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.