Last week, DH asked me to bake a birthday cake for SIL, for the celebration on Saturday. I wanted to try something new, but would like to stick to cheesecake because SIL really loves cheesecake. I wanted something not too jelak/rich, and finally decided on this Mango Cheesecake, adapted from Alex Goh’s recipe.

My decorating skill still needs to be brushed up a lot. I couldn’t roll mango slices like Alex Goh, they keep breaking up, so I finally adapted DH’s suggestion, not perfect but the result is satisfying.

From My Bakery

I was a little worried at first, coz the entire family (11 persons) is going to taste it, what if it tastes awful? LOL! After tasting it for the first bite, I know my worry is not necessary. This cake uses mango+lemon juice & rinds, which balances up the cheese’s very rich feeling. Mango and lemon both have nice fragrant, refreshing types of fragrant, so the cheesecake is not too rich/jelak at all! Some went for a second piece, and SIL brought back the balance 3 slices.

This is definitely a keeper and I am very likely to make it again this week, because I MISS IT!! I can’t believe today at lunch, I missed this cake terribly. After lunch, I greedily checked out the dessert bar, looking for something similar but disappointed, so I’m definitely going to make it. Hehe!

From My Bakery

MANGO CHEESECAKE
Ingredients
Base:
200g digestive biscuits
100g unsalted butter, melted

Filling
150g mango
1 TBSP lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
500g cream cheese
100g sugar
30g cornflour
3 eggs
150g whipping cream

Decoration
Mango slices
Toasted almond flakes
Strawberries

Methods
1. Crust digestive biscuits, mix well with melted butter, and press onto the base of a 20cm loose-base cake tin. Chill in the fridge while preparing the filling.
2. Blend mango with lemon rind and juice until smooth.
3. Cream sugar and cream-cheese together until smooth, add in cornflour and mix well.
4. Add in egg one at a time and mix well.
5. Mix in cream until well combined.
6. Pour mixture onto the chilled biscuit base. Steam-bake at preheated oven at 160C for 70 min.
7. Leave inside the oven with door slightly ajar for another 30-40 min.
8. Remove from oven. When cooled completely, chill in fridge for at least 5 hours or over night.
9. Remove from tin, coat the sides with almond flakes and cover the top with fruits. Blush some apricot glaze or instant jelly glaze to retain moisture.

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).

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

Recently Ian asked me to bake something nutritious, and I just flipped my recipe book to this page –> Pumpkin Cheesecake, so decided to give it a try. Never tried or seen a pumpkin cheesecake before!

The ingredient is very special, it only uses very little 20g of brown sugar for the base, and none for the cake itself. It is sweetened by the honey and the pumpkin. At least my mom can eat this cake, after so long!

BAKED PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
Crust Base
200g digestive biscuits
20g brown sugar
100g butter
Filling
500g cream cheese
100g honey
25g cornflour
1 tsp nutmeg powder
3 eggs
230ml UHT whipping cream
500g pumpkin flesh
Topping
Some nutmeg powder

METHOD
1. Crush the biscuit until fine
2. Melt butter on low heat, remove when melted. Mix butter with brown sugar and crushed biscuits.
3. Press the biscuit mixture onto a 9″ loose-base cake tin. Refrigerate until set.
4. While waiting for the base to get ready, steam the pumpkin until soft and mash it with fork.
5. Preheat oven at 150C degree.
6. Cream cheese with honey, add cornflour and nutmeg powder. Mix well.
7. Add in whipping cream and eggs, and lastly add in pumpkin flesh.
8. Mix well and pour onto the biscuit base.
9. Steam bake at 150C for 1.5 hour and until firm to the touch. Turn off the oven, but leave the cake in oven for another 30 min with door closed.
10. Remove from oven, when it is cool enough, keep in oven for at least 6 hours.
11. Remove cake from tin, dust with nutmeg powder and served chilled.

I have got most of the ingredients required for this cake for at least 6 months. All set up to bake it, but couldn’t find an occasion. My original plan was to bake it for DH’s birthday, but it happened in Oct, my first month of starting the new and demanding job – I just couldn’t spare my time!

Then, I realized that the ingredients are going to get expired! So, even without an occasion, I still went ahead to bake this few weeks ago.

I have to admit my kungfu (skill) in slicing the cake (horizontally) is horrible! Look at the photo below, my first slice was too thin, almost cut through. After slicing the 2nd piece, I then realized that what was left behind, too thick! There must be a technique to slice them evenly. I must find it out!

Anyway, the cake was so so so delicious and popular. The kids cried when I wanted to share a piece with Piggy and Aiyu. LOL! I think the use of a good quality chocolate bar is the key. The chocolate bar that I bought is so expensive. It costs RM7+ for 400g, which you could get half the price for a less delicious chocolate (too sweet to my liking).

Here is the recipe…

Chocolate Banana Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Chocolate Chiffon Cake
(A)
30g cocoa powder, mixed with 120ml water
4 egg yolks
75g caster sugar
130g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
60ml corn oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

(B)
4 egg whites
60g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tatar

Cake Filling
500 ml chocolate whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp instant coffee (mixed with 1 1/2 tsp hot water)
1 tbsp gelatin (mixed with 40ml water)
6 ripen bananas (sliced)

Chocolate Frosting
140 UHT whipping cream
350g good quality cooking chocolate
1 tbsp butter

METHOD
1. Preheat oven at 180C.
2. In a bowl, whisk Ingredient (A) until smooth.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar (from Ingredient B) until foamy. Add in sugar and continue whisking until stiff.
4. Fold (3) into (2) and mix evenly.
5. Pour into prepared 9″ lined cake tin and bake for 40 min at 180C.
6. Invert cake and leave to cool completely. Slice cake horizontally into 3 layers.
7. In a clean bowl, whisk cream at high speed until stiff. Add in vanilla essence followed by coffee mixture and gelatin mixture.
8. Spread filling onto 1st layer of cake and arrange banana slices on top of filling. Top with 2nd layer. Spread filling and arrange slices of bananas. For the last layer of cake, spread cream filling on top and sides of the cake.
9. Chill the cake in fridge at least 1 hour to set.
10. When set, place cake on a wire rack, pour on chocolate frosting. Decorate as desired with fruits of chocolate chips. Refrigerate until set, before serving.

Chocolate Frosting
1. Heat UHT cream in double boiler.
2. Add in chocolate and butter.
3. Stir until chocolate and butter melted.
4. Leave to cool slightly before pouring on top of cake. (important, or it will ‘melt’ the cake)
5. Let the chocolate spill over the sides to coat evenly.

Update: Even that type of chocolate can’t satisfy us now, I’m going for 75% cocoa dark choc, it costs RM60+ a pack! Delicious!

Not sure if you have received this hoax email before, which story centered around a freely distributed RM250 Famous Amos Chocolate Cookie Recipe?

I got that a while ago, ignored. But received again from Piggy last year, saying that her sister baked it successfully and is quite delicious, except that it is the chewy type, which can disappoint some who expect it to be crispy.

I waited a year to bake it!! CNY is nearby, and I thought maybe I should bake it for CNY!

It is not an easy task. I don’t think I will repeat this in a short while. The part about grating the chocolate bar is killing me. And then, have to roll the dough into tiny pieces… With the small oven we usually have at home (i.e. not commercial), it is so slow. Every tray can only carry that many pieces only, have to leave space for the biscuit to expand. I think it yielded about 100 tiny pcs or so, didn’t really count it. Tedious, tired, sweaty…

Anyway, my kids loved it so much. I think before CNY the cookies are going to be gone!

Here is the recipe. I reduced the sugar by half, and still think it is quite sweet. Can’t imagine how people eat with the original recipe!!

‘FAMOUS AMOS’ CHOCOLATE COOKIES RECIPE
Ingredients
1 bar butter (approx 250g)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla essence
2 cups plain flour
2 1/2 cups oatmeal, blended to powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
340g chocolate chips
250g Chocolate bar, grated
100g nuts (your choice), chopped

Method
1. Preheat oven at 190C
2. Cream the butter and both sugars
3. Add eggs and vanilla, mix evenly
4. Fold in flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda.
5. Add chocolate chips, grated chocolate bar and nuts. Mix well (I used my hands in a food grade plastic bag, as it is too thick for my mixer).
6. Roll into small balls (around 1 inch in diameter) and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet/tray.
7. Bake for 10 minutes at 190 C.

When the cookies are removed, they are soft. But when left cool, it will harden up and become slightly crisp outside (but chewy inside).

A reader has highly recommended this recipe of steamed raspberry cheesecake, and left a comment here for me to try it out.

I have not had time to do any cooking or baking for a while until I’ve recently settled in my new job and got a new maid. Just made this cake yesterday…

This recipe is very different from all the other ‘common’ ones, in many ways. For a start, it is the EASIEST and SIMPLEST cheesecake recipe that I have tried. It is steamed instead of baked. And it uses 6 eggs rather than 4 that other recipes usually call for, but my friends and I do not quite like the overpowering egg scent and taste, and if I were to make this again, I will reduce to 4 eggs like the usual ones.

The original recipe calls for raspberry jam, but since the shop ran out of stock, I replaced it with blueberry. I believe you can substitute this with any fruit jams that you like.

RECIPE
Ingredients
500g cream cheese
1/2 cup caster sugar (reduced from original recipe)
6 eggs (recommend to reduce to 4 eggs)
1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
200ml UHT cream
200g fruit jam (raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, etc)
Juice from 1/2 lemon

Method
1. Cream cheese and sugar until smooth
2. Add in eggs, vanilla essence, and cream. Mix till smooth.
3. Pour into lined 8″ round cake tin.
4. Mash the jam until very smooth, pour half of the jam into the cake mixture. Stir with a chopstick to create marble effect. Reserve the other half of jam for decoration.
5. To avoid water sipping in, cling wrap the cake tin 3 times tightly.
6. Steam the mixture for 2 hours under low heat (after water is boiled).
7. Cake is cooked, if the surface is firm to touch and shrink from the sides.
8. After cooled, chill in fridge for at least 1/2 hour before decorating.

Decoration
1. Pour the rest of the jam onto a pan, mix with 1/2 lemon juice. Bring to boil.
2. Spread over the chilled cheesecake, and chill for another 1/2 to 1 hour. It is ready to be served.

This is another alternative of the light cheesecakes that I love. Just tried baking it once, DH brought a piece to his office for the girls to try – I was so happy with their reaction!!! Everyone should give this a try, as it is really, REALLY, good.

INGREDIENT
1 slice of 8″ sponge cake
400g chocolate milk
250g cream cheese
50g plain flour, sieved
5 eggs, separated white and yolk
50g caster sugar
A handful of chocolate chips

METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line an 8″ cake tin. Place a slice of sponge cake inside.
2. Double boil chocolate milk and cream cheese until cheese is melted.
3. Add in plain flour, mix well and cook till thickened. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
4. When cooled, add in 5 egg yolks. Mix well.
5. Whisk egg whites and caster sugar at high speed till peaked. Fold into the cream cheese mixture.
6. Strain the mixture onto the sponge cake.
7. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top and stir with spatula slightly.
8. Steam-bake at 180C for 20 min. Reduce to 140C and continue baking for 2 hours or until cooked.
9. Turn off the oven, leave the cheesecake inside for another 1 hour.
10. Chill in fridge for 4 hours. Top with apricot glaze, and chill again before serving.

The other day I bought from MPH sales, a recipe on steamed cakes. Happened that I have all the ingredients required, I steamed this cheesecake on the same day. This is very suitable for households without an electric oven. Steaming is also seen as less ‘heaty’.

INGREDIENT
250g cream cheese
150g whipping cream
80g caster sugar
100g flour
30g corn flour
4 eggs, separate yolk and white
2 tbsp chocolate emulco
1 tsp vanilla essence

METHOD
1. Whisk egg whites with half of the caster sugar until peaked.
2. Mix cream cheese with sugar until well mixed, add in egg yolks one by one, and followed by whipping cream.
3. Fold in (1) and flour batch by batch alternatively. Mix well.
4. Take out 1/4 of (3), mix well with chocolate emulco.
5. Add vanilla essence to the remaining of (3) and mix well.
6. Pour 1/3 of (5) into a lined 7″ cake tin, top with 1/3 of (4), swirl to create some pattern. Steam 10 min.
7. Repeat step 6 until all batter used up.