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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Got the new Anna Olson baking book! Come back and check out some of the creations in a bit.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Hello friends!

For the past week I have been so caught up with work and personal stuff I haven't gotten a chance to bake until the weekend. So here we go, the meringue was for my friend's farewell gift on saturday. Lam, my good buddy hired me to bake a meringue for his sweet girlfriend since she is leaving for hong kong soon. I had such a good time baking it especially with my cousin Eric. I am trying to get him into the whole baking scene as you can tell. The recipe follows:

Meringue

2 egg whites
115 g sugar
290 ml cream
1 vanilla bean
mixed fruits of any kind


I have made meringue so many times, I swear I can bake it with my eyes closed. The client wanted strawberries, mango and kiwi. The mangos were no good, they are not in season and was very sour. But the other two made up for it which was a good treat.

meringue pre assembly

George Brown Boxed!

happy lam!

Following the meringue was my mom's Japanese cheesecake. I baked this one especially for her birthday and I finally, for once got to try it out. I've always baked for other people but never got a chance to actually seat down and enjoy it myself. This time was different and it was sure a pleasure baking it.


Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake


140g/5 oz. fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
50g/2 oz. butter
250g/9 oz. cream cheese
100 ml/3 fluid oz. fresh milk
1 tbsp. lemon juice
60g/2 oz. cake flour /superfine flour
20g/1 oz. cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 tsp. salt


Instructions:
1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.

2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

3. Add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and mix well. Pour into a 8-inch round cake pan (Lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper).

4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hours 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 degrees C (325 degrees F).

The cake was actually very unique in a way that it tasted like a New York style cheesecake but was as soft as sponge cake. You have to try it to believe it. It was not too sweet but still was enough for you to fetch yourself a glass of water afterwards. The only thing that I am confused about is the fact that it drupes down after it comes out of the oven. The old man told me that maybe I didn't add enough flour in it or the badder was too dense. Either way I will have to do some exploring again. But this a recipe that I recommend for you guys to try!


Eric helping me wisk

pre oven

Nothing else like it.

Wow looking back at this blog, it's almost been a year since I started blogging. To be honest, I may not have been as consistent as I want to be and there were times when I did not post for a while but I had so much fun doing all this for myself and you guys. I would like to thank my haters and Jamie Oliver introducing me to this new hobby of mine. It's true that when he said "Cook your way to the good life" it works and I would help anyone else who is going through a hard time, just like I did a while back.

Cheers friends!

Friday, November 4, 2011

I secretly love Taylor Swift, its the music I listen to when I:

Design
Workout
Blast in the car
and shower

HAHA

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Hello ladies and gents, good morning to you in this fine November. Today I bring you a nice set of cupcakes that was baked for my uncle Jimmy. It was his birthday and I asked him what cake he wanted.(He didn't care, I was just being nice)

I surprised him with red velet cupcakes with almond creamcheese. I used this receipe before but this time I didn't add butter milk. I used regular milk instead which made it a bit stiff in my opinion. When I took it out of the oven, I noticed that it was a bit under baked so I popped it back it for only 2 minutes and it was already a big difference. I forgot that a cupcake is suppose to be moist and very soft like a real cake. Oh well. The almond cream cheese frosting was a real treat, everyone loved it and wanted to dip their strawberries in it. So in a way, that saved it.

Happy Birthday once again Jimmy. =)

three tier cupcakes! well 2.5 tier haha

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Ah good old November, we meet again. Novemeber is a month of remembering and it's also a month of celebration. Remember where you were last year compared to this year is amazing. I think it was snowing already or at least really, really cold.

Anyways, I baked a cake for a buddy of mine; Tony. He has been my friend ever since elementary school and was always there for me whenever I had any problems. (Haha some serious bromance going on here) So it comes to no surprise that when his birthday came around, I baked his favourite cheesecake for him. He was very happy and pleased with the result and so was everyone else. I remember getting home that night at around 130am and racing to metro to get cream cheese, I was so tired. =(

If you would like details on how I baked the cake, look for the "blooming vanilla cheesecake" in this blog. =)

See you!

cracked a bit but thats okay!

happy birthday buddy!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

I have been so lazy, I probably lost all my viewers. Well, I am back with some great news! I have been baking a lot of goodies and I think I cooked something but I forgot what it was. Anyways, this past weekend a friend of mine invited me over to her new place for dinner. She made lobster, pasta and salad. I promised her I would bring something that has chocolate in it, so, I baked strawberry chocolate cake with almond cream cheese meringue. Long name eh.

It was pretty challenging in a way that, I needed the cake to be nice and soft but not too soft where it is under baked. The baking cake pan that I used was very bad, it leaked! I should have used my wilton. =\


My sister's convocation is coming up this Monday and she asked me to bake her the Japanese cheesecake. So I swear I will follow up with that as soon as possible. =) Keep checking!