites into the cream cheese paste, mix evenly with spatula before adding another 1/3, mix well. Pour the cream cheese paste into the remaining egg whites, mix by folding from down up. Avoid over mixing.

8. Pour the cheese cake paste into pan. Put the pan onto a baking tray filled with water.

9. Put the baking tray into preheated oven at 160 degree C for 60 mins.

10. Leave the baked cake to cool down completely before removing from mold.

I used only 1/2 of the above portion to make a small loaf of cheese cake and it took me only 30 mins instead of 60 mins of stated baking time. The book also mentioned that once the surface of the cheese cake has hardened when lightly touch on the surface, the cake is almost ready.

The cheese cake turned out really soft, almost melt-in-your-mouth type, and has texture similar to Japanese cheese cake. It was tasty but slightly on the sourish side because of the yogurt and lemon. The yogurt I used was really sour. I like the tartness in the cake but hubby thinks it was slightly overboard for him.

The only problem I have with my finished product is the look, the cheese cake looked fluffy and nice just out of the oven but shrunk after cooling off, giving it a 'wrinkled' look on the surface. Also, I realised that there were some moisture trapped between the butter paper, that I used to line the mold, and the mold itself. I am not sure whether the cooling off process caused the condensation, hence causing the cake to 'deform' slightly. In any case, the next time I make this recipe again, I will sure to try it without the butter paper, to see whether it helps with preserving the look. Anyone out there who is aware what was the root of the problem, please enlighten me.

egg yolk sponge cake

While searching for the green tea tofu cake recipe, I came across this simple sponge cake recipe. Since I have not tried making sponge cake before, I thought it would be great to give it a try on last Sunday, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Egg Yolk Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks (I used room temperature eggs)

40g sugar

55g milk

66g flour

1. Mix sugar to egg yolks and beat until it turned white

2. Pour in approx. 35g milk and mix lightly

3. Sift in flour and mix well

4. Pour in remaining milk and mix lightly again

4. Pour into pan/mold and put into oven preheated at 180 degree C for approx. 20 mins, or til toothpicks came out clean.

I decided to use the teddy bear mold again since sponge cake brings back childhood memory for me. There was some leftover portion after filling the teddy bear mold, hence I pour the remaining batter into 2 more cupcake paper molds.

The sponge cakes were full of egg fragrant, tasty, firm yet have a slight fluffiness in them. Best of all, they have a slightly crunchy exterior, which I like.

I read in a recipe book before that sponge cake does not keep well and should be served/consumed on the day it was made. We didn't finish them all at one go, so I had them for breakfast the next day. True enough, the cakes turned slightly flat but it was quickly resolved by heating them up in the toaster for 5 mins. This mere act kind of 'revived' the cakes and they regained the crunchy on the exterior yet firm/fluffy on the interior texture and they were just as tasty as the day before.

green tea tofu cake

Ever since I tasted the green tea tofu cake that a colleague's gf brought to our house during a dinner session, which she bought from a downtown Japanese bakery, I have always wondered whether that can be made at home easily.

Last week, after searching for a few nights online, I concluded that either there aren't many fans of this cake in the English language websites or the cake is really hard to make bcoz I only manage to come across 1 recipe. I decided to try to make it last Saturday, since my brother and his gf were coming over to spend the weekend at our place.

Green Tea Tofu Cake (adapted from Green Tea Today)

Ingredients:

2 1/2tsp green tea powder

1 cup tofu (soft)

1 egg

3 tbsp butter, melted

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup pancake mix

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Sift together pancake mix and green tea powder. Set aside.

3. Drain water from the tofu package.

4. In a bowl, whip tofu until smooth with a blender or food processor.

5. Beat in egg, butter and sugar.

6. Add the flour mixture (pancake mix and green tea powder), mix thoroughly.

7. Pour batter into a loaf pan, and bake about 30min.

For the tofu, I used normal silken tofu (for steaming) available at local supermarket. The cake tasted moist, supple and quite fragrant but the texture was slightly on the dense side and more pancake-like (which is understandable since pancake mixture was used). The bakery bought version was much lighter and more fluffy. So while the 4 of us finished the whole cake, I still prefer the lighter and fluffier version.

So that night, I tried searching on Chinese language websites instead and found a couple of different versions. Maybe I will give them a try in future.

fruit pastry cake

I came across HHB's blog few weeks ago while searching for cake recipe with fruits and fell in love with her beautiful fruit pastry cake. I made up my mind that I will definitely try out the recipe.

On last Friday night, I finally got the chance to go and buy all the necessary ingredients. I made the batter using 2/3 portion of her recipe and decided to test out my newly bought teddy bear mold. Since the leftover of the portion would be too small to make a decent cake on my 8-inch pan, I decided to go back to my trusted muffin tray and made 6 cup cakes.

The result was definitely satisfying. The teddy bear cakes came out cute (they were done in 20 mins) and the 'muffin' cake took approx 5 mins longer. The cakes tasted soft, moist and I found them to be quite similar to 'kuih bahulu' texture. I am not too sure whether it was due to the use of cake flour instead of plain flour as stated in original recipe, but I like it.

I took some of the cakes for my colleague's son the next day and the boy finished them at one go. She has since asked me for the recipe :). I also gave some to another colleague's daughter when they drop by my place in the evening.

There were still some leftover fruits from Friday so I decided to make another cake today since my husband didn't get a chance to eat. This time round, again I used 2/3 portion but put everything into an 8-inch cake pan. The cake took me 45 mins before the toothpick came out clean. I covered the cake with aluminium foil for the last 10 mins since I was worried that the surface may turn too brown when I tested it at 35 mins.

My husband liked it too and the 2 of us finished half the cake at one go. This is definitely one recipe to keep.

experimenting with various flavours

Having successfully tried out the easy chocolate cake recipe and falling in love with the taste and texture, early this month, I decided to be more adventurous and experimented with various flavours using the same recipe.

To make the process easier, I used muffin tray again instead of cake pan even though the recipe is meant for cake. I omitted the cocoa powder and in place of it, tried adding raisins to a quarter of the mixture, one whole tea bag of green tea leave (from a Japanese brand) to another quarter, one whole package of instant coffee granules to another and finally some blueberries (I happened to have just enough left in the fridge) to the last quarter.

To my utmost surprise, maybe I had too many failures previously, all 4 flavours turned out yummy. The blueberry ones were most delicious, followed by raisins (though not exciting), coffee and green tea. I think the green tea leaves were not meant for baking and therefore the taste was weaker but it was still quite delectable. It was a happy day for me.

awfully easy chocolate cake

Couple of months ago, on the quest to restart my baking journey, I started searching on the web for a really easy cake recipe. It took me awhile before I stumbled across the blog of txfarmerying's easy chocolate cake recipe.

I thought to myself: this is so simple - it requires very basic ingredients, there is no need to use any complicated equipment (even mixer and weighing machine are complicated to me) and best of all, only a few items to wash up. I decided I must give it a try.

Easy Chocolate Cake

1) Sift and mix together the following:

- 3 cups of unsifted flour

- 1.5 cups of sugar (I further reduced to 1 cup to fit my personal taste)

- 0.5 cup cocoa powder (I happened to have Van Houten)

- 2 tsp of baking soda

- 1 tsp of salt

2) Make 3 holes in the powder mixture, pour into each holes : 1 tsp of vanilla essence, 2 tsp of white vinegar and 0.5 cup of oil (I found the last ingredient to be too much and reduced to using 0.5 cup in total)

3) Pour in 2 cups of water to the powder mixture and mix with wooden spatula (I used plastic spatula). Do not overdo.

4) Pour the mixture into 9 inch baking pan and put in 162C pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes . Only 20-25 minutes if put into muffin mold.

It was also mentioned by txfarmerying that milk can replace water in step 3 in order to create cake with more supple texture. I decided to divide the amount into 2 batches and try both water and milk. To differentiate the 2 batches, I sprinkled some crushed almonds on the 'water' batch. I used muffin tray instead of cake pan.

The recipe was really easy to handle and judging from my previous failures in baking, I do not have high hope for this but the result was really tasty chocolate cakes.

The darker colour batch on the left was done using water and the light brown ones on the right were from the milk batch. The ones done with water are more moist but the ones done with milk have a slight fragrant milk taste with fluffier and lighter texture, which both hubby and I like. Those eaten on day 2 and 3 actually tasted better, maybe the cakes matured?

The success from this recipe definitely boasted my confident :), it was a good start.