London Cheesecake

Another baking escapade. This time no icing involved. My sister helped me make a cheesecake yesterday. It's been more than 5 years since the last time I made the cake. This time around I added strawberries at the top as requested by the little princess.

Shah doesn't like cheesecakes, but when I make it he will be the first to eat it. So I guess it tastes good.

Baking with Love

When it comes to cooking, I love making desserts more than anything else. But most of the desserts I make do not involve much baking. I only bake cookies during fasting month in preparation for eid and cakes are very rarely made. When I was in the UK, the only cake I made was a cheesecake. Last year however, my sister and I tried our hand at baking cupcakes. We followed a recipe from a book I bought. The cakes were delicious if I might say, but unfortunately, the buttercream frosting was a bit soft and it didn't look nice when piped out. I was determined to try again but the second time around the frosting came out to be even worst.

Anyway, I was not going to be defeated so with the hope that third time is the charm, my sister and I had another go on Sunday. This time we must not fail as it was being baked for my mother's birthday. So, instead of making cupcakes, we made a whole cake. To ensure that the frosting won't be soft, I reduced the amount of boiling water but I guess it was still too much. The piped frosting didn't come out nicely but it seemed better than before. My sister said that with practice it would be better. I hope so too.

I find that baking is quite fun, thus, I'm thinking of taking a cake decorating class. Who knows I might be good at it and can then make some money from baking cakes.

Yummy? Yes? No?

After watching a cooking show this morning making tiramisu, Shah and I decided to make one. Well, Shah made most of it actually while I just helped to beat the egg white. We also made a smaller cafeine-free version just for the little Princess. Unfortunately, she only ate just a few mouths. Maybe the milo I used instead of the coffee was a tad too sweet.

I've not lost my skills yet...I think?

The start of Ramadhan has seen me entering the kitchen to cook. Well, I do cook every week for Maisarah's meals but last Saturday and Sunday involved proper cooking for the whole family and baking. Shah requested me to cook 'Kambing Masak Hitam' for the main iftar dish for the first day of Ramadhan. To Shah and I, this dish is the easiest to cook and delicious at the same time. We often cook this dish if we entertain our friends. Even though it's been a while since I cooked this dish but the outcome on Saturday was quite good. It still tastes yummy but I think it was not 'hitam' and 'pedas' enough to my liking. It tasted sweet because my mom added sugar at the end. I never add sugar when I cook but ever since I lived at my mom's place she has been seasoning the food I cook and she always adds sugar. This is partly my fault because ever since I came back from the UK I rarely cook I think I have lost my skills in tasting the food I cook. So I think I need to cook more.

On Sunday, my sister and I made cupcakes. We had bought a recipe book on cupcakes last year but never got to trying it out. So finally we did. Making the cakes and icing was easy. But the decorating part was slow. We ran out of ideas for icing the cakes. I guess the artistic side of us will never shine through. So, I will never be able to open a cupcake making business. Anyway, no matter how 'cacat' they may look, I must say they taste quite good.

The icing and bare cupcakes.

All the cupcakes made.

Close up of some 'not-so-cacat' decorations.

Bread and Butter Pudding

I also have a liking for bread and butter pudding. But when I was growing up, everytime I had bread and butter pudding, it was either quite dry or the base was slightly burnt. But when I was in the UK, while watching one of the numerous cookng shows (which I always watch), I watched Anthony Worrall Thompson make bread and butter pudding which came out looking all moist and warm and yummy. Of course, I didn't have time to copy the recipe so I got it online. As usual, I have editted the recipe below somewhat to cater for Muslims. The original recipe can be obtained here.

This is a picture of the bread and butter pudding I made.
Ingredients

50g/2oz sultanas
50g/2oz raisins
(or you can have 100g of raisins only or even have more than 100g if you like raisins)
14 slices of medium cut white bread
150g/5oz unsalted butter, softened
4 whole medium eggs
4 medium egg yolks
115g/4oz icing sugar
2tsp vanilla essence
450ml milk
750ml double cream
caster sugar, for sprinkling

Method

Butter the bread using 115g/4oz of the butter. Remove the crusts and cut each slice into 4 triangles. Arrange the bread triangles in 2 layers in a buttered shallow ovenproof or baking dish, sprinkling the raisins and sultanas in between the layers of bread triangles.

Gently push down the triangles into the dish. Reserve the remaining bread triangles for later.

To make the custard: whisk the eggs, egg yolks and the icing sugar together in a large jug. Add the vanilla essence, milk and double cream. Whisk together.
Pour two thirds of the custard over the bread and leave to stand for 45 minutes to 1 hour for the custard to soak into the bread.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Pour the remaining custard over the previously soaked bread and butter triangles. Finish with the reserved bread triangles, buttered side up.

Press the slices down firmly so that the custard comes half way up the bread triangles. Sprinkle with caster sugar and dot with the remaining butter.

Place the dish into a large roasting tin and fill with warm water so that it comes three quarters of the way up the dish. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the custard has just set and the top is golden brown.

Tiramisu

I first heard of tiramisu when I as living in London with 3 other Malaysian girls. One of my housemates made this Italian dessert and I fell in love with it. The original recipe for tiramisu includes rum as one of its ingredients but we've omitted it, of course, to make it Halal for Muslims. So try it out...

Ingredients:

2 packets sponge fingers
1 egg white
500g Mascarpone cheese
5ml double cream
sugar to taste
coffee

Method:

Make some espresso coffee (just enough to dip all the sponge fingers in) and set aside.

Whip the egg white until you get soft peaks. Then whip in the Mascarpone cheese and double cream. Also add sugar to taste and mix all until well blended.

Layer the dish with sponge fingers dipped in the espresso coffee. Then layer half of the cheese mixture on top of the sponge fingers.

Repeat another layer of espresso dipped sponge fingers and finish with the leftover of cheese mixture.

Sprinkle some cocoa powder and leave to chill in the fridge.

Note: Best made at least 2-3 hours before serving.