Work Catering #51: Strawberry Oreo Cheesecake

It's strawberry season! hooray~~ so time to use them in some desserts! They add delicious flavour but more importantly COLOUR :D Below is the recipe for this Strawberry Oreo Cheesecake I made. Philadelphia had a special addition Strawberry Cream cheese block so I decided to try it out. It doesn't taste that great by itself but in this cheesecake.. Mmm.. mm.. mmmm!!! I originally made it as a cake and then adapted it into a slice =) I prefer the slice! hehe

Cake version for a friend's surprise birthday~

Strawberry Oreo Cheesecake
Recipe adapted from Little Cake House

Ingredients
200g chocolate ripple biscuits
75g unsalted butter, melted
300g strawberry flavoured cream cheese, softened at room temperature
300ml thickened cream
150g white chocolate, melted
1 tbs water
1 tsp powdered gelatine
150g strawberry Oreos
strawberries to decorate

1. Line rectangular (20x30cm) baking pan with foil. (or if making a cake, a round 23cm springform/cheesecake tin)
2. Process chocolate biscuits until fine crumbs. Add melted butter and mix until combined. Press mixture over base of pan and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
3. Put water and gelatine in small heatproof bowl. Place bowl in small saucepan of simmering water until gelatine dissolves.
4. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add in gelatine and melted chocolate and mix until smooth.
5. Whip cream in separate bowl until soft peaks formed. Gently fold into cream cheese mixture until combined.
6. Break oreos into small pieces and stir into cream cheese mixture. Pour mixture over the prepared biscuit base smoothly the mixture evenly. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or better, overnight. Decorate with sliced strawberries.

Cheesecake squares! strawberries so red!

Yummy oreos inside~

This was a winner in so many ways! What's not to love? It's cheesecake... it had oreos... and fresh strawberries :D

My next bake was something very american! I had to wiki "snickledoodle" - a type of cookie made with butter/oil, sugar and flour rolled in cinnamon; basically a cinnamon cookie. 

White chocolate snickledoodle blondies
Recipe adapted from Sally's baking addiction

Ingredients
Blondies
2 1/3 cups (290g)  plain flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) caster sugar
3/4 cup (150g) brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup (180g) white chocolate chips
Cinnamon-sugar filling
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup (67g) caster sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease and line rectangular (20x30cm) baking pan with baking paper. 
2. Beat butter on high speed in large bowl until creamy. Add sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. Fold in flour, baking powder and salt until combined. Fold in white chocolate chips. Spoon half the batter into pan evenly. 
4. Combine cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle on top of bottom layer, reserving 1 tbs for the top layer. Spread remaining batter over top. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar. 
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. 

It's like a cinnamon donut as a blondie!!

I loved the cinnamon sugar layer in the centre! Delicioussss~~
Sorry for my belated posts! still have so many more bakes to blog about!! Till then... HAPPY BAKING :D

Work catering #46: Citrus week~

Winter has arrived!!! Time to stock up on vitamin C~ haha so decided to use citrus in my bakes this week! I've used orange and lemon as I have an abundant supply at home (we have a lemon tree ^^). Disclaimer: the vitamin C levels in these bakes are probably not enough to protect you from the flu or colds =p and the sugar probably outweighs the health benefits.. but HEY! they are tasty ^___^

Orange Zested Cranberry White Chocolate Bliss Bars
(I just realised I named all my photos wrong =_=")
Recipe adapted from Mels Kitchen Café

Ingredients

Blondies
113g butter
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp freshly grated orange zest
2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
113g white chocolate

Frosting and topping
250g cream cheese, softened at room temperature
3/4 cup soft icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp freshly grated orange zest
113g white chocolate, melted
1/2 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease and line rectangular (20x30cm) baking pan.
2. Melt butter in microwave. Stir in brown sugar until well combined. Whisk in eggs one at a time until combined. Stir in vanilla essence and orange zest.
3. Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon until well combined. Fold in the cranberries and white chocolate.
4. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Be care not to overbake... I think I may have). Allow to cool completely in pan.
5. For frosting, beat cream cheese and icing sugar together using electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and half the white chocolate.
6. Spread frosting on cooled bars. Sprinkle with cranberries and orange zest then drizzle with remaining white chocolate over the top. Refrigerate until chocolate is set.

having fun drizzling the white choc

new style of cut! the triangle!

should be "zested orange" T_T

Lovely colours... of autumn! hehe

Lemon Lemonies

Recipe adapted from Bakerella

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1 cup caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tbs lemon zest
3/4 cup (170g) butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
3 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla

Icing
1 1/2 cups soft icing sugar
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease and line 23x23cm square pan.
2. Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and zest together with whisk.
3. Add melted butter, lemon juice, eggs and vanilla and stir until completely combined.
4. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool.
5. For lemon icing, sift icing sugar in medium bowl. Add lemon juice and zest and mix. Add enough water until you reach smooth consistency. Pour over lemonies and let rest until icing sets. Place in the fridge to speed things up.
6. Cut into small bite size pieces and enjoy~

I like the light and crumbly texture~

bite size lemonies!

with zesty icing!!

So hope you are all well and staying away from catching colds! I still have so many recipes to blog about!!!

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (June 2014 Event: Butter) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Jozelyn Ng (Spice Up My Kitchen)

Work Catering #41: Now this is a blondie!

If you saw my post last week on Blondies vs. Brownies, you may have realised that I didn't actually make a "blondie" because there was no white chocolate involved. However! This week's recipe is DEFINITELY a blondie! and a deliciously packed one too~ It's filled with all the good stuff: white chocolate, milk chocolate chips, walnut, banana. I really liked the texture of the crunchy walnuts in there and you can actually taste the banana (my brother said "it just tastes like you are eating a banana" XD).

Banana White chocolate Blondie
Recipe adapted from Daily Delicious

Ingredients
150g unsalted butter
300g white chocolate
300g cater sugar
2 eggs
3 medium bananas, mashed
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
300g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
150g walnuts, chopped
120g chocolate chips (milk or dark)

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease and line 20x30cm baking pan with baking paper.
2. Melt butter and white chocolate in saucepan over medium heat.
3. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and banana and mix to combine.
4. Stir in half of flour and baking powder. Once combined, stir in the rest of the flour along with chopped walnuts and chocolate chips.
5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.

Yummy packed blondie!

Next up is another bundt cake! (I told you I'm in a bundt cake mood =p). I wanted to try out the "swirl" again since my last swirl bundt cake didn't turn out that well. I'm really happy with this one! and the cake wasn't too sweet either~ had a lovely mocha taste!
Mocha Swirl Bundt Cake
Recipe adapted from Mainly Baking

Ingredients
4 1/2 tbs cocoa powder
4 1/2 tbs caster sugar
3 tsp instant coffee granules
4 tbs water

2 1/2 cups (320g) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch fo salt
1 1/2 cups (320g) caster sugar
200ml light olive oil (I used vegetable oil)
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
200ml milk
2 tsp instant coffee granules, dissolved in the milk
100g dark chocolate, melted

1. Preheat oven to 180oC and grease bundt tin.
2. Place cocoa powder, caster sugar, coffee granules and water into small bowl and mix until they form a smooth paste. Set aside.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into small bowl. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, whisk sugar, oil and vanilla until smooth. Whisk in the eggs one at a time until mixture is thick and pale.
5. Reduce whisk to slow speed and mix 1/3 of flour mixture alternately with the milk until smooth.
6. Weigh out 400g of batter into a bowl and mix in the cocoa paste mix.
7. Using 1/3 of each batter at a time, layer them alternately into the bundt tin, starting with the light coloured coffee batter.
8. Bake for 45-55min or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes in tin then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.
9. Decorate with melted dark chocolate.

Full cake!

Close up of cake.. yummy moist texture

Loving the swirl ^__^

Work Catering #38: Thème français

A belated post because I've been on a mini holiday ^_^ 
Went to watch the LION KING :D it was soooo awesome!! Brought me back to my childhood~ with all the songs.. Hakuna matata!

Anyways back to the baking! Last week a french reporter from France24 came to work to film a documentary about our head of Immunology Department (who is French).. something to do with French people coming to Aus for research! So I decided to have a French theme to my bakes =) and of course the first thing I thought of was MACARONS! 

I wanted to experiment with colours and tried to make a French flag themed macaron! As you can see the colours are a bit off... the red could have been redder.. and the blue.. darker! But oh wells! I tried XD

You can find the recipe for the macarons here. I split the batter into 2 parts and added blue dye to one and red dye to the other. I think a gel dye rather than a liquid dye would probably work better. The macaron shells are sandwiched with white chocolate ganache which can be made by mixing 50ml thickened cream with 100g white chocolate in a bowl over a double boiler.

They may not look like white chocolate flavoured but they are sandwiched with white chocolate ganache~

Kind of uneven sizes :/

There are many fancy french pastries that I could choose from but decided to go for the safe option of Palmiers! Delicious puff pastry sprinkled with sugar, rolled up into a pretty heart shape and baked in the oven until caramelised! MMmm...

Just caramelised!

The only danger is not to bake them for too long or else the toffee will burn and become bitter.
Cinnamon Palmiers
Recipe adapted from Jessica Gavin

Circle of.... palmiers~~~

Ingredients
1 cup caster sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 sheets puff pastry, thawed

1. Preheat oven to 200oC and line 2 large baking trays.
2. Combine sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. With a rolling pin, roll out the puff pastry sheet to create a slightly flatter and even surface. 
4. Sprinkle surface of puff pastry with cinnamon sugar mixture until evenly coated. Using rolling pin, roll over the sugar surface to help mixture adhere to puff pastry.
5. Flip pastry over and repeat step on the other side. 
6. Fold sides of puff pastry towards the centre so they go halfway to the middle. Fold them again so the two folds meet exactly at the middle of the dough. Then fold 1 half over the other half to resemble a closed book.
7. Chill dough for 15 minutes to allow the butter to harden slightly before cutting and prevent melting into the dough.
8. Slice the dough into 1.5cm slices and place on lined baking tray. For a more heart shaped palmier, slightly separate the tops of the cookie dough to resemble bunny ears.

Little bunny ears

9. Bake for 12 minutes then turn over and bake for another 4 minutes or until lightly caramelised.
10. Transfer palmiers to a cooling rack.

Different carmalisation :/

But deliciously crunchy and sugary :D

I'm having a break from catering the next two weeks... but will update you on some other bakes soon =) Till then, HAPPY BAKING!!!!

Work Catering #36: White chocolate and raspberry cheesecake slice and cookies

I couldn't think of a creative title! haha! Nice to get back into some cheesecake =D I realised that Scotch finger biscuits taste really good for a cheesecake base =) maybe because they are so buttery.. hehe! I liked this cheesecake BUT.. the only problem was the topping :( it was supposed to be a marbled raspberry topping... but kinda ended up being a messy splodge =___= oh wells! still tasted yummy! hehe

White chocolate and raspberry cheesecake slice
Recipe adapted from Taste.com.au

Ingredients
250g packet Arnott's Scotch Finger biscuits
100g butter, melted
2 tbs boiling water
3 tsp powdered gelatine
375g cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
300ml thickened cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
180g white chocolate, melted and cooled

Raspberry topping
1 tbs boiling water
1 tsp powdered gelatine
200g frozen raspberries, thawed

1. Line base of 20x30cm slice pan with foil or baking paper.
2. Process biscuits and butter in food processor until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Use back of spoon to press biscuit mixture over base of pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Beat cream cheese and sugar in bowl until smooth. Add cream, vanilla essence and chocolate and beat until well combined.
4. Dissolve gelatine in boiling water in small bowl. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before adding to cream cheese mix. Pour cheesecake mixture into prepared pan and smooth the surface.
5. To make topping, blend/process raspberries until smooth. (I had to add a bit of water to get it to a smooth puree). Dissolve gelatine in small bowl in boiling water then mix into raspberry puree.
6. Spoon raspberry mixture over cheesecake. Use a skewer to create a swirled effect. Place in fridge for 3 hours or until set. Cut into small pieces to serve.

see? not very pretty..

Looks a bit artificially red here..

I also made these cookies also knows as "Crisps".. not sure why though! haha I would personally call them chocolate crackled cookies ^^ They were of a chewy texture and very simple to make!

Chocolate Lace Crisps
Recipe adapted from The Organised Housewife

Ingredients
100g dark chocolate melts
80g unsalted butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 cup plain flour
2 tbs cocoa powder
1/4 tsp bicarb soda
1/4 cup pure icing sugar

1. Preheat oven to 160oC and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Place chocolate and butter in small saucepan and melt over low heat.
3. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, egg, flour, bicarb soda and cocoa.
4. Pour in chocolate mix and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
5. Roll teaspoonsful of dough into balls and roll in icing sugar. 

balls rolled in icing sugar

Place on baking trays (allowing room for them to spread) and bake for 15 minutes.

Baking in the oven. Allow room for spreading~

Nice and crackly!

with sprinkles of icing sugar =)

Birthday Bake: Teddiron topped Raspberry and White choc cupcakes!

A little friend was turning 11 years old so wanted to bake something special for her birthday! I've known her since she was 4... and seen her grow up so much :) 

Everybody loves cupcakes! They are a nice sweet gift that look pretty ^^" So I tried to make some "pretty" looking cupcakes (although my icing/decorating skills still average....). But you can turn average looking cupcakes into cute cupcakes by simply adding a macaron (or teddiron to be exact) on top!! =D amazing what one macaron can do~~ hehe

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes with raspberry buttercream frosting
Modified Vanilla cupcake recipe 

Ingredients
125g butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup frozen/fresh raspberries

Raspberry buttercream frosting
2 tbs butter, softened
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup frozen raspberries, crushed

1. Preheat oven to 190oC and line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake cases.
2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer until pale.
3. Beat in eggs one and a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Sift over flour and mix until almost combined. Stir in milk.
5. Fold in white chocolate chips and raspberries. Spoon into muffin holes and bake for 15 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.Once cooked, removed from oven and allow to cool. 

Fresh from the oven~

6. Meanwhile make frosting by placing all ingredients in small bowl. Beat using electric mixer until it all comes together to form frosting consistency. (At first, it may seem very crumbly but be patient and keep beating! It'll come together~). If you find it's too runny, add more icing sugar... if you find it too dry add more butter or raspberries :)
7. Ice cooled cupcakes and top with white chocolate chips (optional).

I made the teddirons using Adriano Zumbo's salted caramel macaron mix. I placed a toothpick inside to help it stand on top of the cupcake. (They kind of look like macaron pops ^^) I also wrote on the other side of the macarons with white chocolate spelling out Freesia's name ^^

Teddiron pops!

 So happy birthday Freesia! Hope you have a wonderful day!!! :)