Sunday, December 19, 2010

White Chocolate Cheesecake

FINALLY! After my 5th / 6th time (lost count) of making baked cheesecake, I manage to get it right this time. I chose this recipe as it looked easy and interesting as it uses white chocolate. I couldn't taste the chocolate but my brother (who is on vacation from USA and also a baker) says that there's a hint of the chocolate taste and the texture is good. Yay....

Like I said before, don't ever give up if you were unsuccesful the 1st few times. Give it a rest before trying again and of course must have the 'mood' :-)


Base: 1 pack oreo cookies, crumbled
         50g melted butter

Mix the cookie crumbs and melted butter together and press in 7" springform pan. Bake in preheated oven at 160 degree C for 10 mins.
* You can also use digestive biscuit.

Cake:
200g White chocolate
250g Cream cheese
2 Eggs, separated
1/2 cup sour cream / yogurt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp sugar

- Melt the white chocolate in microwave oven for 1 min or double boil. Stir till chocolate melted.
- Beat Cream cheese till soft & creamy. Add in egg yolks one at a time followed by sour cream & melted chocolate. Mix till combined.
- In another bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add sugar and beat until stiff peak.
- Fold egg white into cheese mixture.
- Pour into springform pan with base and bake in water bath at 160 degree C for 50 mins.
- Leave to cool in oven with switch off for at least 1 hour.



Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Orange Chiffon Cupcake

Wow...year end is really a busy time for me and I've been neglecting my blog too. Its not that I didnt bake since my last post. I did but they were not perfect. I sometimes think that we need to be in the 'mood' if we want to do any baking. One cannot be stressful, in a hurry or in a bad mood. It really affects the outcome of the cake that we baked.

Enough said, I recently had lots of oranges left and tested out this recipe which uses orange . I love the light spongy texture of the cupcakes which held a hint of orange flavour. To top it up, I frosted the cuppies with orange flavour butter icing. Do give it a try.




Orange Chiffon Cupcake

11/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup corn oil
5 eggs, separated
1/4 cup orange juice
Zest of 1 orange
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cream of tartar

1) Mix the flour with egg yolks, oil, juice, zest & vanilla essence.
2) Beat until smooth & thick. Set aside.
3) In another bowl, beat egg white with cream of tartar until foamy.
4) Gradually ad in sugar and beat until stiff peak.
5) Fold into egg yolk mixtue.
6) Pour into cupcakes and bake at 170 degreee C for 30 mins.

Orange Butter Icing

11/2 cup Icing sugar
50g butter
1 tsp grated orange zest
3 tbsp orange juice

Mix everything together.