there's always room for dessert

This is not the first time I made this awfully delicious and decadent chocolate torte. I baked one for my better half's birthday a few months back. Ever since I have taken the first bite, I couldn't seem to get it off my mind...

well, just like any home bakers, we don't need to wait for a special occasion to bake a cake...and,

....there is always room for dessert ;)

This rather rustic, crackly, sunken chocolate cake may look similar to one of my favourate classic chocolate cakes, but take a closer look. Do you notice the black layer at the bottom? It is actually an oreo biscuit base just like the crust of a cheesecake. When I first saw the recipe while browsing a copy of the Delicious magazine, I knew this is the cake to bake for my husband. He is an oreo fiend and what's more, he has two other oreo buddies at home!

Although a picture speaks a thousand words, this photo doesn't do this cake justice, unless one can lick it off the screen. It is dense and yet has a very delicate, velvety smooth texture...'melt-in-your-mouth' are the closest words that I could think of to describe it. Believe it or not, the crunchy crust, which keeps falling off even when the cake was cooling on the rack, is extra icing on the cake!

The original recipe suggests to serve this cake with whisky cream(whipped cream infused with liquor)...but I opted for a scoop of ice cream. I always keep a tub of vanilla ice cream in the fridge, it goes well with most cakes and desserts and it's certainly a fuss-free option than having to whip up a few dollops of cream.

I scaled down the recipe which is meant for 22cm pan to fit my 18cm loose-bottom pan. Some how, looking at the ingredient list, it doesn't use that much fat or sugar...at least the amount is still within my limits. In any case, I follow the rule of eating every thing in moderation. We don't have to feel sinful to indulge once in while ;)

So, what are you waiting for? Happy Baking!



Rich Chocolate Torte

Ingredients:
(make one 18cm cake)

150g oreo cookies
40g melted butter

180g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
50g unsalted butter
50ml coffee
2 egg yolks
45g cake flour

2 egg whites
90g caster sugar

icing sugar (or cocoa powder) for dusting


Method:

• Line the bottom of an 18cm round pan (with removable base) with parchment paper. Grease and flour the sides.
• Remove the cream from the oreo cookies. Crumb the cookies, either with a rolling pin or in a food processor. Place the crumbs and the melted butter in a bowl. Mix thoroughly with a spoon until the crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly into the base of the prepared pan. Use the back of the spoon, smooth out the crumbs and press firmly. You can also use a glass (with a flat base) to press down firmly. Leave to chill in the fridge for at least 30mins.
• Melt chocolate and butter over low heat in a saucepan, stir to combine. Add the coffee, stir to combine. Remove from heat. Let cool.
• With a balloon whisk, whisk egg yolks gently. Add in the melted chocolate/butter mixture. Whisk to combine. Sieve over the flour and whisk to combine. Set aside.
• In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with a handheld electric mixer on low speed until mixture becomes frothy and foamy. Add half of the sugar amount and turn to high speed and beat the mixture. Continue to add in the remaining sugar and beat until the egg whites reaches the soft peak stage. The soft peak stage is reached when the peaks of the whites curl over and droop slightly. The egg whites should appear smooth and glossy. (Do not over beat the whites still stiff, it is better to beat the whites still soft peaks for easy folding with the yolk batter.)
• Add 1/3 of the egg white to the egg yolk mixture. Fold in with a balloon whisk to loosen the batter. Add the remaining egg white in 2 separate addition, change to a spatula and each time fold in gently, making sure all the egg whites are incorporated into the batter. (Note: take care not to deflate the batter. The finished batter should fill up the pan to at least 3/4 full.)  
• Pour batter into the prepared cake pan. Tap the cake pan lightly on tabletop a few times to release any trapped bubbles in the batter. 
• Bake in preheated oven at 160 degC for 40 ~ 45 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with a few moist crumb. 
• Remove cake from oven, leave it in the pan for about 5mins. Unmould and let cool on wire rack. Dust with icing sugar (or cocoa powder) as desired. Serve with whipping cream or a scoop of ice cream. The cake is best eaten at room temperature. If stored in fridge, bring the cake to room temperature before serving.

Recipe source: adapted from Delicious magazine

首尔的cafe时光

我把首尔的cafe时光带回家了。。。

一向来安排自助旅行都非常贪心，总是把行程排得满满，搞得自己像导游，带着鸭子从一个景点赶到下一个景点，势必要 cover as much as possible, 这种怕输的心态不是一朝一日可以培养出来的，呵呵！

去年的首尔～釜山～庆州自由行，虽然行程有点像行军（我穿着球鞋脚都会被磨破，其中一个脚指甲回来后还脱落了！），不过这次终于有机会在首尔的江南区，新沙洞林荫大道附近的一个好小好小的cafe，喝下午茶，la kopi！

这家Banana Tree cafe是我无意中在某个网站发现的。一看到那宛如盆栽的甜点和可爱的小‘铁铲’汤匙，立刻把它列入我的‘die die must go’ list！

有了GPS， Google map，这间躲在一个好不起眼的街边小店，并不是很难找。

那天下午，小小的cafe就我们三人，感觉好像包下整个咖啡馆！其实咖啡馆就只有那三，四张小桌子。。。

看，这个被店主命名为paap的甜点，其实是把布丁盛在花盆里，上面的‘土壤’是oreo粉末，再加上巧克力石子和假花作点缀，就变成一盆可爱的小盆栽。

有闲情喝咖啡，吃甜点，对我们来说真的很难得。。。

在冷冷的冬天，坐在小小的，温馨的露台，來杯热热的latte，甜甜的香蕉布丁，幻想着有朝一日能开一间这样的小cafe，感觉非常非常好。

我特地向店员买了小花盆回来，只可惜小铁铲汤匙不卖，要不然买来当手信也不错。

小花盆带回来就一直搁着，直到有一天心血来潮，在网站上找一找，发现原来这种盆栽甜点除了布丁也可以用雪糕来代替。做法很简单，只虽放一个纸杯(马芬纸杯）在花盆里，填入雪糕，再插入一段吸管（用来插花）放入冰箱冷冻。要吃之前，撒上捣碎的oreo cookies，再插上鲜花或假花，以巧克力石子点缀，我的DIY花盆甜点就完成了！饼干里面的馅要不要拿掉可以随意，不拿掉的话，‘土壤’会很像好多天没浇水，变干硬，结块的泥土 ;)




我的花盆甜点：Oreo加雪糕，好像变成oreo mcFlowery了啦！

没有小花盆？ 没关系，小花也可以‘种’在小玻璃杯里， 一样能在家享受拥有视觉, 味觉，来自人气cafe的甜点！


This post is about my last trip to Seoul...the relaxing time we spent at this little cafe, Banana Tree, at Shinsha dong, near Garosu-gil. I was drawn to this cafe simply because of their cute flower pot dessert! We had a great time sipping latte and enjoying the .banana pudding (paap) on a cold wintry afternoon.

I had wanted to recreate this lovely dessert when I got back home, but as usual, I procrastinated. A couple of weeks ago, I was so inspired by The Pioneer Woman's springy flower pot dessert that I wasted no time to get my hands 'dirty' creating my own flower pot dessert. I made a simplified version, that is, I didn't use any pound cake as base. Instead, I lined my flower pots with a paper muffin cup (which happened to fit in nicely into the flower pot) and filled it up with ice cream. I topped the ice cream with crushed oreo cookies and colourful chocolate stones. If you do not own any flower pots, this adorable dessert can be made in small glasses too. These are great after dinner dessert and I am sure they will surprise any guests young or old.

Mini Oreo Cheesecake

To my regular visitors, my apologies for the long silence.

To make up for my tardiness in updating this blog, here's a little treat from my kitchen to yours...
mini upside down oreo cheesecakes...

A month ago, I was quite caught up planning for a holiday trip...it was a last minute decision as we almost gave up the idea when we couldn't get on the flight. By chance or fate, (or rather, thanks to my never-give-up attitude of checking the airlines system every other few hours) I managed to get all of us booked on the same flight. As we neither speak or read Korean language, I had to make sure I did a thorough job of getting into the minute details to prevent any hiccups during our trip. My 'strengths' in micro-managing pays off. Everything went well, we got to visit the places we had planned and didn't have much problem finding the popular makan(eating) places. As usual, we were on a shoestring budget, everything was DIY, backpackers style...only difference was, instead of carrying backpacks we maneuvered the busy streets and from train stations to stations with cabin bags in tow ;)

Our holiday trip was a real short one...time flies and in no time we are back to our daily mundane lives :(
In between doing loads after loads of laundry, I took time to 'spot clean' my fridge. Lying in the fridge was this block of cream cheese, crying out loud to me that I was right on time, it would exceed the expiry date the very next day!

Instead of procrastinating and end up having to throw it into the bin the next day, I googled for suitable recipes that calls for cream cheese. I remember seeing some oreo cheesecake recipes some time back, and it was a good thing that the recipe requires very basic baking ingredients, and, I am never short of oreos! The only problem was, I didn't have any sour cream on hand, but I do have yoghurt in the fridge. I went ahead and replaced the sour cream with yoghurt. I guess not much damage was done...

I baked them with paper muffin cups...one whole oreo cookie is placed inside each cup before filling it up with the batter. The preparation was rather fuss free, quick and simple. I followed the baking time but extended it for another couple of minutes as I did the skewer test and the centre was still wet although the top was set. For fear of over baking, I turned off the heat even though the inside was still not set. I believe they would be fully set in the fridge (upon cooling, the cakes have to be chilled in the fridge before consuming).

My little baking retreat was a great success. These mini cheesecakes were really delicious, and I thought they looked very lovely with the oreo cookies on top :)

They are excellent after dinner treats even though I am not an oreo fan, and I am sure they would jazz up any tea time tables especially when there are guests around ;)



Mini Oreo Cheesecakes

Ingredients:
(makes about 10)

15 Oreo cookies (10 leave as whole, 5 remove cream and coarsely chopped)
8oz pack cream cheese, room temperature
50g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten, room temperature
60g sour cream (I replaced with plain yoghurt)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 135 DegC (275°F).
2. Place one whole cookie in each of the 10 muffin paper cups (or line muffin tins with paper liners). 
3. Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer (medium high speed) until smooth. 
4. Add in sugar, beat until just combined, scrape down the sides of the bowl when necessary.
5. Add in vanilla extract, beat until just combined. 
6. Gradually drizzle in the egg, beat to combine, scrape down the sides of the bowl when necessary. 
7. Add in sour cream, beat till just combined. 
8. Add chopped cookies, fold with a spatula. 
9. Fill each muffin cup almost to the brim. Bake for about 22~25 minutes until the filling is set and not jiggly. Transfer to wire rack, leave to cool completely. Cover or store in airtight containers and leave to refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. When ready to serve, remove cake from muffin cups, serve cookies sides up.

Recipe source: adapted recipe from here.

recipe revisit: oreo butter cake

I spent one quiet afternoon revisiting an old favourite recipe.  There is so much nostalgia associated with it.

This Oreo Butter Cake is one of the very first few cakes I made when I started baking and blogging.

Instead of baking the cake in a 8" round pan, I tried it with my tube pan. Although the batter wasn't enough to even fill up 70% of the pan, the result is still as good. I have seen other bloggers baking this same cake using loaf pan and even muffin cups.

Even though I am no fan of oreo cookies, I really like the texture of the cake, soft, moist and fluffy. It is such a simple cake to treat my oreo cookies monsters at home ;)

I am guilty of neglecting this little blog space. I don't want to make any excuses but things have been moving so fast that I have no choice but to give priority to other matters in my life. I hope I am able to post as regularly, especially during the coming year end school holidays.



Oreo Butter Cake

Ingredients:

225g cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
85g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
170g caster sugar (I used 120g)
2 eggs, beaten
240ml nonfat unsweetened yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
80g Oreo cookies, remove filling, roughly crushed

Method:

1. Line base and side of an 8-inch round pan with parchment paper (I used a tube pan, greased and floured). 
2. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 
3. With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until mixture turns pale and fluffy. Dribble in the eggs (1 tablespoon at a time), beat well. 
4. With a spatula, fold in 1/3 of the flour mixture until just combined. Fold in ½ of the yogurt. Then fold in ½ of the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining yogurt, and vanilla extract. Finally fold in the remaining flour mixture. 
5. Fold in the crushed oreo cookies. 
6. Pour batter into prepared pan. If using a round pan, if desired, decorate the top with a few oreo cookies.
7. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 degC for about 40 ~ 50 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 mins. Unmold and transfer to wire rack, let cool completely.

Recipe source: My Kitchen: My Laboratory

当圈圈遇见方方

这款oreo芝司蛋糕, 是第6个做给我家那台不用插电全自动洗碗机的生日蛋糕。不过说来惭愧，我做给他的蛋糕一年比一年丑。虽然我不是赖小姐，但我总认为那是因为他对我没有任何要求，即使马马虎虎做一个蛋糕来充数，他半句怨言也没有，还夸张地对着未经修饰'全裸'的蛋糕说 "Oh，it's a heart shaped cake!"

待人处事比较圆滑的他，和个性较冲动有话直说的我，好比一个圈圈遇到一个正方形。多年的相处下正方形的四个角被磨得也变得有点圆了。有烘蛋糕的您，要为圆形烤盘铺油纸时是怎么剪圆形油纸的呢？好多年前我从电视学会了Jamie Oliver的方法，就是先剪个正方形，然后对折四次，大略剪一条圆弧，打开就是一个圆形了。


所以当圈圈遇见方方，会变成什么呢？是长了角的圈圈？还是缺了角的方方？

之前都只会做免烤生乳酪蛋糕，第一次烘New York style芝司蛋糕，零经验，don't know what to expect。阴差阳错，也就将错就错，用买了N个月的心型模具。成品真的不怎样，我想还是用圆形烤盘会比较好看。因为是New York style cheesecake，所以不虽要用水浴法来烤，直接放入烤箱就可以了。照着食谱用170度烤40－45分钟，蛋糕出炉， 表面有点‘moh peng’，可能我的烤箱温度有点偏高，放凉后收缩坍塌得蛮厉害，不过我想典型的烤乳酪蛋糕也就是这个模样，所以也不当一回事，没放在心上。蛋糕完全冷却后还不能吃，更不能立刻脱模，必须连模具放进冰箱冷藏至少四小时以上，最好隔夜冷藏，味道会更好。

虽然蛋糕有点丑，不过加上一些点缀还混得过去。乳酪蛋糕部分绵密扎实，酸甜适中，非常好吃，真的有点超出意料自外！没想到第一次烤芝司蛋糕味道会那么好， 吃一片肯定不够，多吃一片也不会感觉腻腻的。家里的一大两小oreo迷，都一一竖起大拇指连连赞好。

两周后我用160度烤第二个乳酪蛋糕，表面美美毫无瑕疵，让蛋糕在烤箱里放凉，蛋糕没收缩也没坍塌。因为我对oreo没多大兴趣，我会比较喜欢这个原味乳酪蛋糕。

回到当圈圈遇见方方的问题－－－答案其实是－－－心形！
把一个圆形对剪一半，排在一个同等大小的正方形其中的两边，就成了一个心形。。。
好比我的圈圈包容着我这个方方 :)

Pardon my recent absence from this blog. I have been putting in my best effort to fulfill my responsibility as a good parent to help my younger child prepare for his mid-year exams. Sad to say this is something quite inevitable in our meritocratic education system, there is no way to avoid it but to get on with it. Since I don't send him for any any tuition or academic enrichment classes, I have to assume the role of a home tutor. Anyone who has the experience coaching your own kid would know, it is definitely not a pleasant affair. I am so glad that we can now resume our happy mother and child relationship instead of getting into that all too familiar tiger-mother-helpless-lamb situation every now and then during the past few weeks.

The highlight of this post is yet another one of my 'first attempt' for the month, or rather last month. I baked a New York style oreo cheesecake for my husband's birthday. This is the first time I have made a proper baked cheesecake. Preparing the batter was quite straight forward and that left me the false impression that the cake would turn out great. Little did I know that my oven temperature was on the high side, and upon cooling, the cake shrank and collapsed with a slight sunken top. Well, it was not a pleasing sight to behold so I decorated it with whatever I had on hand to make it look more presentable. Fortunately, the taste of the cake was not compromised at all. It had a very nice creamy and smooth texture, yet taste light with a refreshing hint of lemon. You wouldn't be able to stop at just one slice. Once we finished the cake, I started craving for another one. It is no surprise that I made another version a fortnight later, and this time I was careful to bake it at a lower temperature. I left the cake to cool in the oven when it was cooked, the cake didn't shrink or sink as much as my first attempt. Unlike my husband and my boys, I am not really a fan of oreos. So I prefer this plain version as the delicate taste of the creamy cheesecake was not overpowered by the presence of the sweet oreo crumbs. The digestive biscuit base is also a better option to pair with the slightly lemony cheese filling.

My latest baking venture has certainly removed my fear of making a baked cheesecake...I am sure I will be able to move on to making more delicate bakes such as the Japanese style souffle cheesecake...



Baked Oreo Cheesecake
(makes one 7" round cake or 7" heart shape cake)

Ingredients:

base crust:
100g oreo cookies (without the cream), finely crushed
45g unsalted butter, melted

filling:
250g cream cheese, soften at room temperature
100g caster sugar
50g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature
100g sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 large egg, room temperature
1 large egg yolk, room temperature
10g corn starch
1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 ~ 4 oreo cookies, break into small chunks

Method:

Crust:
Lightly grease a 7" round baking pan (with removable base). Line base and side of the pan with parchment paper. Combine crushed oreo cookies and melted butter together in a mixing bowl, mix well. With the back of a spoon, press the oreo cookies crumbs firmly onto the base of the prepared pan. (To ensure the crust is even, I used the base of a flat-bottom glass to press down the crumbs.)

Filling:
With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese in a mixing bowl until smooth. Add in sugar and beat till fully incorporated. Stop to scrape down the sides if necessary. Continue to add in butter, whisk to combine. Add in sour cream, beat to combine. Add in vanilla bean paste (or use the seeds of 1/3 of a vanilla pod), beat to combine.

Lightly beat the egg and egg yolks in a small bowl. Add in the egg mixture to the cream cheese batter in 3 separate additions, beat to combine after each addition. Add in corn flour and lemon juice, beat to combine.

For a smoother texture, strain the batter over a sieve. Pour the prepared pan with half of the batter, sprinkle oreo cookies chunks over the surface evenly. Pour the remaining batter. Smooth the surface with a spatula. Bake in preheated oven at 170 degC for about 45~50mins (Note: I find baking at 160 degC yields better result). To test for doneness, gently shake the pan, the filling should have a slight wobble in the centre. Once the cheesecake is done, turn off the oven. Leave the oven door slightly open and leave the cheesecake inside the oven to cool off for about an hour. The cheesecake may crack slightly if left to cool outside the oven.

Remove from oven and leave to cool completely. Do not unmould. Cover with cling wrap and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, best chilled over night.

When ready to unmold, place pan on an inverted glass (or a canned drink or any canned food). Carefully slide the side of the removable pan downwards to release the cake. Transfer cake to a serving plate, decorate as desired.

Recipe source: 起司蛋糕 by 信太康代

Happy Birthday!

Time has zoomed passed so fast that unknowingly, another year has gone by. It seems like my son has grown up at such a tremendous speed that I have no choice but to accept that he is a big kid now. Looks like I have only a few more years to have him all for myself before he spreads his wings and embraces his own world.

To celebrate his birthday, I baked him a special cake which is a combination of both his all-time favourites...oreo cookies and durian! Even though my younger boy protested...he won't eat any durians, I still went ahead to make it as the rest of us are all durian lovers ;)


As I was expecting a crowd, I made an 8" cake by adapting my favourite 7" sponge cake recipe. I was glad that the sponge cake turned out well as I was really just trying my luck to meddle with the ingredient amount! I whipped up some non-dairy cream and added in some durian pulp. It tasted yummy! Then I sliced the sponge cake into three layers and sandwiched each layer with some non-dairy whipped cream followed by a layer of fresh durian pulp. The cake was then covered with the left over durian whipped cream mixture before it was covered generously with lots of oreo cookie crumbs.


Except for a couple of kids who are non-durian lovers, all the guests enjoyed the cake. The durain was really good...it was very creamy and came with very thick flesh and had got a bitter sweet taste. An excellent choice to please both 'camps' of durian lovers...those who prefer sweet durians vs those who just love a stronger bitter taste. It's a pity I didn't have the chance to take a photo of a slice of cake. Even though I love the cake, I doubt I would make it again any sooner as I really couldn't stand the stinky fridge after having this durian cake sitting in it all night!

I will post the recipe unless there are many requests for it since not everyone likes durian ;)

(As there are a number of requests, I have posted the recipe here.)

Ingredients:
(makes one 20cm cake)

Ingredients A:
130g cake flour
4 eggs, room temperature
120g caster sugar
30g unsalted butter, melted
40ml fresh milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients B:
50g durian flesh (pureed)
300ml non-dairy whipping cream

Ingredients C:
150g durian flesh (pureed)

Ingredients D:
1 tablespoon sugar
60ml (4 tablespoons) hot water

Method:

To make the sponge cake:

1. Sift cake flour, set aside. Line the sides and bottom of a 20cm (8 inches) round pan with parchment paper, set aside. Pre-heat oven to 170degC. Position rack at the lower bottom of the oven.
2. With an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar on HIGH speed for about 5 to 7 mins, until the batter double in volume and is ribbon-like (the beater should leave a ribbon-like trail when the batter is lifted up). Turn to LOW speed and whisk for another 1 to 2 mins. Whisking at low speed helps to stabilise the air bubbles in the batter.
3. Add sifted cake flour into the batter in 3 separate additions. Gently fold in the flour with a spatula each time the flour is added. Take care not to deflate the batter.
4. Add the melted butter, fold with spatula until well blended
5. Add in fresh milk, vanilla extract and fold in gently with spatula.
6. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30~35 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Unmold and invert onto cooling rack, remove parchment paper and let cool completely.
   
   To make the filling:
7. Blend durian flesh (Ingredient B) until the pulp becomes smooth*. (As the durian flesh is quite thick, the blade of your blender may not work properly, stir the mixture with a spoon or add one or two teaspoons of water to get it going. *Depending on preference, blend the durian flesh to the desired consistency, I didn't blend it till very smooth, there were still tiny chunks of durian pulp/fibre.) Do the same for Ingredient C.
8. With an electric mixer, whisk non-dairy whipping cream till stiff. Add the 50g of durian puree to the whipped cream. Fold in with a spatula, blend thoroughly. (Depending on the consistency of the durian puree, tiny bits of durian fibre would be visible in the whipped cream mixture.)
   
   To assemble:
9. Dissolve the sugar in hot water (Ingredients D). Let cool.
10. Slice the cake horizontally into 3 layers. Place one layer of the sponge cake on a 20cm cake board. Brush the surface of the sponge layer with the sugar syrup (this is to keep the sponge layers from drying out upon chilling).
11. Spread about 1.5 cups of filling evenly on the sponge layer. Spread half of the durian puree (Ingredient C) evenly over the filling.
12. Brush both sides of the second layer of sponge cake with the sugar syrup and place it over the first layer. Spread with 1.5 cups of filling followed by the remaining durian puree.
13. Brush both sides of the last layer of sponge cake with the sugar syrup and spread the remaining filling on the surface and sides evenly. Leave the cake to chill in the fridge for at least 3~4 hours.
14. Remove cake from fridge and cover the whole cake with crushed oreo cookie crumbs (remove the fillings between the cookies) and decorate as desired. Keep the cake in the fridge before serving.

If You Give An Oreo Cookie Monster...

an oreo cookie sandwich, he will probably ask for another two more...then he will probably ask for some ice cream to go with the oreos...and perhaps some chocolates too....

It was only a few days ago that I discovered the joy of taking images of a slice of ice cream cake. As the camera clicks away, the icy frosting on the outer layer started to disappear...and very soon, the ice cream began to give in to our hot and humid weather...as if urging me to dig in right away...telling me I should just dump that camera aside. and I did just that. I helped myself to one huge mouthful before I continued to give it another couple of clicks before I wiped up the entire slice...


that happened to be a slice from this birthday cake I made for my husband. Two weeks before his birthday, I asked him what kind of cake would he like this year. As usual, he asked for something that has got oreos in it. So the two of us sat in front of the computer and I typed in the key words "oreo cake" and clicked on the 'Search Everyone's Photos' on Flickr. I was pleasantly surprised to see the photo of a cake I made appeared on the screen. He took a hard look and it was apparent that he couldn't remember that was his birthday cake last year. Anyway, inspired by the beautiful images which started to appear on the screen one by one, he requested for an ice cream cake..and we left things as it is. I didn't think there would be anything more difficult than to head down to the store to get a pack of oreos and a tub of ice cream for his birthday ;)


Well, since he has walked with me for more than half of his lifetime, and to thank him for always being there by my side, I thought I really should put in some effort to grant his wish. After reading up on how to make an ice cream cake, I made up this Oreo Ice Cream Cake...which was choked to the brim with layers of oreo cookies.

The base was a layer of oreo crumbs, which I covered with a tub of Cookies & Cream ice cream. I even added some oreo chunks into the ice cream layer. Next came the chocolate ganache layer...and it was generously dusted with oreo crumbs before topping off with more oreo cookies! The only thing that had got nothing to do with oreos was the chocolate birthday 'card'. It was among one of the many goodies given to me generously by VB. Thank you VB!


It was a very good experience coming up with this cake since this is the first time I have ever made an ice cream cake. It was actually much simpler than I thought. I used a loose bottom pan for the cake...and since I do not have any appropriate plastic sheets to line the sides of the pan...I improvised by using long strips cut from a cookie bag. You need lots of patience when making this cake. It has to be well chilled before unmolding. I tried to unmold it when it was only in the freezer for 2hrs...as I thought the surface looked well set...but the ice cream started dripping from the sides when I tried to release the pan. I quickly returned it to the freezer and tried it again 4hrs later...and it came off nicely!

The only downside of this cake: the oreo cookies that were used to decorate the top loose their crisp after they were in the freezer for so many hours. I read that one way to overcome this problem is to decorate the cake just 30mins before serving. Warm a palette knife by running it under hot water, dry it and swipe it over the chocolate layer a few times. Once the chocolate is soft enough...'stick' whatever cookies or fruits on top, and send it back to the freezer to set before serving. I'll try this method on my next ice cream cake :)


Oreo Ice Cream Cake
(makes one 18cm cake)

Ingredients
110g oreo cookies (finely crumbled)
40g butter, melted and cool
about 1 tub of ice cream (1.5 ltr)
1 cup Nestle pouring cream (or heavy cream)
150g dark chocolate, finely chopped

Method:

1. Line the sides of a loose bottom pan with plastic sheets. Set aside.
2. Place oreo crumbs and melted butter in a bowl. Mix thoroughly with a spoon until the crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly into the base of the prepared pan. Use the back of the spoon, smooth out the crumbs and press firmly. Freeze the base for at least 1 hour.
3. Soften the ice cream at room temperature. When the ice cream is soft enough, place it in a mixing bowl. With a spoon or spatula, stir the ice cream until it is spreadable. Spoon the ice cream over the oreo base, ensure all gaps are filled. Depending on the depth of the pan, fill it with enough ice cream till it reaches about half to one inche before the rim. Cover with a cling wrap and freeze for at least 2 hours.
4. When the ice cream layer is set, prepare the chocolate ganache. Place cream and finely chopped dark chocolates in a bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir till the chocolate melts complete. Leave to cool off.
5. This step has to be done as quickly as possible. Spread the chocolate ganache over the ice cream layer. Decorate as desired.
6. Cover with cling wrap and freeze for at least another 6 hours before unmolding. When ready to unmold, dampen a kitchen towel with hot water and wrap it around the pan and hold it there for about 10seconds. Remove the towel and unmold. After unmolding the cake, return it back into the freezer to firm up before serving.

Oreo Muffins with Peanut Butter Chips

I bought a pack of buttermilk recently and used it on 3 separate occasions.

I first made a batch of buttermilk muffins following a recipe I copied from a magazine.


I replaced the chocolate chips with Reese's peanut butter chips...I finally chanced upon these at Cold Storage (Vivo city) a couple of months back...and I have been saving them just for this recipe! Knowing that the use of buttermilk will make bakes very tender, I had very high expectations for these muffins...plus the fact that the recipe was contributed by a local bakeshop and muffins are their speciality. So you would imagine how disappointed I was when the muffins didn't turn out as expected. They were slightly dry, even fresh out of the oven :(

Next, I tried making some buttermilk biscuits...hoping that I could yield a batch of nice, buttery biscuits just like those from Popeye's or Mcdonalds. It turned out to be a complete flop...they looked and tasted more like dinner rolls instead! I read that buttermilk biscuits are supposed to be very easy to make...but it proof to be a great challenge for me to cut out the sticky dough into rounds. I guess I have to read up more on these before my next attempt.

On the last day before the leftover buttermilk expires, I managed to squeeze in sometime to bake these Oreo muffins...


We actually came up with this recipe over a cup of Oreo Mcflurry! When we got home, I retrieved this very much trusted muffin recipe and adapted it according to my family members' wish list. I replaced the milk with buttermilk, and added in crushed oreo cookies and the peanut butter chips. I did noticed that the recipe calls for baking soda...which goes hand in hand with buttermilk. The original recipe calls for melted butter...since I was short of time to melt and let the butter cool off, I replaced it with sunflower oil.


These muffins didn't look very pleasing due to the crushed oreos. Nevertheless, they tasted very delicious...moist and fluffy. Not only were they soft and tender, they were also packed with flavours...you can't go wrong with peanut butter chips and oreos?!


It was only while trying to compose this post that I learned from the joyofbaking site, that, besides buttermilk, using oil instead of butter will yield very tender muffins...as oil prevents the development of gluten in the flour.

If you were to ask me how I would rate these muffins...I would say these are the sort of muffins I can give away with confidence to my friends...of course, provided they like Both oreos and peanut butter ;)



Ingredients:
(makes 12 muffins)

250g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
100g Reese's peanut butter chips
8 oreo sandwich cookies (remove fillings, coarsely chopped)
1 egg, lightly beaten
60ml vegetable oil
175ml buttermilk
125g granulated sugar

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180degC (350 degF).


2. Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl. Add peanut butter chips, crushed oreo biscuits and mix with a spatula. Make a well in the centre.


3. Place egg, oil, buttermilk and sugar in another bowl. Mix (with a manual whisk) until thoroughly combined.


4. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients. With the spatula, gently fold all the ingredients to form a wet batter. Just mix until the flour are incorporate into the batter. DO NOT Over mix. The batter will appear lumpy.


5. Spoon batter into paper muffin cups. Bake for 20mins until muffins turn golden brown or a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.


6. Let cool on a wire rack.

Recipe source: adapted from Bread baking by hand or bread machine, by Eric Treuille & Ursula Ferrigno

Oreo Yogurt Cake with Chocolate Crumble

Made this cake for my husband's birthday. His birthday falls on the later part of the week, but as he will be travelling (again!), we celebrated the occasion earlier. Well, this is the first ever birthday cake I have baked for him. It was kind of difficult to decide what kind of cake to make. When I made him cheesecakes, he commented that it was too cheesy for him...and when he tried my sponge-layer cake, he suggested that a biscuit base would taste better!?

Eventually I came up with this "mix & match" cake. The base is made with a layer of Oreo biscuit crumbs, the middle is a yogurt filling and then topped with chocolate crumbles. The recipe for the yogurt filling was from taken from this blogger. It's a very interesting recipe as it uses Yakult, yogurt and whipping cream...no cheese or eggs involved. Instead of Yakult, I used Vitagen. My elder boy insists that they could only drink Vitagen as it has less sugar!



The texture of the yogurt filling is very soft, silky and smooth...my younger one thinks it's like eating tofu (soft bean curd). Overall the cake is a rather refreshing dessert...light and not too sweet. Most importantly, there were no complaints from the birthday "man".

Here's the recipe for the chocolate butter crumbles:

Ingredients:

50g butter
30g caster sugar
15g brown sugar
50g flour
20g cocoa powder

Method:
1. Sieve flour and cocoa powder. Mix all dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
2. Rub in butter to crumble stage. If the mixture gets a little too sticky, just add in a little more flour to form dry crumbs.
3. Bake in a baking tray lined with parchment paper in a pre-heated oven at 170 degC for 35 mins.

Oreo Cookie Monsters

As the males in my family are great fans of the oreo cookies, we usually have a good stock of these cookies in our kitchen. I was looking for recipes that calls for oreo and came across this wonderful creation by Angie of My Kitchen:My Laboratory. It's a oreo butter cake. Thanks to Angie for sharing her recipe. The cake was really delicious and moist. My kitchen was filled with this nice and sweet aroma of the butter cake while it was baking! Naturally, it was very well received by the oreo cookie monsters in the house ;)

Oreo Cheesecake

I made this No-bake Oreo Cheesecake for my younger one's birthday recently. His birthday cake was a bit small. As such I made this cheesecake to ensure everyone gets to eat a piece of cake. I was very glad that it was very well received. Thanks Evan, from Evan's Kitchen Rambling for providing the receipe. I am very inspired by her creations and her talents in both baking and photograpy. I modified the recipe a little and added chocolate shavings on top of the cake to decorate it a little.

Most instructions for cheesecakes call for the use of a springform pan or a loose-bottom pan, as cheesecakes cannot be turned out on the rack without collapsing. As I do not have any one of these pans, I improvised by following the tip from Kraft's website. Just line a 18cm round pan with a sheet of aluminum foil that extends out 2-3 cm at the side of the pan. When the cake is chilled, lift the cake out of the pan by the foil. Carefully remove the foil and transfer the cake to a platter. Decorate the top or side as desired.

The side of the cake looks a little crinkly because of the foil. Next time, I will use a strip of baking paper to line the side of the pan so that the sides will look neat.

Ingredients:

base:

110g digestive biscuits(about 8 pieces), chopped into fine crumbs
40g melted butter

filling:

300ml whipping cream (chilled, I used Bulla Thickened Cream)

1 tablespoon gelatin powder

3 tablespoon boiling water

10ml lemon juice

250g cream cheese, soften at room temperature

50g icing sugar

45ml fresh milk

1 table spoon vanilla essence

8 pieces of oreo cookies (coarsely chopped, with cream removed)

4 pieces of oreo cookies (finely chopped, with cream removed)(1 piece refers to half of the oreo cookies)

Method:

• Mix biscuit crumbs & melted butter together and press firmly with the help of a spoon onto the base of a 18cm cake tin. Chill for 30 minutes.
• Beat whipping cream with electric mixer until 70% stiff or until mousse-like. Do not over mix. Takes about 2 to 3mins on low speed. Keep in the fridge.
• Place gelatin powder, lemon juice & boiling water in a bowl. Heat a pot filled with water until just simmering and place the bowl inside the pot. Dissolve gelatin, lemon juice & boiling water in the bowl. Keep warm.
• With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese , icing sugar, milk and vanilla essence until smooth & creamy. Blend in gelatin solution. Blend in whipping cream with a spatula.
• Pour half of the cheese mixture into a bowl. Stir in finely chopped oreo cookies. Mix well. Pour the mixture the cake tin. Chill for 15 minutes.
• Sprinkle coarsely chopped oreo cookies on top of the first half of cheese mixture which has been chilled. Pour in the remaining half of the cheese mixture. Chill for 3 to 4 hours before serving. Remove from pan and decorate with chocolate shavings or as desired.

Tips:To ensure easy whipping, make sure the cream is chilled. Chill the mixing bowl in the fridge for 15mins before using it to whip the cream.

To achieve a clean slice, heat up the knife before slicing (eg. soak knife in a cup of hot water or heat over a stove on low heat). Clean the knife after each cut.

Oreo Muffins

The males in my family loves oreo cookies. Upon their request, I made these oreo muffins for breakfast. I simply replace the chocolate chips called for in the recipe with oreo cookies chunks. Here's a simple and easy muffins for all those oreo fans out there. The recipe here makes 6 muffins, you can easily double it to make 12.

I bought these muffin liners from Diaso at Vivo city, it comes in various sizes. This size comes in 40 pcs and cost only S$2. It has a wax lining on it, as such, the muffin comes out clean and neat and will not stick onto the liner unlike the usual paper liners.

Ingredients:
(makes 6 muffins)

2oz butter, soften @ room temperature
35g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
105g plain flour (all purpose flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup fresh milk
1/2 cup oreo cookie chunks

Method:

• Preheat oven to 190 degC.
• With an electric mixer, cream butter until soft.
• Add in sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
• Add in the egg gradually. Beat well each time egg is added.
• Sift flour and baking powder. Fold flour mixture into the butter mixture, alternating with the milk.
• Fill each muffin cup/liner with batter till half full. Sprinkle several oreo cookie chunks on top, then cover with a spoonful of batter.
• Bake for 25 mins, until lightly browned. Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 mins before transfering to a wire rack to cool.