Durian Birthday Cake

Baked this for ds A and since he doesn't mind eating durians.... of cos' he ate it.
Thanks to L from IK for sharing her recipe. It is definitely a keeper. Now my fridge will be effusing durian aroma for the next couple of days with some left over slices since we couldn't finish eating the cake. If only I know what to use to absorb the smell of durian lingering in the fridge.


Since the cake had whipped cream frosting, some of it melted when I was distracted away from the camera while taking photos of it.

Click HERE for the recipe.

Fruity Cake

I got the recipe from HERE but modified it a little cos' I didn't have all the ingredients. The result was something which dh liked and he ate it for breakfast this morning and even packed two slices to work.

Here's sharing with you what I did .....using an 11" by 8" rectangular glass dish.

Ingredients:

200 gm cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
170 gm sugar
100 gm butter
2 tbsp yoghurt
1 tbsp Irish Bailey Cream
zest and juice from 1 orange
3 nos. egg
2 nos. peach, 1 no. each of kiwi, mango and 7 nos. lychees (seeded)
(slice fruit pieces and sprinkle with 1 tbsp of sugar and chill in fridge till ready to use)

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C.

Beat butter, sugar and yoghurt together till light and fluffy.

Add in the eggs one at a time and blend them well.

Add in the Irish Cream, orange zest and orange juice and mix well.

Fold in flour and baking powder.

Pour batter into the floured baking dish.

Place the slice fruits gently on top of the batter and bake for about 60 minutes.

When the cake top turns a golden brown, you may remove it from oven and cool it on a wired rack.

Refridgerate leftovers and they still taste yummy when eaten cold the next day.

Mini celebration for fathers in the family.

To honore the fathers in the family, I baked them a Mango Yoghurt Cheesecake and prepared a mini feast for them.

The menu for the day was like this .....

Mango Yoghurt Cheesecake

Curry Chicken

Fish Ball Sausages

Bacon Mushroom Rolls

Fruity Salad
Roast Duck (my brother's contribution)
White Rice

Baguette Bread

Lychee Fruits

Mango Flower Jelly Cheesecake

Last night I tried to do something like the "Jelly Heart" cake . Instead of strawberries I used honey mango and mango jelly crystals to do the top. I discovered that after leaving the cake overnight in the fridge the jelly at the top had some liquid on it. After taking the photo, the whole jelly layer could slide off the cheese layer. Does this happen with Jelly Hearts?


I wonder if the brand of jello used for the top matters or should the liquid portion used to make the jelly be adjusted to make the layer harder? Do I have to dig some 'trenches' in the cheese layer before pouring the jelly? Do fresh acidic fruits like mango play a part in hindering the full setting of the jelly?

I'm still trying to find answers to these questions and if anyone out there could help me answer them I would fully appreciated it.

Tower of Macarons

I first tasted macarons at a gathering. This is now the rage of French bakes ...
It is soft and chewy and very sweet. What I have here is what they call the shell and usually they are eaten with some kind of filling in between two shells. The filling is usually a ganache or some cream or even ice- cream. If you like this macaron, I suppose you'll love eating it and if you don't, you'll not even touch it.
My ds J didn't mind eating it and he ate quite a number of freshly baked shells. My ds B , after tasting one, didn't want to touch them again. I sandwiched two shells with some left over pink buttercream and they tasted quite good. I also sandwiched another with the chocolate ganache and this tasted too sweet.
On the whole, the macaron shells were actually much too sweet for my liking.

The recipe for making this is HERE.

Menu Ideas For Four Weeks

I remember when I first joined the m4m message board, I posted some menu ideas for the week to help those with maids in the household to plan simple meals. These ideas could also be used for those who just started to learn how to cook meals for their families. I shared this because I remember putting in quite a bit of effort to plan meals with my domestic helper and didn't want the effort to be gone to waste. Surprisingly these menu ideas were still referred to when some ladies from the message board emailed me for help. It's a good feeling they the ideas are still useful.

So here I provide the link to them in case anyone needs some help to plan meals.

Menu Ideas for Week 1

Menu Ideas for Week 2

Menu Ideas for Week 3

Menu Ideas for Week 4

Chilled Oreo Cheesecake with Bailey's Irish Cream

Finally managed to do a Chilled Oreo Cheesecake using the recipe posted at yochana's blog.
I added 2 tbsp Baileys into the cheese mixture and it's yummy. For those with a sweet tooth, you may wanna increase the amount of sugar .... I do like this sweetness though. If I were to do this again I'll chop up the oreo biscuits first instead of putting them whole into the cheese mixture. Whole Oreo biscuits made the cheesecake squosh upwards when cut ... :lol: