Neapolitan Yogurt Cheesecake ?? ??????

Had this idea of making a chilled neapolitan cheesecake. Tried searching online for one, but couldn't find one. I can only find baked ones.. So, I created this for my mom.

I used yogurt for the top layer, so that the cake would be lighter on the tummy.

After tasting this (after my mom cut the cake, of course), I can say, I'm satisfied with it. Recieved good comments on it. Saying it was light and refreshing, not too filling and overpowering. I like the slightly bitter chocolate sponge (bitter like dark choc), it's a good contrast to the sweet fillings.

So, if u are looking for a light cheesecake, try this. If u want a very strong cheese smell cake or prefer a denser one... skip this.

Chocolate Sponge
4 eggs
100gm sugar
70gm flour
20gm cocoa powder
50gm corn oil

1. Preheat oven at 180C. Line a 10� x 10� shallow square pan with paper.
2. Beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, about triple in volume
3. Sift cocoa powder together with flour.
4. Fold into (2). Mix well.
5. Fold in corn oil.
6. Pour into baking pan and bake for 15-20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and remove paper lining from cake.
8. Let cool and cut cake to fit cake ring. (I used 8 inch ring)
9. Place cut out cake in cake ring onto cake board and freeze.

Vanilla Cream Cheese layer
250 gm cream cheese (room temperature)
40gm sugar
100 gm plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla essence
100 gm whipping cream (whipped)
1 Tbsp gelatin
60 ml water.

1. Put gelatin and water into a heat proof bowl. Double boil until gelatin dissolves. Let cool to room temperature.
2. Beat cream cheese and sugar until light and creamy.
3. Add in yogurt and vanilla essence. Mix well.
4. Fold in whipped cream. Mix well.
5. Drizzle in dissolved gelatin and mix well.
6. Pour cheese filling onto frozen choc sponge. Level surface and place cake into the fridge, not freezer.

Strawberry Yogurt layer.
150gm strawberries
2 Tbsp sugar
420gm strawberry flavoured yogurt ( I used 3 cups of Dutch Lady yogurt)
100gm whipping cream
1 � Tbsp gelatin
60ml water

1. Chop strawberries and macerate with sugar until strawberries soften and bleed. Puree with a fork.
2. Bloom gelatin in water.
3. Bring whipping cream to a boil and pour onto gelatin mixture. Stir to make sure gelatin is dissolved.
4. Mix yogurt with pureed strawberries.
5. Pour (3) into (4) and mix well.
6. Pour (5) onto set cheese layer. Chill cake for 5 hours before removing from cake ring.

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Pasta in Cream Sauce ????

This may be a very common recipe to many others, but many of my friends have been asking me how to do a cream sauce for pasta.

Here's how I do it. You can put in whatever you may like.... calamari, chicken, ham, peas, carrots...

I use whipping cream because it is the most common form of cream available in Malaysia.

Pasta in Cream Sauce Recipe

Portion for 2
150gm pasta, cooked al dente.
1 pip garlic (chopped)
1/2 red onion (chopped)
1/2 cup prawns
1/2 cup mushrooms
1 cup dairy whipping cream (Anchor, Emborg... bla bla bla)
1 tsp parsley flakes
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste

Method:
1. Heat pan and put in olive oil. Saute garlic and onion until fragrant and softened.
2. Put in prawns or whatever meat preferred and stir fry for a while until almost cooked.
3. Put in mushrooms or whatever vegetables preferred and stir until everything is cooked.
4. Pour in whipping cream and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle in parsley flakes.
5. When sauce has boiled and thickened, put in cooked pasta and coat pasta with sauce.
6. Remove from heat and serve.

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Wendy's Lasagna

This is a backpost, way back to Chinese New Year 2008.

I had open house for my friends, and I made lasagne for them, they are fans of cheese and all things close to the cow.



Did some research and I find that the cheeses that they use is kind of rare in Malaysia, and the most important is they are darn pricey here.

I saw on pioneerwomancooks the way she does hers was easy, but finding hot sausages is rather difficult here. She uses cottage cheese, mozarella and grated parmesan... I just downed it all to mozarella. Used fresh tomatoes and did away with the hot sausages. I added cream to the white layer to make it creamier... Some of my friends can't take beef, so I changed it to chicken... the rest of it, stayed kinda similiar.

So, here's my way of doing it, using easier to find ingredients.

Wendy's Lasagna Recipe

Tomato base
1 Kg minced chicken
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1 bulb Big onion (finely chopped)
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp dried basil
2 Tbsp dried parsley
2 cups pureed fresh tomatoes
1 large can San Remo tomato paste (I think it's around 500gm)
2 tsp salt

Saute garlic and onion in olive oil. Put in minced chicken and cook until brown. Add in tomato puree, tomato paste, parsley, basil and salt. Cook mixture until it is almost dry. Dish up and let mixture cool down

White Sauce base
1 cup whipping cream
2 eggs
300gm grated Mozarella Cheese
2 Tbsp dried parsley

Mix everything together well.

Final Assembly
1 Packet of instant lasagne sheets (250gm)
200gm grated mozarella cheese
1 Tbsp butter

1. Butter the base of a 9 X13 inch baking pan.
2. Lay a layer of lasagna sheets on the bottom.
3. Spoon carefully half the white base onto the lasagne sheets.
4. Spoon 1/3 of the tomato base onto the white layer, making sure not to disturb the white base.
5. Lay another layer of lasagne sheets on top of the tomato base layer.
6. Repeat step 3, 4 and 5.
7. Top the lasagna sheets with the final 1/3 of the tomato base and sprinkle grated mozarella on top generously.
8. Bake at 170C for 30 minutes.

I made this 2 days in advance and kept it in the fridge until my friends arrived. Made them wait for lunch..... hahaha!!!

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Rich Chocolate Ice Cream ????????

This is my first attempt at making ice cream.

Went thru a few sites to get an idea. Most recipes I found online needed an ice cream maker to make ice cream, but not many Malaysians have it in their homes. I'm one of those that don't have one. So, I tried to do it with just a whisk and a hand held mixer.

My brothers commented," This tastes like melted chocolate... too rich...."

My hub said," Very nice, but not more than 2 scoops at one go, very 'geng' "

Well, if u're not fan of rich chocolate ice cream, just cut down on the cocoa powder and sugar.
This is a "no maker" recipe. As long as u have a whisk as a minimum requirement.

I didn't make it according to recipes found online. This is my personal preference of proportions.



No maker Rich Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe

Ingredients:

8 egg yolks

500gm sugar

500ml milk

150 gm quality cocoa powder

2 tsp vanilla essence

500ml dairy whipping cream

Method

1. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until slightly pale.

2. Bring milk and cocoa powder to a boil.

3. Pour 1/3 of hot cocoa mixture into whisked egg yolks and combine well.

4. Pour in the rest of cocoa mixture and combine well.


5. Return the cocoa custard mixture to the fire and cook with a low fire, stirring continuously until custard turns dark and glossy. Turn off fire. Stir in vanilla essense.

6. Leave cocoa custard to cool down.

7. Pour whipping cream into a large mixing bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Whipping cream would have doubled up by now.

8. Fold 1/4 whipped cream into cooled cocoa custard mixture and combine well.

9. Continue to fold in 1/4 whipped cream at a time.

10. Place ice cream mixture into freezer and freeze for 1/2 hour.

11. Take ice cream out from freezer every half an hour to give it a good whizz.

12. After a few whizzes, transfer ice cream to freezer containers. I use Tupperware's Freezermates.

13. Freeze until firm.

Serving suggestion:

Here's how it looks after being scooped...

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Japanese Strawberry Shortcake ??????

This is the 2nd thing made from Kenny's strawberries.

Found this recipe in yochana's site. Needed to use up my fresh strawberries. It'll be a pity to freeze them and they're going bad soon.

My short cake, was baked in a 8 inch round pan instead, and my cake was.. 1.5 inches tall. Kinda short.. I dunno where I went wrong, the sides of the cake was fluffy(it's unlike a sponge cake), but the centre's a bit dense as u can see in the cut up pic. But overall, it's still a very lovely cake.

I used dairy whipping cream for this, tried stabilising it with sugar, gelatine and even creamer, but yet, it's runny after a while when I was still in the midst of decorating the cake. Despite it looking ugly, still it made people oooooh when they "glanced" (not looking carefully) at it. kekekeke.

Hey, this is just my 2nd attempt at frosting a whole cake, ok..... kesian a bit here orite... Still learning to do it..

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake -whole

Ingredients:

Cake:

120 gm. cake flour

1/4 tsp. baking powder

50 gm. sugar

50 gm. melted butter

50 gm. cornoil

4 egg yolks

1/2 tsp. vanilla essence

4 egg whites

65 gm. castor sugar

Decoration:

300 gm. whipped cream

10 strawberries (diced)

10 strawberries - thinly sliced

1 Tbsp. instant strawberry jelly + 2 Tbsp. boiling water - for glazing fruit

Method:

(1) For cake: Sieve cake flour, baking powder and 50 gm. of sugar into a bowl and mix thoroughly.

(2) Mix egg yolk, butter and cornoil together and then pour into flour mixture and stir till smooth.

(3) Whisk egg white till slightly frothy, then pour in 65 gm. sugar gradually and whisk till medium peak.

(4) Fold egg white with egg yolk mixture and then pour into a 8" Square tray and bake in preheated oven at 175C for about 45 mins. or till cooked.

(5) Leave cake to cool on wire rack and then slice cake into 3 slices.

(6) Whip up the whipping cream and then spread whipped cream onto each layer and sprinkle diced strawberries on top. Repeat till the last layer of sponge cake. Spread the cake on top with whipped cream. Arrange sliced strawberries on top overlapping one another.

(7) Mix instant strawberry jelly with boiling water then brush it over the sliced strawberries.

(8) Chill before slicing and serve.

not chilled enough....runny frosting

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Strawberry Mirror Cake ??????

I was captivated the moment I saw the picture!! And I hadn't even tasted it!! I'd just got to try out this cake. Pink with strawberries, layered with a nice yellow sponge... Yummy yummy. The picture is in http://simplyannes.blogspot.com/2007/07/pretty-in-pink.html. Well, it was a Daring Baker's challenge, and the recipe can be found at http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/2007/07/30/mirror-mirroron-the-wall/

Well, I'm a novice at making cakes, other than pound cakes or chiffon cakes. And I've never whipped cream using dairy whipping cream, never made real custard with egg yolks and milk.... Yet, I'm determined to try this out, all because I love strawberries.


My first attempt :
Made several mistakes with the bavarian cream, but the sponge cake and mirror was good.
Mistakes:-----
1. Over beat the whipping cream, and made butter instead. But I still dumped them into the filling. Looked ugly, but still tasted alright.
2. Boiled the custard, so it curdled... looks grainy.. ugly, but still tasted alright.
3. Made manila card sqaure spring form pans. And they were too soft that they didn't remain a square when filled, but bulged by the sides.
4. Didn't wait for the custard to cool down enough before mixing with the curdled whipping cream and the whole bavarian cream was too liquidy when poured onto the frozen sponge. My sponge cake floated..

2nd attempt: Successful!!! In terms of assemby and taste.
And I made one in a springform and one in a square cake tin. It was my niece's birthday and I'm glad I didn't spoil her cake..... totally. But... I don't know why there are white streaks on the mirror.. and me, being worried that I won't be able to unmould the cake properly, put cling film on the sides of the spring form pan. when I did unmould it, there were lines on the sides of the cake from the cling film... looked pretty ugly that way. I should've prepared some whipped cream to cover up the streaky sides.


3rd attempt. Changed the assembly method and made a single layer of each.. I find that I like it this way better as I can serve it in smaller cuts without having to prepare plates and knife. It's easy to hold with fingers. Nice party dessert.


Some Daring Baker's blogs had some negative comment on the cake saying that it was not flavourful enough, I think, it might be due to the quality of the strawberries. I found that imported strawberries are not that fragrant and Cameron's strawberries are really really flavourful and fragrant. (Cameron's strawberries ripen on the plant, which is why they are so nice but spoils easily), I didn't even use colouring at all!! It was so red! So, for those who are not from Malaysia, try to use local strawberries that you know ripens on the plant. And if u ever go to Camerons, bring along a water tight container, so that u can get those so so ripe strawberries that goes on sale when it's almost closing hours for the Saturday night market at Brinchang. Wash, hull and freeze them. They are still yummy the next time u may need them. The problem of bringing down so so ripe strawberries from Camerons is that they bleed..so better clean and place them in a water tight container when u bring them down so that u can retain those yummy juices.


I made some ammendments to the portions of the recipe and eliminated the kirsch. And I wrote the modified instructions based on my experience.

Strawberry Mirror Cake Recipe
The sponge:-
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
100gm sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg whites
1 pinch cream of tartar
1 tbsp sugar
50gm sifted cake flour


Moisting syrup:- mix and cool down.
50ml hot water
1 tsbp sugar


Strawberry Bavarian Cream:-
1 � tbsp unflavored gelatin
150 gm fresh strawberries + strained strawberries from preparing the mirror.(pureed)
2 egg yolks
70gm sugar
180 ml milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
200ml whipping cream

Strawberry Mirror:-
250 gm fresh strawberries
150 gm sugar
180ml water
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp unflavored gelatin

**I did this cake in less than 4 hours with lotsa breaks in between. I know the list of ingredients and the instructions seemed so long.... but once u get the hang of it, it's actually pretty easy to make.



Method:

Assembling the cake.
1. Prepare cake. Place trimmed cake onto a 10 x 10 jelly roll pan. Put in the freezer.
2. Prepare strawberry juice.
3. Prepare bavarian cream.
4. Moisten cake with moisting sugar syrup and pour bavarian cream onto cake. Level the cream. Put in the fridge to set.
5. Prepare strawberry mirror and when mirror mixture has turned syrupy pour onto the bavarian cream layer. Place cake in the fridge to set.

Sponge cake:-
1. Preheat oven to 180/200C. Line a 10 X10 inch jelly roll pan.
2. Beat eggs whites until foamy, then add in cream of tartar. Beat until soft peaks, then add in 1 tbsp of sugar and beat until stiff and glossy.
3. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, egg yolks, and sugar until creamy, pale and light. Beat in vanilla.
4. Sift cake flour. Fold into egg yolk mixture.
5. Stir in 1/3 of beaten egg whites into egg yolk mixture. Then fold in the rest of the egg whites.
6. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
7. When cake has cooled, remove baking paper, trim cake so that cake will have an even surface and remove the brown upper skin. Cover and place in freezer.


Bavarian Cream:-
1. Puree strawberries and sprinkle in gelatine powder. Stir it until the gelatine is well blended in well with the puree.
2. Whip egg yolks and sugar until pale and light.
3. Bring milk to a boil and pour in 1/4 of the milk into the egg yolk mixture while still beating with a mixer. Pour in the rest of the milk slowly. Mix well.
4. Return this mixture to the fire and cook with a low fire, stirring constantly, until your finger leaves a clear trail in sauce when drawn across the back of the spoon.(Do not boil or mixture will curdle.)
5. Immediately remove from heat and stir in strawberry mixture.
6. Pour into a stainless steel bowl and place over a bowl of ice water. Stir in lemon juice. Stir once a while to prevent the sides from solidifying.
7. While waiting for the strawberry custard mixture to cool down, whip whipping cream to soft peaks. Do not overbeat!!
8. When strawberry gelatin mixture has cooled and thickened to the consistency of softly whipped cream, fold whipped cream into strawberry custard mixture.


Strawberry Mirror:-
**I prepare strawberry juice(step 1-3) in advance because I `recycle' the strained strawberry pulp from the juice into the bavarian cream.
1. Chop strawberries into large chunks.
2. Place strawberries, sugar and water into a saucepan. Lightly press the strawberries to release juice. Bring to a boil.
3. Strain the juice with a strainer and don't press the fruits at this point.
** this step to be done only after bavarian cream has set on the cake.
4. Bring the strawberry juice that was prepared earlier to a boil. Remove from fire. Sprinkle in gelatine powder and stir to ensure the gelatine has melted.
5. Put in lemon juice. Stir. Wait for it to cool down and turn syrupy.


3rd attempt....



2nd attempt : -My niece's birthday cake




Made a base out of old milk powder packaging. Look at the ugly streaks at the side from the cling film. This assembly is based on the recipe from the Daring Bakers.

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