Blueberry No-baked Cheesecake

It's been a while since I last updated my blog, so this recipe was a long delayed one.  Maked this blueberry cheesecake for a new year get together and the kids love it.  Here's the recipe, enjoy!

Blueberry No-baked Cheesecake

Ingredients:

base:

• 125g digestive biscuits, chopped into fine crumbs
• 75g butter, melted

filling:

• 300ml whipping 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

Topping

• 1/2 can of Blueberries Pie Filing

 Method:

1. Mix biscuit crumbs and melted butter together and press firmly with the help of a spoon onto the base of a 7 inch cake tin. Chill for 30 minutes.
2. 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.
3. Place gelatin powder, lemon juice and 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 and boiling water in the bowl. Keep warm.
4. With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese , icing sugar, milk and vanilla essence until smooth and creamy. Blend in gelatin solution. Blend in whipping cream with a spatula.
5. Pour half cheese mixture into the cake tin. Chill overnight.
6. Remove from pan and decorate with chocolate shavings or as desired. Pour pie filing on top of cheese cake and chilled for another 1 hour.

Nobaked Strawberry Mini Cheesecake

Found this mousse cups from Phoon Huat and just have to get it. Cost $0.80 each, I bought a set of 20s and simply love it. 


Use the moose cup to make some mini strawberry cheesecakes and brought it to a gathering and it was a hit! The kids love it and kept asking me to post the recipe up in my blog so they can make it.  Its actually a really easy cheesecake to make, even small kid like my Baby FAN could make it. She actually help me crush the cookies and spoon in the cream cheese mixture.  Here's the recipe:

Mini Strawberries No baked Cheesecake



Ingredients
Crust

• 150g Orea Cookies/digestive biscuits
• 60g butter, melted

Filling

• 2 packet of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (8oz)
• 3/4 cup of whipped cream
• 1/2 cup or 125g powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Topping

• I cheated and used a canned Strawberry Pie Filling instead

Directins

1. Put orea cookies (remove the cream inside) in a ziplock bag and get the kids to smash it until it resemble fine bread crumbs. Mix the crumbs into melted margarine until well incorporated. Press into individual moose cups. Put in refrigerator.
2. Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth and spreadable.  Wisked the whipping cream until peak. Then fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture until smooth. Pour cream cheese mixture into moose cups lined with the crumbs. Smooth the top with a spatula, and refrigerate until firm, about 2 to 3 hours. Pour strawberry pie filling over and chilled.
3. I made about 20 mini cakes.

Pizza using Wraps

Found this Gardenia Wraps while shopping at NTUC Fairprice and thought I tried using this wraps as pizza base.



The outcome....fantastic.  Loves how the wraps crisp up and it was so thin and light.  I added pork floss and "Bak Kwa" on the pizza and the kids love....it.  Definitely going to do more pizzas from now on.  It's super easy and tasty.  The wraps also comes in wholemeal ones so the pizza can also be healthy too (if I put the healthy toppings lah...like onions, tomato, vegetables etc..) 

Oh ya, I almost forgot to mention this.  Instead of the store bought pizza sauce, I actually made my own by adding sugar to a can of tomato paste.  Mix it to taste...the sauce tasted soooo much better then those pizza sauce that I bought.  Here's how the pizza looks like.  Enjoy!


By the way, for those of you who wants to make an exact replica of this pizza, here's what I did.

Easy Pizza

Ingredients

• Pork floss
• Bak Kwa, cut into pieces
• Shredded Mozzerella Cheese
• Tomato Paste
• Sugar
• Mayonese
• Ham, cut into pieces
• Onion, cut into small pieces
• Gardenia Wraps

Directions

1. Put 1 piece of Gardenia Wrap in a flat plate.
2. Mix Tomato Paste and sugar until the desired taste.  Then spread a thin layer on the wrap.
3. Spread some mayonese (optional)
4. Sprinkle the onion, the ham, the bak kwa and the pork floss on top.
5. Cover pizza with a generous toppings of mozzerella cheese.
6. Baked in the oven for about 10 minutes or less. Check constantly, the pizza is ready when the cheese melt and the crust is crisp. 
7. Served hot!  Enjoy!

Scones

Big FAN loves scones.  So tried baking some for him  This recipe that I use baked almost like 10 small scones.  As the kids don't really like it and Big FAN can only gobble up 2.  I have to just chuck the remainder in the fridge.  And guess what I ate scones for tea break for like 3 consecutive days....still love it though....hi hi...  Here's the recipe, can't really remember where I got it from.  But enjoy!


Easy Scones

Ingredients

• 375 g all-purpose flour
• 100 g white sugar
• 25 g baking powder
• 3 g salt
• 170 g butter
• 1 egg, beaten
• 235 ml milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter. Mix the egg and milk in a small bowl, and stir into flour mixture until moistened.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly. Roll dough out into a 1/2 inch thick round. Cut into 8 wedges, and place on the prepared baking sheet.
4. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Fluffy Pancakes for Kids Lunchbox

Ok, this post is way late.  But here's what I have been cooking.  My SMALL FAN loves pancakes, so have been making this for his snack box to bring to school.   Enjoy!


Here's the recipe:

Fluffy Pancakes
Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter or canola oil

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine the egg, milk and shortening; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
2. Pour batter by 1/4 cupful onto a greased hot griddle. Cook under low heat. Turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes; cook until the second side is golden brown.

Happycall - Salmon Patties

Purchased this latest Korean Craze double fry pan from Gmarket and just have to give it a try.  Had been frying fish with it but I thought, this time I'm going to use it for something else.  So I invented my own recipe of Salmon meat, mashed potatoes, spring onion, salt, pepper, sesame oil, lemon juice. I called it the Salmon patties. It's actually tasted quite yummy....

Milo Cupcakes

My SMALL FAN has recently started swimming class. So we make it a family outing every saturday to go swimming together Hubby, Mommy & Baby FAN (while SMALL FAN is in his swimming class).  After swimming however, the kids get really hungry and is always asking for food.  So decided to baked some cupcakes so that I could bring it to the pool and they can eat it after the swim.  Modified my chocolate oatmeal cupcakes recipe and replace the cocoa with Milo, and wah lah....MILO Cupcakes...Yum.

Milo Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup butter (115g)
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 of raw sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (I use self-raising flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (opmitted this since I'm using self raising flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons Milo
• Mixed Nuts (for decorations)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 8x8 inch pan.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the rolled oats and butter. Mix in boiling water. Set aside to cool.

3. Beat together the brown sugar, eggs and vanilla; add to cooled oat mixture and mix well.

4. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and milo. Add to wet ingredients and mix well. Pour into cupcakes cup and put a whole nuts in each cupcakes.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool, and remove pan

Ipoh Hor Fun

My Baby FAN has recently been crazy over Hor Fun (white noodles).  She can eat Hor Fun for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner.  So, instead of eating Fishball Hor Fun soup very day, I tried to look for other ways which I can cook the Hor Fun.  Saw this Ipoh Hor Fun recipe from Simply Her magazine, it looks pretty easy, so I give it a try.  It was really easy, I manage to cook it in 30 mins and the verdict...hands up from everyone in the family!  Am definitely going to cook this again.

Here's the recipe (copied from Simply Her)..

Ipoh Hor Fun (serves 4)
Ingredients

• 1/2 medium-sized chicken, rinsed (I only use 1 chicken thigh as my kids are not into chicken)
• 750ml chicken stock
• 200ml water
• 1kg Ipoh Hor Fun
• 2 stalks cai xin
• 100g beansprouts
• 300g char siew, sliced
• 1/2 stalk spring onion, finely chopped
• 2 pieces of fish cake, sliced

For the Hor Fun sauce

• 4 Chinese mushrooms, soked in warm water for 30 mins, drined, with stems removed, and sliced
• 1 tbsp light soya sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp corn flour
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Directions

1. Place the chicken, chicken stock and water into a pot. Bring to boil and simmer over low heat for 25 min.
2. Transfer the chicken to a plate. Skin, debone and shred the meat. Set aside.
3. Add all the ingredients for the hor fun sauce into the cooked chicken stock.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 5min until it thickens.
4. Warm up the fish cakes.
5. In a pot of boiling water, cook the hor fun, cai xin and beansprouts together for 1 min.
6. Transfer them equally into 4 bowls. Top with char siew, fish cakes, the shredded chicken and spring onions.
7. Pour the hor fun sauce over. Serve immediately.

Donut in a Box

Bought this box from the supermarket as the box cover looks just too good to miss.  So, tried making this donut from the box mix.  I just need to add egg and mix with the box mixture.  The only time consuming part is frying it.  The donuts turn out quite nice and yummy. It comes with a packet of cinnamon sugar for coating the donut. Very tasty.   Give it a try, it's a great thing to bring for a pot luck party :)



The donut looks super cute in the fryer


Cinnamon coated donuts with my own chocolate sauce decorated donuts (I basically just melt a few pieces of chocolate, put it in a piping bag and piped it.


Here's the inside of the donut, it looks really soft and nice, right!

Rustic Plum Tart

Ok, I must admit I'm getting kinda lazy with updating my blog. This recipe has been sitting on my to-do list for quite a while.

Bought a packed of plum from NTUC fairprice supermarket and the whole batch was super duper sour. My Baby FAN, who loves plum just won't eat it. So instead of dumping it all into the rubbish cute, I thought I tried making some tarts out of it. So, I look through the recipe from my favourite website www.allrecipes.com and found this. Bought it to my sis-in-law's place for an after dinner snack and my sis-in-law said it's nice and so did my hubby. But the kids are not too kin to try out, I think it looks a little too "RUSTIC". Maybe, next time I will try out Apple tart and make it into a bag shape so the kids might give it a try.

Here's the recipe, enjoy!

Rustic Plum Tart

Ingredients for the crust:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons cold water

Ingredients for the filing:

• 2 cups sliced plums
• 9 1/4 teaspoons sugar, divided
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

 Directions

1.  In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt; cut in the shortening until crumbly. Gradually add water, tossing with a fork until a ball forms. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1-1/2 hours. On a lightly floured surface, roll pastry into a 9-in. circle. Transfer to a foil-lined 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan.
2. In a bowl, combine the plums, 3 tablespoons sugar and flour. Place on the center of pastry. Bring edges of pastry over filling, leaving 3-1/2 in. of filling uncovered. Brush crust with egg white, then sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake at 375 degrees F for 40-45 minutes or until bubbly and crust is golden brown.

Angry Bird Birthday Cake

It's SMALL FAN's 6 years old birthday and he requested for an angry bird cake for his birthday party.  I kinda check out the market and it cost $100 plus to $200 to ordered one.  So I thought maybe I can try making one myself.  First of all I cut down on the $$$$ and I also get to control what goes in the cake. 

I'm not a really good baker, not too confident of making fondant angry birds, so decided to buy the angry bird toy to use as the decoration.  I killed 2 birds with one stone on this, first of all, I can cut down on the time making the birds and also, I won't end up with a few coloured, sugar birds that I don't know what to do with it (don't think I will let my kids eat it since it will be loaded with sugar and colouring) but best of all, the angry bird toy can be clean up and given to SMALL FAN as his birthday present. 

Bought this angry bird toy set from Gmarket, the cataput comes with the angry bird theme song and sound...really cool.  Check in out below.

Here's what I did to make the cake. I use my favourite Chocolate Oatmeal Cupcake recipe to make the cake base. I make about 3 portion of 7 inch cake.  Then I cut out the desired shape and cover it with my buttercream frosting which I coloured green.  Then I use whatever remaining cakes I have and form it into a square block using buttercream frosting as the glue. Then I covered the block with a brown fondant that I bought from Phoon Huat, they have their own house version call REDMAN fondant, which cost $7 for a 500g pack.  Finally I decorated the cakes with the angry bird toys, some kitkat and a lovely happy birthday candles, and use a little of the brown fondant to make my SMALL FAN's name.  Wah lah...my proud creation!



I think the kids really love the cake, cause this is what is remain of the cake.


To complete the angry bird theme, I also made an Angry Bird Pinata for him.  The kids have a great time destroying it!

Mini Nobaked Cheesecakes with Mango Sauce

Wah...it's been almost 2 months since I last updated my blog...guess I'm really getting lazy.
Well, here's a nice recipe that I stumble recently will looking for a dessert to bring over for a family dinner to celebrate our national day.  Really simple but it was a real hit with the kids, I have to stop my son from eating more so his cousins can have it. Guess what I made?  Nobaked Lemon cheesecake with Mango sauce.  YUM.

Mini Nobaked Cheesecakes with Mango Sauce

For the Cheesecake

Crust

• 1 1/4 cups or 105 g digestive biscuits
• 1/4 cup or 125g margarine, softened (thought the butter was too much as my crust turns out a little soggy, I'm going to use 80g next time)
• 1/4 cup or 50g sugar (thought it's a little too much cause it's a bit on the sweet side, next time I might reduce it to 30g)

Filling         

• 1 (8 ounce or 250g) package cream cheese
• 1/2 cup or 125g powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream, whipped (the cake turns out a little soft, so I would cut down the cream to 1/4 cup next time I'm doing it to see if it hardens better)

Directions

1. Put digestive biscuit in a ziplock bag and get the kids to smash it until it resemble fine bread crumbs. Mix the crumbs into melted margarine and sugar until well incorporated. Press into individual cupcakes mold.
2. Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth and spreadable. Whisk whipped cream.  Then fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture until smooth. Pour cream cheese into cupcakes lined with the crumbs. Smooth the top with a spatula, and refrigerate until firm, about 2 to 3 hours.  Pour Mango sauce over and served.
3. I made about 25 super mini cupcakes.

Mango Sauce Topping

 3 cups mangos, peeled, seeded and chopped

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon orange juice

some water

Directions

1.  In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the mangoes, butter, brown sugar, lemon juice, orange juice, and a little water. Stir until the mixture thickens. Add more water to the right consistency. Remove from heat and serve or keep it in the refrigerator  and serve it cold.

Chicken Shepherd Pie

Ok, I admit, I have been neglecting my blog lately, having lots of problem with my laptop so I wasn't able to load any pictures and stuff.  But this recipe, I just have to pen it down cause it's really yummy and relatively healthy.

It's Chicken Shepherd Pie, ok, you might be thinking hey....Shepherd Pie is Shepherd Pie, a pie made from Lamb, so what do you mean by Chicken Shepherd Pie?   Well, it's basically chicken pie but made like a shepherd pie....ok....it's rather complicating, let's get on to the recipe.



Chicken Shepherd Pie



Ingredients

• 5 large red or any coloured potatoes, peeled
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1 stalk of leek, diced
• 300g mince chicken
• 1 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (I actually run out of this cheese, so I use mozzarella instead)
• salt to taste
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 pkt of button mushrooms
• 1 can of proceed green peas
• ground black pepper to taste
• Oyster sauce to taste
• 2 tablespoons butter, diced

 Directions

1. Boil potatoes until tender. Mash with 3 tablespoons butter or margarine and milk. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
2. Saute garlic, onion, carrots in olive oil until soft. Stir in mushrooms and minced chicken. Once chicken is almost browned and broken up, add salt, pepper and oyster sauce to taste. Stir in green peas. Stir in flour.
3. Divide mixture into ramekins or  pie crusts. Sprinkle 1/2 of the cheese over mixture. Spread potatoes over all with a spatula. Dot with butter.
4. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 30 minutes, sprinkle remaining cheese on top of the pie 15 minutes before you take it out of the oven.
5. Bonn Appetite!

Persimmon Cake

My Dad gave me a whole box of Persimmons, I have been trying really hard to finish it before it spoil, but it's just too much.  So, I search the net for a recipe to help me make use of these ripe persimmons and I found this. The recipe was relatively easy to make and the cake actually tasted quite good, however, it tasted a litlle too chewy for my liking. Will probably make it again if I have lots of persimmons to get rid of.

 

Persimmon Cake

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar (I reduce the sugar to 1 cup and it's still a little too sweet for me)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups persimmon pulp
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1.Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch loaf pan.


2.Whisk together the flour baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a bowl, set aside. Whisk together the eggs, persimmon pulp, milk, and vanilla extract in a separate bowl until smooth. Fold the persimmon mixture into the flour mixture until no dry lumps remain. Pour into the prepared pan.

3.Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan, and allow to cool completely on a wire rack before icing.  I make the cake into cupcakes and baked it in the oven for about 20 minutes instead.

Birthday Cupcakes

Ok, I haven't been updating my blog for quite a while.  Getting really lazy and proscatinating.  So here I am updating what I have been keeping in my picture file of recipes for the pass one month.   First of all, celebarted my girl's birthday with a nice pink birthday cupcakes.  I used my carrot cakes recipe from my old post, then top the cake with a super tasty cream cheese frosting which I dyed it pink and use the nice pink cups that I bought from Phoon Huat, sprinkle some colured sprinkles and wa la....a sweet birthday cupcakes.

 

Here's the recipe for the Cream Cheese Frosting:

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 package of cream cheese (250g), soften
• 1/4 cup of butter, soften
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup of icing sugar

1. In a bowl, cream cream cheese and butter until creamy.
2. Mix in the vanilla extract.
3. Fold in the icing sugar.
4. Now you can start piping.  Store leftover in refridgerator.

Gingerbread Man or Christmas Molasses Cookies

Ok, this is a delayed post cause was caught up with all the Christmas Celebration. 

Made another batch of Gingerbread cookies cause the previous one doesn't take as nice.  This time round, I manage to find another recipe and modified it a little myself and opmitted all the spices except ginger as I don't like spices. The cookies turns our beautifully and based on the feedback from my friends and kids, it tasted really good.  But the best of all, the dough is super easy to work with and it doesn't require me to put it in the fridge so I can work at it immediately.  I frosted the cookies with white chocolate (I just melted a bar of white chocolate over the microwave for 1 minute).

 

Here's the recipe:

Christmas Molasses Cookies

 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup dark molasses
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt 

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter.
2. Blend in orange juice and molasses.
3. Combine dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture and mix well.
4. Roll dough, a portion at a time, on a lightly floured surface to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut into desired shapes.
5. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12-14 minutes. Cookies will be soft and chewy if baked 12 minutes; crunchy if baked longer.

Gingerbread Cookie with a hint of Orange

Personally not a fan of Gingerbread, but as the Christmas Season is coming, I thought I just have to try making some for the kids.  So, search the net and found this Gingerbread Cookies that include orange zest and decided to give it a try.  I replaced the corn syrup with Molasses to give it a more gingerbread taste. The final product turns out quite nice but I think I did not add enough ginger and orange, so the taste doesn't come out.  Next time, I'm going to put the amount according to the recipe instead of cutting it down.  I then iced the cookies using a mixture of egg white and icing sugar, the frosting was really easy to work with and it drys beautifully.  Add got my boy to help me put the m&ms for the buttons, he have a great time eating the m&ms.....Enjoy!

 

Gingerbread Cookies with a Hint of Orange

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tablespoons orange zest
• 2 tablespoons dark corn syrup (I replace this with molasses)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I obmitted this as I hate the cinnamon smell)
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (I obmitted this)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

 Directions

1. Cream the butter and the sugar together. Add the egg and mix well. Mix in the orange peel and dark corn syrup. Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves and salt, mixing until well combined. Chill dough for at least 2 hours, I like to chill overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are firm and lightly toasted on the edges.

 Royal Icing

 

Ingredients

• 2 egg whites
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

 

1. Beat egg whites in clean, large bowl with mixer at high speed until foamy (use only grade A clean, uncracked eggs). Gradually add sugar and extract. Beat at high speed until thickened.

NOTE: When dry, Royal Icing is very hard and resistant to damage that can occur during shipping/handling.

Cupcakes ! Cupcakes ! Cupcakes !

For the past few weeks, I have been having friends coming over to my place for afternoon tea.  So, was in a cupcakes making mood and since Christmas is coming, my cupcakes was all in a really colourful and christmasee look.

Chocolate Oatmeal Christmas Tree Cupcakes
I did this using the chocolate oatmeal cupcake recipe and the fondant icing from my older post.

Colourful Carrot Cupcakes
I did this using the Carrot Cupcake recipe from my older post and just iced the cakes with a mixture of icing sugar and milk and sprinkles with colourful candy sprinkles.

The kids enjoyed it.  Bonn Appetite!

Ribena Cheesecake

I bought a bottle of Ribena cordial for qutie sometime, have been trying to do something to make used of it.  So finally, decided to make a Ribena Cheesecake with it.  The cheesecake turns out beautifully although I personally fill that it tasted more like Jelly then cheesecake.  Maybe I added too much yoghurt and gelatin, next time I may reduce the yogurt to 150ml and gelatin to 1.5 tablespoon instead and see if it taste better.

 

Here's the original recipe from Happy Homebaking, enjoy:

Ribena Cheesecake

 

Ingredients

 

crust:

• 150g digestive biscuits, finely crushed
• 60g butter, melted

filling:

• 100ml water
• 20g (2 tablespoons) gelatin granules/powder
• 250g cream cheese, soften at room temperature
• 75g caster sugar
• 250ml (1 cup) natural plain yogurt
• 75ml Ribena blackcurrant juice cordial

 topping:

• 100ml water
• 2 teaspoons gelatin granules/powder
• 80ml Ribena blackcurrant juice cordial

Method:

 

1. Line the sides of a 18-20cm round pan (with a removable base) with parchment paper or clear plastic sheet (I cut out a strip of plastic sheet from a cookie bag), set aside. To make the crust, combine crushed digestive biscuits and melted butter together in a mixing bowl. With the back of a spoon, press the biscuit crumbs onto the base of the prepared pan. Chill in the freezer compartment for at least 1 hour. (To ensure the crust is even, I used the base of a flat-bottom glass to press down the crumbs.)
2. Filling: Measure water into a bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin (without stirring with a spoon). Set aside to allow the gelatin grains to swell (10 mins) before setting the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water. Stir with a spoon and once the gelatin melts, remove the bowl from the pot and set aside to cool to room temperature.
3. With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Add in the gelatin solution and yogurt, beat till the mixture turns smooth.
4. Divide mixture evenly into two bowls (about 1 cup each). Add 75ml of Ribena into one of the bowls and mix well with a spatula.
5. Spoon the two mixtures in alternate blobs into the chilled crust. Level top and swirl with a knife through the mixture to create a marble effect. Refrigerate until set (about 2 hours as stated in the recipe, but I left mine to set over night since I omitted the topping).
6. Topping: Measure water into a bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin. Set aside to allow the gelatin grains to swell (10 mins) before setting the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water. Stir with a spoon and once the gelatin melts, remove bowl from the pot and stir in 80ml of Ribena. Set aside to cool. When completely cooled, pour mixture over the cheesecake and chill for several hours or overnight until set.

 

Breakfast Cheerio Cookies

I always find it really difficult to get my kids to eat their breakfast and ended up having loads and loads of different type of breakfast cereals in my fridge waiting to be thrown away. So I decided that I should do something to get rid of these cereals, search the web and found this Cheerio cookies from Food.com which is perfect to use up my Cheerio.  Beside being able to get rid of my Cheerio, the cookies was really healthy and can be served as breakfast since it contains oats and peanut butter and of course, my wholegrain Cheerios.  My boy loves it, I have to stop him from eating too much.  Here's the recipe:


Breakfast Cheerio Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 1/2 cups Cheerios toasted oat cereal
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup raisins 

 Directions

1. Mix the butter, both sugars, peanut butter, vanilla and eggs thoroughly.
2. Sift flour, salt, soda and baking powder. Fold into the first mixture.
3. Add oatmeal, Cheerios, cranberries and raisins.
4. Drop by tblsp onto ungreased cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes.
6. I got 40 cookies , using a small cookie scoop that holds approximately 1 Tblsp dough.