Work catering #10: Cheesecake and Chocolate for a Chocoholic! =p

Cheesecake =D

I made it to week 10 of work catering =D hahhaha...

As promised last week, I made some chocolatey goodies for this week's catering :) My friend was giving her talk and she is a CHOCOHOLIC! I knew she would be a bit stressed so I baked her some BROWNIES! this time I added in MORE chocolate =p white chocolate bits... and some macadamia nuts and mixed berries!!

Slab of brownies! YUM!

So happy she liked them =) It's the same recipe that I've used which you can find here. Just added 125g white choc bits and 110g macadamia halves and 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries but really.. you can add anything you like. I'm just trying to find the best combination ^^

packed brownies

2 boxes full =D

I also know that not everyone likes chocolate, so I made a Blackforest cheesecake. I am in love with this recipe!!! This is the third time making it! It's so simple and tastes great =D and it's a NO BAKE recipe!

I had a little trouble with the cherry syrup topping ><" but other than that it was fine.

BLACKFOREST CHEESECAKE
Recipe adapted from ninemsn
Ingredients
Base
250g chocolate ripple biscuits
125g butter, melted (I only used 100g and seemed to work well)

Cheesecake
250g cream cheese, cubed, softened at room temp
165g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
1 tbs lemon juice
300ml thickened cream
3 tsp powdered gelatin
125g hot water
425g can pitted black cherries (reserve juice for syrup)

Cherry topping
3/4 cup cherry syrup
1 tbs corn flour
1 tbs caster sugar
1 tbs rum (i didn't have any so didn't add it)

1. Process chocolate biscuits until resembles fine crumbs. Add melted butter and process until well combined. Press biscuit base into lined baking tray (20cm x 30cm) using back of spoon. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.

2. Beat cream in small bowl with electric beater till soft peaks form. Keep aside.
3. Sprinkle gelatin over small bowl of hot water and stir until dissolved. Keep aside to cool.
4. Meanwhile beat cream cheese, caster sugar and lemon juice in separate bowl until smooth. Fold in cream mix. Fold in gelatin mix.
5. Pour half batter on top of biscuit base. Carefully press cherries into cream cheese layer then finish with final layer of cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate until set (~3 hours). 

6. For cherry syrup, place ingredients in small saucepan and heat until mixture boils and thickens. Stir in rum. Allow to cool before spreading onto cheesecake (but don't let it cool too much otherwise it'll set and become clumpy >< - speaking from experience)

close up of cheesecake

Ready to be served

Very rich!

Close up of brownies.. so you can see the macadamia, white choc and berries!

Work Catering #7: Cupcakes and cookies!

Back into the catering swing of things!! This week it was all about cupcakes and cookies =) I wanted to use the ready made Cream cheese frosting I had bought so I looked back at my previous recipes and found Red Velvet Cupcakes! I made mini cupcakes so I could cater for more people :p

before icing..... Just so you can see the red colour =)

Ready made cream cheese frosting!!

This stuff is the BEST! and actually cheaper and easier than making it myself... sometimes I do get lazy too ;)

My friend ripped out pages of a magazine filled with wonderful recipes for me! thanks!!! So found this simple recipe for cookies (basic dough only using 4 ingredients!!!). It makes a bunch of cookies (~50.. depending on how big or small you make them) and its so simple as well =)

Choc chip and Macadamia cookies
(Recipe adapted from New Idea magazine)

Ingredients
250g butter
200g sweetened condensed milk (1/2 x 395g can)
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
250g dark chocolate chips
110g macadamia nut halves

1. Pre-heat oven to 170oC and line 3 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Beat butter, condensed milk and sugar in bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Stir in the flour, choc chips and nuts. (You can really add your own flavours! such as M&Ms, raisins, cranberries, walnuts....)
4. Roll teaspoons of dough into balls and place on lined baking tray. Press down with back of spoon or palm of hand to flatten cookie. (remember to leave a bit of space between each one!)
5. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden in colour.

cookies!!! :D

ready for catering~

mini mouthful

Cookie cravings...

My brother had cravings for cookies the other day. 
He asked me "Do you want to make something?" 
Me: "Something... like what?" 
Bro: "Cookies?" 
Me: "What flavour?
Bro: "Hmm... something white chocolate? macadamia nuts?"

But that day I was quite tired and didn't feel like baking xD haha!! But the next day I had a bad lunch experience ><" So needed to go home and bake something delicious! hehe.. I recently saw a post by DailyDelicious for some chewy choc chip cookies! So I used that recipe and made my own flavour~ 

This recipe did not need to cream the butter and sugar (BONUS!) so it was easy and didn't take much time at all! :) 

Raspberry, white chocolate and macadamia cookies
Recipe adapted from dailydelicious

Ingredients
300g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled until slightly warm
180g brown sugar
90g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
150g white chocolate chips
1/2 cup macadamia halves
1/4 cup frozen raspberries, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Whisk together melted butter and sugar until fully combined.
3. Stir in eggs and vanilla.
4. Sift in flour and baking powder and stir to combine.
5. Fold in chocolate chips, macadamia nuts and raspberries into the batter.
6. Place spoonfuls of dough onto baking trays - making sure to leave room for cookies to spread.
7. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool before removing from tray.

When these first came out of the oven.. they were hard.. but after they were cooled they were nice and soft =D Brought some to work and they were nearly all gone by the day's end :) 

Cookies cooling on trays~~ ^_^