Mascarpone Cheese Pound Cake

What can I do with my reconstituted frozen Mascarpone cheese? It would really be such a waste to have to throw it away as I can't possibly use it to make my tiramisu. I searched the net desperately for a recipe that made use of mascarpone cheese to bake a cake. There were not many but I did happen to chance upon one which I adapted it to make the cake you see here.

I also sprinkled some mozzarella cheese on top before baking and found that the cheese gave the cake top a rather crispy texture when the cake was eaten warm. However when I kept the cake in the refrigerator and microwaved it before eating , the cheese top became chewy. At a friend's suggestion I put the piece of cake for about a minute in the oven toaster after microwaving it for about 30 secs. This way gave the cake a crispy top as good as the day I baked it.
The cheese gave the cake a rather moist texture and it is also quite dense with the aroma of the cheese flavour. It definitely will go down well with a hot cup of lemon tea :-)



Ingredients:

250 g unsalted butter, soften
150 g raw sugar
50 g caster sugar
450 g mascarpone cheese
3 nos. egg, beaten
2 tbsp Irish Cream Bailey's
300 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
a handful of mozzarella cheese


Method:

Cream butter and sugar together till light pale in color and fluffy.

Add in the eggs, Bailey's , flour, baking powder and cheese in three portions and stir till well blended.

Pour batter into a lined 9" round pan and sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on the top.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for about 50-60 minutes or till skewer comes out clean.

Remove cake from pan and cool on a wire rack.

Cool completely before storing in an air-tight container.

Macadamia Nut Choco Chip Cookie

This cookie recipe had been in my to-do list for the longest time. Finally I had the chance and baked this for Teachers' Day. So I baked this and packed them up for dd and ds J to bring to school for their Teachers' Day celebration.

Ingredients:

250 g salted butter, soften
1 cup caster sugar (225 g)
1/2 cup brown sugar (90 g)
3 nos. medium size eggs, beaten
2 tbsp Irish Cream Bailey's
340 g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
300 g macadamia nuts, chopped
300 g chocochips

Method:

Cream butter and sugars together till you get a light and fluffy texture.

Add in the eggs, Bailey's, bicarbonate soda and flour in three portions.

Add in the chocolate chips and chopped nuts and stir till well mixed.

Refridgerate the dough for about an hour before distributing them on the baking sheets.

Drop 1 teaspoonful of the dough onto a lined cookie sheet and bake them in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for about 10-12 minutes or till they become a golden brown.

Cool the cookies on a cooling rack thoroughly before storing them in an air tight container.

Cookies can be kept for about a week without refrigeration or for about two weeks with refrigeration.

Banana Chocolate Maple Ice Cream

I used 4 frozen ripen Dole bananas in this recipe. The maple syrup also gave the ice-cream a googy kind of texture and it's characteristic taste. You may wanna reduce either the sugar or the syrup if you find it too sweet for you.

Ingredients:

4 nos. ripen bananas, mashed
250 mls UHT milk
250 mls dairy whipping cream
50 g caster sugar
100 g bitter sweet chocolate
1/2 cup maple syrup

Method:

Blend bananas with the whipping cream and keep them refridgerated.

Heat up the milk in a pot and add in the maple syrup, sugar and chocolate.

Stir the above mixture till all have blended together.

Pour the above milk mixture into the prepared cold banana cream mixture.

Stir till all have blended together and leave the combined mixture in the refridgerator for a couple of hours.

A couple of hours later, pour the mixture into the freezer bowl with the paddle attachment running.

Allow mixture to freeze until desired consistency is reached.

Keep the ice-cream overnight.

Stuffed Portobello Mushroom

Here's another way to eat this delicious mushroom.
Wipe the mushrooms clean with a wet cloth. Cut off the stalk of these mushrooms. Lay them on a baking tray. Sprinkle some pepper and olive oil over the mushrooms. Spread some mayonnaise over each mushroom and then place a tsp of smashed up luncheon meat onto each mushroom. Sprinkle some mozarella cheese over each mushroom and then bake them in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for about 20 minutes. Once the cheese browns, the mushrooms are ready to be eaten.

Strawberry Yoghurt Ice Cream

Here's a yummy one which I did without the ice-cream maker. I adapted the recipe from HERE
Thanks L for sharing it in her blog.

Ingredients:

400 g fresh strawberries
400 g strawberry flavoured yoghurt (2 tubs)
100 g sugar
200 g non-dairy whipping cream

Method:

Blend fresh strawberries with the strawberry flavoured yoghurt till smooth.

Whisk non-dairy whipping cream with the sugar till thick.

Mix both the above ingredients together till well blended.

Pour the above into container and freeze overnight till the mixture is firm.

Omurice, my version.

In between chasing a couple of Korean dramas I also watched this Japanese movie called
Lunch Queen . In this movie, the dish called Omurice, when eaten by the lead character (who had a very hard life) enabled her to feel the emotions of love and she survived and existed because of the many good food she could eat.

Omurice, my version is rice fried with chicken meat, chopped garlic and tomato sauce and then wrapped with an omelet made from 3 eggs. I was game to try making it cos' it looks interesting enough.

I searched the net and managed to get a video showing me the intricacies of getting the rice wrapped in the omelet. HERE is the Japanese chef showing you how it's done. I can tell you that it's not easy but I managed somehow but the omelet was a little bit overdone LOL.

Dh tried my version of Omurice and said he liked it LOL. As for myself, using three eggs for this dish is a little too overwhelming cos' I usually use three eggs to fry a tub of rice which can feed the whole family of six LOL.

Award Time

I made some new friends when I participated in the Sweet and Simple Bakes Challenges.
There is Sowmya from Creative Saga who surprised me with this Brilliante Weblog Award.

From the title of the award, I guess it has to do with some kind of "brilliance" in the way I share about my cooking and baking LOL. Actually, I do very simple writing and recipe sharing. Anyway I do wanna say "thank-you, Sowmya" for this award.

I managed to find out the lovely gesture that's given behind this award from HERE.

I will pass this to some of the blogs that I enjoy reading .....

Peony of http://myculinaryjournal.blogspot.com/

Jo of http://www.karlsfoodie.blogspot.com/

Joyce of http://jthorge.blogspot.com/

Edith of http://www.preciousmoments66.blogspot.com/

Rosie of http://rosiebakesapeaceofcake.blogspot.com/

Ellena of http://www.ellenaguan.blogspot.com/

Zuraini of http://quickneasytreats.blogspot.com/

Banana Chocochips Muffin

This is the third challenge at Sweet and Simple Bakes and the recipe is found HERE .
When the muffins were fresh out of the oven, my dd couldn't keep her hands off the cooling rack LOL. The fragrance and sweetness of the bananas made the freshly baked muffins yummylicious and moist. This recipe is definitely a keeper.



Click HERE for the round-up.