Frequently Asked Questions in making cheese cakes November 27, 2007

I guessed alot of people like myself would like to know the answers to all these frequently asked questions.  These are the answers i found.  I have compiled it so that all of you will know the answers too.

Q: Why are there cracks appear during baking?

A: Overbeating or high speed mixing can cause cracks to appear.  Ingredients should be also at room temperature.

Q: How to stop the cracking on top of the cheese cake?

A: Put a shallow pan of water at the lower deck of your oven when you are baking.  This will stop the cracks on the top from appearing

Q: I have followed all the process including putting the water in but why did tiny little specks of dots/droppings/cracks still appear?

A: While you are baking, avoid opening the oven door.

Q: Why did my cheesecake shrink so much when it cool?

A: If your cheesecake shrink too much, that means you have baked your cheesecake at a overly high temperature setting.

Q: When is the cheesecake ready?

A: Cheesecake is ready when the edge starts to turn brown and it is completed when the centre is almost set and move slightly when shaken.

Q: When is the cheesecake best served?

A: Cheesecake are best served when it is chilled for at least 12 to 24 hours.  Before you serve the cheesecake to your guest, bring it out the fridge and let it cool outside for 15mins before serving. 

Q: How to revive overbake cheese cake / cakes?

A: If you overbake your cake, make a simple syrup of 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Boil for 3 to 5 minutes, then brush the cake layers on both sides until they are revived.

Oreo Cheesecake November 27, 2007

 

My Cheesecake does not have that attractive look yet but it is still edible.  I will try to make it better by practising.  I cut a small slice to test out before i put in the fridge and this is the only picture i took.  Sorry for that… Hahaha. 

2 Tbls. melted butter OR margarine
1 1/2 cups Oreo® cookie crumbs
2 packets of philadelphia cream cheese. (That is the only cream cheese found in singapore supermarket)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs – room temperature
1 cup sour cream – room temperature
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. vanilla extract
one pinch of salt

Instruction:
Combine butter and cookie crumbs; press evenly into the bottom of a greased springform pan or square tin and put it inside the fridge for half an hour.
-Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
-Beat in sugar and then eggs.
-Stir in sour cream, flour, vanilla, and salt.
-Gently stir in 5 chopped cookies.
-Pour mixture into springform pan; top with remaining chopped cookies.
-Bake on the top rack of a 325 degree oven for 75 minutes.
-Turn off the oven, prop the door open several inches, and allow cake rest in oven for 1 hour.
-Refrigerate overnight.

Simple Chocolate Cake November 19, 2007

Today i just made this cake with my friends. It was such a success that we applauded for this heavenly treat.  

 Ingredient:

1) 1/2 Cup Butter (Softened)

2) 3/4 cup sugar

3) 1 tsp vanilla essence

4) 2 eggs lightly beaten

5) 1 1/4 cup plain flour

6) 3 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder

7) 1 1/4 baking powder

1 cup of milk

9) A small handful of choc chips, melted

 Instruction:

1) Beat Butter first and followed by sugar and vanilla essence.

2) Gradually beat in the eggs until light and fluffy

3) Sift Flour, Cocoa Powder, Baking Soda together into a bowl.

4) Fold in flour, milk  and melted chocolate into the egg mixture until well blended.

5) Pour the mixture into a grease tin and bake for 40 mins with temperature of 180 Degree Celsius or until the cake is cooked when tested with a toothpick.  The toothpick should come out clean.  Stand the cake in the tin for 5mins before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Glaze

1/2 cup of dark chocolate

2 tbsp of milk

2 tbsp of butter(* If the chocolate look dry, add abit of milk in)

Instruction:Glaze the chocolate over the cake with a cake knife.  Decorate with strawberries or kiwi if you want.

Flickr Photos November 17, 2007

YEAH…. i finally know how to link my flickr photos to my blog. I just uploaded 10 pictures there.  Please go to MY PHOTOS and view my interesting pictures, okay?  Lalala….

Adding HTML November 16, 2007

I am starting to get confused about this wordpress.  I have been figuring out these few days to add HTML code into wordpress but it seems like I have difficulty.   One good example is the Recent Readers in this post.  I wanted to put it at the side not the here.  How should I do it?  Could anybody help me???   

How to make soft moist muffins? November 14, 2007

I saw this article on a website and I find it quite useful for people who wants to make soft and moist muffins.

 

Article is by Shiloah Baker

There is nothing like a tender, soft, moist muffin straight from the oven. The perfect muffin’s outside is never hard, and when pulled from its muffin paper or popped out straight from the muffin pan it comes out completely and easily. How in the world is this done?

There are some tricks to muffins that many recipes (or box instructions even) do not include.

The first trick is to NEVER use a hand mixer. Think of muffin batter as a tiny soft baby that can easily crush.

The best utensil for mixing muffins is a wooden spoon.

Make a well into the dry ingredients of the muffins and add the wet ingredients into

the “hole”. Gently fold the dry ingredients over and stir softly. NEVER stir the batter more than 20 times; count each turn of the spoon around the bowl as one, two, and so on.

It is okay to have some lumps in the batter. The object is not to rid the batter of the lumps, but to not over mix.

When putting the batter into the muffin tins, I like two methods. The first, method is to use a ¼ cup measuring cup. My other favorite method is to use an ice cream scoop with the sliding piece inside to easily push the batter out of the spoon and into the cup.

Double Chocolate Chips Cookies November 13, 2007

 

For those chocolate lovers again, you may want to try this recipe to give yourself a delicious treat on chocolates.

1/2 Cup of butter1/2 cup of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract ( use real vanilla extract, avoid vanillin)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup of flour

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup of cocoa powder

Direction:

1) Preheat the oven to 190 Degree C

2) Beat butter and sugar until smooth.  Follow by eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy.

3) Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder and stir into the mixture(2) until well blended.

4) Mix in the chocolate chips into the mixture.

5) Drop by tablespoon onto ungrease cookie sheets.

6) Bake for 8-10 mins or until just set.  Let it cool slightly before transferring to the cooling racks.

**Please do not drop the cookies too closely to each other as it may spread while baking. 

**The cookies may looks soft in the oven while baking but that does not mean you need to bake longer to make it hardened.  Cookies will turn crispy and harder when it become cooler.  Over baking can caused to have burnt cookies easily.  Be careful!

Beauty Recipes November 11, 2007

I am learning to perfect my blogging skills so I will try my best to write more posts and learn more blogging.  I have another blog talking about beauty recipes.  To those people who are not only keen in food but also take some of your time to take a look at the other of my newborn baby blog (http://weightlossgreentea.blogspot.com). There is always a saying going around for women. ” There is no ugly women in the world but only lazy women.”  So ladies, we must learn to be a woman who can cook, bake and ALSO BEAUTIFUL.  

Awfully Chocolate Cake (YUMMY) November 11, 2007

August 26 was my birthday.  This birthday cake was given by my lovely darling and the cake was from Awfully Chocolate Pte Ltd(www.awfullychocolate.com). I really love their chocolate cake.  You even have to order their cake in advance just to avoid disappointment.  Their variety are limited and they sell only one type of cake. Simple dark chocolate cake between layers of dark and rich chocolate fudge.  YUMMY…..

Best of all, they provide QUALITY, DARK CHOCOLATE.  I would rate them Number 1 in chocolate cakes.  Another favourite chocolate cake is Lana Cakeshop.  I have tried their chocolate cake but I still prefer Awfully Chocolate. So which one do you prefer?  Awfully Chocolate or Lana Cake?  I guessed this is up to individual.

Make your own pizza November 9, 2007

One of my best creation is pizza.  My first attempt was a success.  My family simply love the pizza I made.  YUMMY.

PIZZA DOUGH

• 1 cup of warm water (take note, not hot water)
• 3 1/2 cup of plain flour
• 2 teaspoon of olive oil
• 2 teaspoon of honey (I use New Zealand Munuka Honey)
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of dry baker’s yeast

Instruction:

Step 1:

Mix the salt and honey into the warm water.  Add the yeast and mix it.  Let it sit for 10 mins.

Step 2:

Gradually add the flour and olive oil and start mixing.

Step 3:

The dough will start to become heavy as you mix, knead the dough once it is too heavy to mix.

Step 4:

Knead the dough until it form a smooth ball. Add the water bit by bit.  If the dough is too sticky to feel, add the flour bit by bit until it feel smooth.  If the dough is too dry and does not form into a ball, add the water bit by bit.

Step 5:

Coat the dough with olive oil.  Place it in large bowl and use a kitchen wrap/ plastic bag to cover. The dough will rise after an hour.  Push to deflat it after an hour and let it sit for another hour.

Step 6:

After 2 hours, put the dough on lightly floured board.  Pull out some of the dough(about the size of your palm).  Roll it with a rolling pin until it is about 1/4 inch thick( thickness of the dough is up to individual, if you like thin, crispy base, roll it thinner.) Place it in a rounded pizza pan. 

Step 7:

Punch some holes using the fork/toothpick in the dough.  This is to allow the air escape while you bake the pizza.

Step 8:

Put ready made tomato sauce / pizza sauce (sauce can be bought from dept store).  After that, put your favourite toppings such as ham, mushrooms, pineapples, capsicum etc. (toppings is up to you to put )  

 Step 9:

Place the grated cheese all over the pizza ( Buy pizza cheese from supermarket).  If you love cheesy pizza, you can put more.

Step 10:

Place the pizza into the oven and bake at 400-450 F for about 20 mins or until the crust is light brown. 

***I also stuffed some cheese into the crust.  (Stuff crust Pizza)  hahaha.