Back In Business...Just Maybe.

It's been something like a month since I went anywhere near the oven to bake and I was itching to make just about anything.

I thought I would make a cake since it's been some time since I made one and after much deliberation and flipping through my terribly limited mental repertoire of recipes, I settled on making a feather patterned and a polka dotted Swiss roll. I had already tried my hand at the feather pattern a long time ago but it didn't turn out well at all. The polka dots was something new to me so I was kinda excited to see whether it would be successful....or not.

Lots and lots of polka dots

Feather design for the other one

As luck would have it, the oven chose this exact moment to go 'kaput' so I had to turn to the microwave oven which was smaller, and scale down the recipe according the biggest tin that would fit in. The result: 2 failed attempts and lots of trial and error before something presentable came of it.

In the end, the feather patterned one had to be converted into a cream sandwich sponge because the pattern side was too sticky to roll. Sigh.

The polka dotted one also got converted as it was just too thin to make a decent roll out of. Double sigh.

There's probably a ton of modifications to be done on the recipe but my mom and I felt that this was probably the most edible one heehee.

A Tart For The Summer

I stumbled upon this recipe for a Strawberry Mascarpone Tart many months back while looking for other recipes but somehow, each time I wanted to go ahead with it, something would hold me back.

Not this time though. I stuck to my decision to do it and thankfully it turned out alright!

Its definitely one of those recipes which looks much harder to pull off than it really is...but in any case, this one will blow a HUGE hole in your pocket...trust me. =(

Got lucky with the strawberries as they were nice and plump without too much of tartness in taste. Macerated strawberries...I had no idea what they were before doing this recipe and now I'm wishing I'd known about them earlier!

Wasn't sure about the blind baking time for the shell though so I resorted to keeping it in the oven for an "extra 5" after 20 minutes (kinda like hitting the snooze button on your alarm. "extra 5" 's are hardly ever a good idea) and paid the price for it with an over baked tart shell that was a wee bit hard.

Time to go raid the fridge! Heh.

Nuffin' But Muffins!

I think the beauty of muffins is that you can choose to make them in almost any flavour you wish and they'll still turn out pretty good. Muffins, unlike their not too distant cousins - the Cupcake - aren't strictly desserts either...you can have them for breakfast or tea if you wish! They're just so versatile, have none of those fancy rich frostings and are terribly easy to make. 

So there was just no good excuse I could find to put me off doing a couple over the weekend. I decided to step away from the traditional flavours like banana and went for cranberry-lemon, mango and chocolate.

Well I know chocolate IS the epitome of traditional when it comes to muffin flavours, but there's just no way you can say no to a warm chocolate muffin (with a oozing chocolate center to boot) is there?  

Neither could I!

Macadamia Bliss!

This recipe for a Coconut Macadamia Cheesecake has stayed at the back of my mind ever since I saw it in one of the books my mum has. I knew then that I just HAD to try this out someday. Well since I probably will get no better time to meddle around the kitchen than now, I decided to make it yesterday!

I had lots of help from my sister who's done countless cheesecakes before so thankfully the whole process was quite smooth sailing. It was my first attempt at a cheesecake I think, and although the recipe was quite simple...well, making it was another thing altogether.

As the name suggests, this is a pretty hefty cake calorie wise but everything about it is absolutely wonderful...from the nutty aroma to the rich golden brown colour to the thick creamy centre...ooohhh! But with this cake, good things definitely come in small packages and anything more than a small slice is likely to give you a coronary!

A chocolate dipped macadamia to top it off!

It looks pretty messy..not very appetizing! :(

The sheer amount of macadamia nuts in the filling meant that the cake retained a gooey middle even after spending the whole night chillin' in the fridge. That would be something to keep in mind - IF I ever make this terribly sinful cake again though!

Time to hang up my oven mitts for now...sigh!

Checkmate!

I nearly drove my mum up the wall with my incessant questioning about how to get the checkerboard pattern right...I thought I knew but after checking with her I realised that my method would have resulted in...disaster? Or something close to that.

Thinking in 3D gives me a headache 'coz its so ABSTRACT and confusing...but thankfully it was alot easier once I got down to making the cake!

Seemed to me that it was quite sometime since I did a mousse cake so I thought I'd do one...but I wanted something that was going to be a little different from the ones before.

Also decided to make a mousse that I haven't tried before so I went for a Chempedak mousse. It's one of my favourite fruits since I was a baby and the heady, almost perfume-like aroma of the fruit is rivaled only by His Highness, the Durian himself!

ARRGGHH. Stupid crinkles.

The surface of the cake was kinda ruined as I forgot to smooth out the crinkles in the aluminium foil covering the base of the cake ring and the crinkles on the foil got transferred onto the cake once the mousse  was set. The pattern also didn't come out as it was supposed to...one of the "squares" of mousse went missing amongst the cake pieces and it would have been nicer if there were more layers. =(

Guess it's back to the drawing board for this one.

Finally!

When I saw a picture of the Lemon Meringue Pie a few years ago, I was so utterly fascinated by it that I told myself I just had to make THAT one day.

Well I certainly took my time and got down to doing it today after a few days of 'research'. Spent the whole morning slaving and fretting over it and managed to get it out in one piece. I was supposed to do up my timetable today but...guess there are better ways to waste time away.

Didn't really know what to expect - this being the first attempt and all...but I think it turned out OK. Loads of room for improvement and modifications but at the end of the day, nothing blew up in the kitchen...so I guess its SUCCESS! =D

Kinda liked the look of it before it went into the oven actually(compared to the finished one above):

 Pardon the newspapers underneath hehe...

After waiting almost an hour for it to cool...I finally get to see what it looks like on the inside:

Gentlemen...Start Your Ovens!

It had been months and I was seriously itching to bake again...so I jumped at the first chance I had to throw something into the ol' oven!

Presenting......the very humble and traditional Chocolate Cake! Only this time, its eggless and according to the recipe, was supposed to be a very moist cake. Well it was...only that its hard to tell whether the cake is moist or not when each slice is smothered by scoops of heavenly ice-cream! 1 scoop each of Haagen-Daz's Strawberry and Macadamia Nut(awesome stuff) ice-creams. Hee hee...

The recipe was taken off the Net by my mom and she was looking for the right time to try it...I was more than happy to step in and do it! Extremely simple steps and pretty basic ingredients that are easily available anywhere. If you want to give it a go, get clickety-click on the link -> Eggless Chocolate Cake