Orange Cheesecake, Christmas Tree Cake Remake

 

For yet another hallway dinner (February 2nd), I made a very simple orange cheesecake. The crust is a simple crushed cookie and butter crust, topped with a cream cheese and orange juice mix. The hardest part was making the topping using supremed tangerines. The failed ones got chopped into small pieces and cooked with a bit of pectin to cover the rest of the surface. Then I just shaved some chocolate on top.

I made about 10 of these, and will make this recipe again when I'm in a pinch, as it is so very easy to make. The recipe called for less orange juice than I used, but I just added enough for the batter to reach a consistency I felt was normal for cheesecake, based on previous experiences. This cheesecake also does not need to be baked, simply chilled overnight.

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I also made a 2nd Christmas Tree cake, with an improved interior. The exterior, however, wasn't as good due to my ganache not holding the way it was supposed to...

Pseudo Terrine

 

Some of you might know how much of a manga fan I am. Lately, I've been reading a lot of Shokugeki no Souma. In there, one of the characters makes a terrine. Since I read that, I've been thinking of making a terrine for a while.

Some issues: most terrines use meat or gelatin or eggs to hold the layers together. Due to an excess of carrots, I decided to try to make a semi-mousse out of them. I used some peanut butter and corn starch as binding agents. Unfortunately, I had to add a lot of water for the carrots to blend properly. Then I didn't have time to chill the whole thing... so it kind of flopped.

The edge is made out of steamed eggplant slices. Then I had a layer of carrot "mousse," a mix if mashed peas and potatoes, some sliced mushroom, then another layer of carrot. This was served with an herb sauce (perilla, cilantro, lemon juice, and a bit of olive oil) and a quark sauce.

Maybe next time I'll add tofu to the carrot layer... and I will chill it properly with a weight for it to hold together better.

Nian Gao 年糕 (Chinese New Year Cake)

Last weekend was the weekend after the Lunar New Year (February 19th this year). For a small dinner among friends, I thought it was the time to try and make some traditional Asian dessert that goes hand-in-hand with the New Year.

年糕 means "year cake," although it is also used to also mean "higher year" because the words sound similar in Chinese. If I understood correctly, it's a wish for the coming year to be better than the passed year.

The recipe I got was from Little Corner of Mine. Instead of the usual 5 hours or 12 hours of steaming for the caramelization of the sugar, this recipe uses brown sugar, which of itself tastes a bit caramelized. I personally felt it wasn't as fragrant as other such Nian Gao that I have had in the past. Maybe next time, I will make a sort of caramel syrup out of the sugar first before mixing in the flour.

I also added a red date about halfway through the steaming on 4 of them.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 400 g glutinous (sticky) rice flour
• 300 g brown sugar
• 400 mL water
• red date (optional)

  Procedure

1. In a mixing bowl, mix the sugar with 200 mL of hot water until dissolved. 
2. Add the remaining 200 mL of water.
3. Mix in the flour.
4. Steam for 40 minutes.
5. If using, put the red date in about halfway through cooking.

  Tips

     Caramelize sugar and water prior to adding flour for a better fragrance and more pronounced flavor.

Tiramisu #...9?

Here we have yet another round of tiramisu, which I whipped up for a cousin who was visiting and would be leaving the next day. These were also the tiramisus that confirmed that baking works as a therapy for me when I'm super stressed.

I also confirmed this time that I need 3 layers of spéculoos cookies between cream layers. I got some decaffeinated coffee this time, which helps for my friends who are very sensitive to caffeine.

Want to know how to make it? Head over to my tutorial!

Chocolate Cupcake with Ice Cream

In a spur of the moment, I bought some "Dame Blanche" ice cream (basically vanilla ice cream with some chocolate syrup streaks). Then I left it in the freezer to be forgotten.

Then one day, last month, I thought I should make something to go with it. I had been meaning to improve my recipe for chocolate cake, so I thought it would be a nice opportunity to test it out and pair it with ice cream!

So yeah, my attempt at making the cake better wasn't really great yet, so I'll hold out on sharing the recipe. All I have is this picture to share ^^.

Apple Tart

On the day before I had to return to the university, there was a brunch for one of my cousins. Many people showed up, and each brought something. There were a lot of desserts (passion fruit mousse, chocolate mousse, cakes, etc), and I contributed with an apple tart.

That makes it apple tart number....... 14!!

I won't bore you with the usual details on how I made this... If you're curious, there are plenty of other posts about apple tarts ;)

I had some leftover dough, so I made 2 more mini ones. By then it late, and I was tired, so I didn't bother shaping them into a flower.

Pink Cupcakes

A couple of weeks ago, I went to my cousins' kid's birthday party. I knew there would be cake (and indeed, there was a LOT), but I wasn't sure there would be egg-free cake for my dad and aunt, who don't eat eggs. So just to be safe, I quickly whipped up some cupcakes using my trusty go-to cake recipe (same as this one, minus lemon juice and zest, and plus vanilla sugar).

For topping, I simply beat whipping cream mixed with sugar, then added a few teaspoons of the leftover berry sauce/jam from the cheesecakes I'd made earlier that week. This turned it into a pink whipped cream. Due to me forgetting my piping syringe, and not thinking of asking my cousin to use his piping bag and tip, I just frosted them with a spoon.

"Merci" Sandwich Cookies

I received this awesome cookie stamping set (with a cookbook full of shortbread cookies that I can't wait to try) for Christmas from one of my cousins. As thanks, I made these butter cookies (much like the ones I made for Christmas presents, minus the sugar coating), and stamped them with the French word for "thanks," which is "merci." Due to some mistake on my part, likely due to carelessness, or distraction, these cookies turned out more on the dry side. I had also forgotten to put the 2nd spoon of sugar!

What to do?

Since I had some leftover berry-sauce-turned-jam-ish from the Triple Cheesecakes, I spread some on a cookie, and plopped another on top. I tested a small piece myself (by breaking the leftover cookie in half and sandwiching it like that), and it seemed to have solved the problem.

Triple Cheesecakes

Did I mention that I received some new springform pans for Christmas? I got about 4 of them, around 10.5 cm in diameter. Since with these, I now have a total of 8 mini springform pans, I used the opportunity to test some different recipes for cheesecakes, all in one go! As you can see, I made 3 types, and I made 2 of each type. They all have a butter cookie crust (with a tiny bit of almond).

Let me describe them from left to right:

Classic Cheesecake: This is a twist the "classic" recipe I usually use, with cream cheese and Greek yogurt (as sub for sour cream or fromage blanc that I used to use). I flavored this with rose, and topped with a berry sauce and cinnamon whipped cream.

Ricotta Cheesecake: I read somewhere about a cheesecake made out of ricotta, so I wanted to test it, since ricotta is a much lighter cheese than cream cheese. I flavored this one with lemon zest and lemon juice, topped with somewhat candied lemon slices. Although it was indeed lighter, I felt that the slight grittiness due to the ricotta's texture wasn't what I was looking for in cheesecake.

Greek Yogurt Cheesecake: This recipe was pure Greek yogurt, although I added a bit of starch to stabilize the mix. I really enjoyed the creaminess. I left this one vanilla flavored, and topped with a bit of berry sauce, and cinnamon whipped cream.

Served with more cinnamon whipped cream.

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THREE CHEESECAKE RECIPES (filling only)

  Ingredients

     Classic Cheesecake [2 x 12 cm pan]

• 200 g cream cheese
• 125 g Greek yogurt
• 1 1/3 eggs' worth of egg replacer
• 1/3 lemon's juice
• . rose water
• sugar
• topping

     Ricotta Cheesecake [2 x 10.5 cm pan]

• 250 g ricotta
• 2/3 eggs' worth of egg replacer
• 1/6 cup cream
• 1 lemon's zest
• 1/2 lemon's juice
• sugar
• topping

     Greek Yogurt Cheesecake [2 x 10.5 cm pan]

• 285 g Greek yogurt (~2 cups)
• 1 egg's worth of egg replacer
• 1/2 tbs cornstarch
• 1 pack vanilla sugar
• sugar
• topping

  Procedure

1. Mix all ingredients except the topping.
2. Pour into prepared pan (with prepared crust/base).
3. Bake at 180°C for 15 mins.
4. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight.
5. Top as desired, and serve.

  Tips

     Put a pan filled with water on a rack underneath the cheesecakes while baking to provide steam and prevent cracking.

Apple Cake Pudding

When I made the white mud cake for the Christmas Tree cake, I had to remove the thick, heavy crust to use the soft center to obtain a truffle-like mix. I was not too sure what to do with the crust. I tried pulsing some in a blender to see if I could turn it into cake pops of some kind, but they turned more into dust than into crumbs.

Then I remembered the bread pudding I made last October, and thought I could make something similar to deal with these somewhat dry, leftover cake bits. I used some pudding mix (another one that was sitting in a cupboard, which had sugar already mixed in so I could not adjust sugar content as I wished), and threw in cake pieces that I broke off. As the cake is sweeter than the dried bread used in the bread pudding, I needed to offset the sugar a bit. Luckily, we had some somewhat tart apples laying around, so I diced those, and used a few for topping. The whole thing was baked. For something quickly put together to use up leftovers, it got quite a decent reception.