A couple of months ago, it was my nephew’s birthday, and my sister decided to hold a mini party at my house. Since the guests are mainly adults, I’ve decided to make this Tiramisu Cheesecake for them, using a lot of coffee liquor. :p

This cake can easily impress others, yet not very difficult to make. The biggest challenge for me was not in baking it, but to find that ribbon. LOL!

TIRAMISU CHEESECAKE
Ingredients
1 package ladyfingers (340g)
4 tablespoons butter, melted (60g)
6-12 tablespoons coffee flavored liqueur (I used Bailey)
3 (250g) packages cream cheese
1 (250g) container of mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup white sugar (reduced from 1 cup)
2 eggs
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
30g semisweet chocolate

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 180C.
2. Crush ladyfingers into fine crust.
3. Mix melted butter into the crumb, add 4 TBSP coffee liquor to moisture and add flavor.
4. Press onto base of 8″ or 9″ cake springform pan.
5. (Optional) If you want something looks like mine, you may arrange ladyfingers along the inner ring of the pan, but trim one end of the tip first so it is flat and able to ‘stand’.
6. Mix cream cheese, mascarpone, and sugar until very smooth.
7. Add 4-8 tablespoons coffee liquor (based on your personal preference), and mix well.
8. Add the eggs and the flour; mix SLOWLY until just smooth.
9. Pour batter onto crust base.
10. Steam bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until just set. Leave cake to cool in oven that has been turned off for about an hour. Remove from oven, cool completely before refrigerating for at least 4 hours before serving.
11. For deco, grate the semi-sweet chocolate overtop.

Well, I know I have not been updating in this blog for a long time… more than 6 months already. That’s mainly because of the online bakery business. I don’t think I should be sharing my ‘secret recipe’ of the cakes that I was selling, that’s why I found it hard to update.

BUT!! I have decided since yesterday to close down the online bakery, simply because I find it really BORING! Before having that bakery, I hardly reproduce the same cake unless it is under extremely popular demand, but that’s not to the extent like what I have been experiencing with this bakery. For some cakes that are more popular, I had to produce the same one, at the rate of 3-4 per week during festive seasons. Now I hear the word “Ribena Cheesecake” I wanna puke! And due to this, I hardly have the time to experiment new cakes — which is what I love the most about baking.

Now that I have closed down the business, I am going to resume what I like most – experimenting new stuff and share about them here. ^_^

Here is a very refreshing and easy to make Lemon Bars recipe. I had made this twice, not for selling but for own consumption. So it speaks for itself.

LEMON BARS
Ingredients
Base
1 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt

Lemon Custard
4 eggs
2.5 lemon’s juice, more than 1/2 cup
Zest of 3 lemons
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour

Method
Base
1. Pre-heat oven to 180C.
2. Mix all the ingredients well.
3. Line the mixture onto the base of a 9″x13″ pan
4. Bake at 180C for 20 min

Filling
1. Mix all ingredients well.
2. When base is ready, pour filling over the base and continue baking for another 20 min or until it is set.
3. Dust with sugar powder as deco.

TIPS: It is better to over bake the base than the filling. Watch out the filling very carefully not to burn it (very easily).

Yesterday I announced in my FB page that I started accepting orders for Mother’s Day cake. That is my debut in cake selling, and it is a SUCCESS! I only accepted 3 orders due to limited fridge space. LOL!

Here is how my cake looks like:

It is a heart shaped Ribena Marble Cheesecake, roughly 1.2kg, sold at RM55. Can’t make much $$, this is just for fun!! LOL! And I am supahhhh happy! :p

Recently I saw some recipes and photos of lemon meringue pies and just feel like eating one. Finally, took the courage to bake it yesterday. It is surprisingly affordable, easy, and delicious! I had a slice last night, and let Ian tried a bite. The moment he put into his mouth, he closed his eyes and became speechless. What he could muster was, “hmm… hmm… hmm…” and then “yummy… I want more…”

LEMON MERINGUE PIE RECIPE
Ingredients
Pie Crust
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cold water

Lemon Custard Filling
3/4 cup white sugar (if you like it sweeter you can increase to 1 cup)
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups fresh milk
1/2 cup lemon juice (from 2 or 3 lemons)
1 tbsp lemon rind
2 tbsp butter (or 30g)
4 egg yolks, beaten

Meringue
4 egg whites
4 1/2 tbsp castor sugar (original called for 6 tbsp)
1/2 tsp cream of tatar

Method
Pie Crust
1. Blend the shortening, salt and flour in a bowl with electric mixer until crumby. Add in water a tablespoon at a time, and mix with a fork until they hold together. Wrap the dough with cling wrap loosely and keep in fridge for 10 min to rest.
2. Pre-heat oven to 220C.
3. After 10 min, roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 2″ bigger than the pie plate. Poke the crust with fork to allow air to escape during baking, at the base and sides.
4. Line the crust with parchment paper and fill with rice or beans, to give weight to the pie crust, to avoid it rise up during baking.
5. Turn down the oven to 200C. Bake the crust for 10 min. Remove the beans/rice and paper, and continue baking another 15 min.
6. Brush the inside of the crust with egg-wash (1 egg + 1 tbsp water, mix) to help seal the base to avoid soggy later. Return to oven and bake for another 3 min.

Filling
Note: Make this right after you insert the pie into the oven, so it would still be hot when the pie crust is ready.
1. Pour the sugar, flour, cornstarch, salt into a sauce pan. Stir in the milk and lemon juice. Heat the mixture at medium, stirring constantly to avoid burnt.
2. When mixture boils, add in butter and lemon rinds. Mix well till butter dissolves.
3. Take about 1/2 cup of hot mixture and mix into the egg yolks. Mix well, and return the mixture into the sauce pan. Bring to boil and it will turn into yellow custard like mixture.
4. When pie crust is ready, remove from oven. Pour filling into the hot pie crust. Set aside.

Meringue
1. Change the oven to 180C.
2. Beat the egg white with mixer till foamy.
3. Add sugar and cream of tatar bit by bit. Continue until stiff peak is formed and sugar dissolved. Stiff peak = the mixture won’t flow, it looks shiny and smooth, and it won’t easily drop from your whip.
4. Quickly pour the meringue onto the hot pie filling, covering the edge of the pie crust. The hot pie crust and filling will help cook the meringue and avoid weeping later.
5. Bake at 180C for 10-15 min or until the meringue is tanned.
6. Let it cool an hour before refrigerating it. Chill for about 4-6 hours before serving.

NOTE: If you refrigerate within 2 hours after baking, it can be kept in the fridge for 3 days and stay fresh. Properly cover the pie, loosely with a cling wrap or foil.

This is a very easy to make Strawberry Cheesecake, healthy (if use low-fat) and refreshing. Everyone loves this, and it is like eating ice-cream! Depending on the size of glass, I use the plastic ones sold at Tesco at RM4.79 for six, it yields 6 glasses. Bigger glasses will yield 5.

STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE RECIPE
Ingredients
100g Ginger Nut Biscuits (or any digestive biscuits)
250g cream cheese
250g Greek Yogurt
4 tbsp caster sugar
Few drops of vanilla essence
3 tbsp very good quality strawberry jam
150g strawberry, hulled & sliced

Method
1. Crush biscuits into chunky pieces and spoon into the base of the 6 glasses
2. Cream together the cream cheese, Greek yogurt, sugar and the vanilla essence until smooth.
3. Spoon over the biscuit crumbs and chill in the fridge until the time to serve.
4. Before serve, stir the strawberry jam until loose. Mix in the strawberry slices, mix well. Spoon over the cheese filling & serve immediate.

I was supposed to share 2 recipes on 2 birthday cakes that I baked recently, but so lazy that I kept delaying (the recipe not quite simple, so very lazy loh).

Then, today I found this very simple recipe, made some modifications and baked it. I let my kids do most of the stuff, except measuring, steaming, and putting in the baking pan/ inserting to oven. It yields 3 loafs of 3×7 breads. It is said that you could freeze the loaves and it can be kept for a couple of months!

Although this is called ‘pumpkin bread’, it is more like between bread’s and cake’s texture. I was worried at first, but the moment after I tried a slice, I feel so reluctant to give a loaf to Aiyu! It is so so so yummy! The sweetness is just right, the texture is great, and the fragrance… wow, very ‘spicy’ as in full of spices! I will make more of it…

PUMPKIN BREAD RECIPE
Ingredients
420g pumpkin flesh, steamed and mashed
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
2 cups brown sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C degree. Grease three 3×7″ loaf pans
2. Mix mashed pumpkin, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended
3. Add in the rest of the dry ingredients and beat until well mixed
4. Pour mixture into the 3 greased loaf pans
5. Bake for 50 min or until skewer comes out clean

My first time baked a cake using gelatin turned out to be a failure. That was when I baked the Strawberry Mousse Delight. The moment gelatin was added to the water, it became lumpy and sticky, I just couldn’t dissolve it properly. Later I found out that there is a technique to dissolve gelatin…

First, pour the water required in a bowl, then sprinkle gelatin powder onto the surface slowly. Let it absorb without stirring with spoon or anything. Once absorbed it will turn into clear color. Continue to sprinkle once turned to clear. See photo below, for the differences between the original (center) light brown color, and the soaked clear color surrounding the light brown.

Once all have absorbed water, put the bowl onto double boiler, meaning a pot of boiling water, to double boil it. Stir with a spoon until all dissolved into clear water-like texture, as if nothing is inside.

Set aside to cool before adding into whatever cake batter you are making.

I have never ever made any chilled cakes (as in non-bake) before. The reason is that, most of the recipes I found, use at least an egg. I just cannot accept eating raw eggs, especially for the kids – salmonella is nothing funny!

Then, one of my friend shared with me this recipe of a Ribena Marble Cheesecake, obtained from this blog called Happy Home Baking. It is a chilled cheesecake, and it doesn’t require any eggs at all. I checked out and immediately love it. I like Ribena. My children like Ribena. And we have lots of Ribena cordial at home. It also uses 1/2 yoghurt and 1/2 cream cheese –> all in all, it looks like very refreshing. And most importantly, it is so pretty!

This is how it looked, before I added the Ribena topping. It is so pretty that makes one feel very sayang to cover it up with the dark Ribena topping, but I just did so lah — the blogger did not cover it and she claimed that it lacks Ribena flavor.

True enough, after covering it with the Ribena topping, the marble effect disappears, but the taste is fantastic! Well, at least it has better Ribena flavor!

[Added in Mar] I made this so many times again and again. With a square pan, it is so much easier to cube and serve in small cups – very convenient for party setting!

RIBENA MARBLE CHEESECAKE RECIPE
Ingredients
Base:
150g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
70g butter, melted

Filling
100ml water
2 tbsp gelatin powder
250g cream cheese
75g caster sugar
250g natural plain yogurt
75ml Ribena cordial

Topping
100ml water
2 tsp gelatin powder
80ml Ribena cordial

Method
1. Use 8″ round loose-base cake tin. She asked us to line the side of the cake tin with parchment paper or plastic sheets — which I used book wraps, which I have plenty.
2. Mix crushed digestive biscuits and melted butter together and press onto the base of the cake tin. Freeze for 1 hour. (OMG, when I am writing, only I realized is to ‘freeze’ not ‘chill’, but mine turned out okay with chilling).
3. Melt gelatin into water on a double boiler. Cool to room temperature.
4. Cream cheese with sugar. Add in the gelatin solution and yogurt, continue to beat till the batter is smooth.
5. Divide mixture into two equal portions. Add 75ml of Ribena into one part, mix well.
6. Pour the 2 parts onto the cake base in alternate blobs. Swirl with a knife or chopstick to create a marble effect. Chill for 2 hours.
7. Topping: Melt gelatin into water on a double boiler. Once well melted, remove from pot and stir in 80ml of Ribena cordial. Set aside to cool. When completely cooled, pour mixture over the cheesecake and chill overnight until set.

When I baked the Chocolate Chips Cheesecake the other day, I had 100g left over Sour Cream, so have decided to bake a cake that uses just 100g of that. This Orange Mascarpone Cheesecake recipe comes in handy.

Here is the recipe.

Okay, I know it looks pretty much like an ordinary cheesecake, but it tastes refreshing, perhaps with the orange and the sour cream. Many who tried it said it is very nice. But they have not tried the previous chocolate chips cake, so… hehehe, ok maybe this is my 2nd favorite then, putting the cost aside.

Orange Mascarpone Cheesecake Recipe

Ingredients
200g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
50g melted butter
250g cream cheese
250g Mascarpone cheese
110g sugar
30g flour
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Zest from 1 orange
Juice from 1/2 orange
100g sour cream

Method
1. Mix digestive biscuit with butter and press onto an 8″ cake tin base.
2. Preheat oven to 160C.
3. Cream cream cheese with sugar and flour until creamy. Add mascarpone cheese and continue to cream further.
4. Add eggs one at a time and mix well.
5. Add vanilla essence, orange juice and zest one by one while mixing well.
6. Finally add the sour cream and mix well.
7. Pour the mixture onto the cake tin.
8. Steam bake at 160C for about 60 minutes or until center is set.
9. Remove cake, and after it is cooled, chill in the fridge for at least 5 hours before served.

I have been using Philadelphia cream cheese all the time, bought from cake ingredient shops. They usually cut from 1kg size into 250g or 500g portions upon requests, and this is much cheaper than buying the 250g packs from supermarkets. However, when I saw Tatura cream cheese from Tesco, I was so delighted, because 250g is even cheaper than those I used to get! And Tesco also have sour cream and costs not much different from the shop I frequented. So I bought the ingredients I needed, and baked this Chocolate Chips Cheesecake.

Next morning, after chilled enough, I sliced the cake and took a photo of it. Not pretty, all smeared up, and I suspect that my recipe book sliced the cake before making the deco! It looks awful, BUT…

The taste is so yummy! This, is by far, the most delicious cheesecake I’ve ever made, I think!

It is rich, but refreshing! Can’t relate both together right? But it is true! It uses 500g cream cheese, so should be a very jelak cheesecake. But, it also uses sour cream as topping, plus orange zest and orange juice in the cream cheese. This has caused the cake to be so refreshing!!

CHOCOLATE CHIPS CHEESECAKE RECIPE
Ingredients
200g Oreo biscuits, crushed
50g butter, melted
500g cream cheese
120g caster sugar
20g flour
2 eggs
Zest from 1 orange
Juice from 1/2 orange
200g UHT whipping cream
100g chocolate chips
400g sour cream
2 tbsp caster sugar
Chocolate chips for topping/deco

Method
1. Mix Oreo biscuit with melted butter well, and press onto an 8″ cake tin base.
2. Preheat oven at 160C.
3. Cream cheese with 120g sugar and flour until fluffy. Add eggs and continue to cream until smooth.
4. Add in orange juice, zest and whipping cream one by one, cream until well mixed. Finally stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Pour the mixture into the cake tin. Steam bake at 160C for approx 60 min and the center is set.
6. When cake is almost ready, mix well sour cream and 2 tbsp sugar. When cake is ready, remove the cake from oven, pour the sour cream mixture onto the cheesecake. Continue to steam bake for another 10 minutes.
7. Remove the cake from the oven, and sprinkle the chocolate chips on top immediately, when it is still hot. Cover the whole surface with chocolate chips.
8. Chill for at least 5 hours before served.

I’m not sure whether the brands of cheesecake make any difference or not, but this cake is definitely my most liked cake. The texture is very smooth, taste is so rich but refreshing… yummy!