Classic New York Cheesecake

It is only 18 days to X’Mas. Ready? Ready? Ready? Some families start to decorate their houses. You can see those hanging lights, X’Mas tree, wreath and different kind of hanging stars and hearts. Soon, you can see almost every house’s decoration. Sometime, it is like a competition. See whose house has the brightest lights, or see whose house gets the beautiful decoration. Guess what kind of the decorations our house will have?

 

Oven Temperature Setting: 170C/350F/Gas Mark 4

Baking Time: Around 40~50 minutes
Recipe: A 7” Classic New York Cheesecake

 

Steps of Classic New York Cheesecake

(1) Prepare Shortbread Crust: Place butter and sugar in a bowl. Whisk them until the butter turns a light and fluffy. And flour into the bowl. Mix flour into the butter. Line the dough to the baking tray. Bake at pre-heat oven at 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6 around 10 minutes until the top turns golden.

(2) Separate egg white and egg yolk. Whisk egg white until it has stiff peaks form. Add lemon juice in when there are some bubble s at whisking. Then, set aside.

(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: The bowl used for egg white must be very clean.)

(3) Add soft cream, double cream, vanilla extract into bowl with yolk. Mix all ingredients well.

(4) Add sugar, flour, and cornstarch into the batter. Well-mixed all ingredients.

(5) Fold the stiff egg white into the soft cream batter gradually and lightly.

(6) Pour the batter over the top of baked shortbread crust and send to the oven at 170C/350F/Gas Mark 4 around 40~50 minutes

 

Believe me, classic New York cheesecake is such a easy job. And you can bake at home totally. The cheese flavor is very strong like what we eat at restaurant!! Come and try it. Enjoy :D

Cheese Brownies

I have baked this cake for lots of times. At beginning, I thought that cheese cake is my favorite. But, it is really boring to bake cheese cake every time. All my friends know how much I love chocolate. So, I thought why not mix cheese cake and brownie together?? Yes, why not? I still remember how amazing this cake is when I ate it first time. Then, I talked to my friends that I found out lots of baker lover have same feelings. Hee… I think it is what we do. Baking lovers have same IDEA!!

Oven Temperature Setting:

180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 for first 10 minutes

Then, lower to 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3 after having cheese batter

Baking Time: Around 60 minutes
Recipe: A 7" Cheese Brownies

 

Steps of Cheese Brownies
(1) Melted dark chocolate and butter. When melting chocolate, don’t let the bottom of the bowl (with chocolate) touching the boiling water. It will change chocolate’s physical characteristics.
Also, it needs to cool down for a while before adding into the batter. Otherwise, the batter will be cooked before we send it into the oven.
(2) Place eggs, milk, and vanilla extract in a bowl. Whisk them.
(3) Add sugar, flour, and baking powder into the bowl. Incorporate the well.

(4) Add melted chocolate into the bowl. Incorporate all ingredients well.

(5) Pour brownies batter into the baking tin. Send it into the pre-heat oven at 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 for the first 10 minutes.

(6) Prepare Cheese filling: add cream cheese, egg, vanilla extract in a big bowl. Mix all ingredients well. Then, add sugar into the cheese batter. Mix them

(7) Take brownies out of the oven. Reserve ONE Table Spoon cheese batter for swirling, and then pour the batter over the top of brownies.

(8) Selena’s Kitchen Talk: Drawing some pattern over the top is not a necessary step that skipping this one if you don’t want to do this.

Reserve one table spoon cheese batter. Add 2 Table Spoon of chocolate powder into the batter. Mix them well. Swirl it over the top of cheese batter. Then, draw the line in vertical direction.

(9) Switch the temperature down to 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3. Bake around 45~50 minutes until it sets.

Cheese Brownies is very delicious that it is more like brownies flavor with some soft cheese on the top. If you like cheese cake and chocolate brownies, don’t forget to try this one. You will LOVE it. Enjoy it.

Chocolate Shortcrust Pastry

Some people will say that it is too bother to bake chocolate shortcrust pastry. So, people use oreo as the replacement. I tried it, but using oero as the base is very sweet. However, the taste of homemade chocolate shortcrust pastry is totally different. It is not sweet at all. I highly recommend to bake it at home. We just the time at baking, don’t we?

 

Oven Temperature Setting: 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4

Baking Time: Around 20~25 minutes
Recipe: A 7” Chocolate Shorecrust Pastry

 

Steps of Shortcrust Pastry

(1) Place flour and chocolate powder in a big bowl. Mix all ingredients well

(2) Add butter into the bowl. Rub butter into the flour. It will be crumble-like

(3) Add water into the mixture. Lightly knead it into a ball.

(4) Put it into a food storage and leave in the fridge for around 30 minutes.

(5) Move the dough to a working table. Roll it into a round shape, around 0.5 cm.

(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: Covering with wrapping film is easier to roll the pastry.)

(6) Place it over the top of the baking tray. Line it with the baking pray. Use a fork to poke holes on the pastry.

(7) Cover pastry with baking stone and send it to the pre-heat oven at 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 around 10 minutes. Then, get rid of baking stones and bake another 10 minutes until the top turns golden.

(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: I am lazy so that I will leave it in the freezer around 20 minutes. Then, you don’t need to cover the pastry with baking stone. And it takes around 20 minutes to bake it.)

Pumpkin Cake

It is another pumpkin dessert, a pumpkin cake. If I had time to do some decoration on the cake, I will put some scary face to celebrate Halloween. Halloween should be something scary, right?!

But, it is too sad not to have time to do those decorations. I’ll remember to save time next year. So, I just did some cream cheese icing.

 

Oven Temperature Setting: 170C/325F/Gas Mark 3

Baking Time: Around 25~30 minutes
Recipe: A 9” Pumpkin Cake

Steps of Pumpkin Cake

(1) Add egg and sunflower oil into a bowl. Whisk wet ingredients.

(2) Add sugar, baking powder, and spice into the egg mixture.
(3) Add grated pumpkin into the batter. Incorporate them well.

(4) Add flour into the batter gradually. Well-incorporated everything before adding more flour in.

(5) Pour the batter into the round baking dish. Bake it at the pre-heat oven at 170C/325F/Gas Mark3 around 25~30 minutes.

 

Steps of Cream Cheese Icing

(1) Mix butter and soft cheese well

(2) Add icing sugar into the cheese batter. Well-incorporated all ingredients. Leave in the fridge that it will be easier to spread

 

Steps of Assembly

(1)When cake cools down, spread cream cheese icing over the top and edge. Then, leave in the fridge before enjoying it.

 

This kind of pumpkin cake is more dense and moisture. With cream cheese icing, sweet… Will it my last pumpkin dessert?! I am not sure. But, it is Halloween today. So, please don’t be too scary!! And enjoy the cake.

Vanilla Custard

 

Vanilla Custard is a very popular sauce in the UK. People can buy it either fresh one or tinned one at every shop. It is very suitable for lots of desserts, like Apple Crumble Cake, Blackberry cake. Or, my friend will chop some fruits into a bowl and pour custard sauce over it. Then, EAT it.

Those sold ones in shops are very sweet. So, why not just do it? It is very easy and takes less than 10 minutes.   

 

Recipe

Steps of Vanilla Custard

(1) Whisk egg and milk in a cup first. And add vanilla extract into the batter.

(2) Pour it into a saucepan. Switch the small heat on.

(3) Add flour, corn scratch, and sugar into the pan gradually. Stir it well before adding more.

(4) Keep stirring until it turns thicker.

(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: When it starts to turn thicker, switch the heat off. Because it will thicken very quickly once it starts.)

Lemon Curd

I never know what Lemon Curd is until I am here, in the UK. Though Lemon Curd may be not so popular like other jams in the world, it is a very useful sauce for lots of desserts. For example, like lemon tart, Lemon-meringue pie. Or, some people just spread lemon curd over bread, scones, waffles. Unlike custard, cooking lemon curd does not use milk so that the taste is smoother. Some people use lemon curd as an alternative to jam at afternoon tea because of it fresh and light. So, try it, if you didn’t have this before.

Recipe: Around 200 ml

 

 

Steps of Lemon Curd

(1) Slice butter into the cubes. Place it in a big bowl. Put the bowl on the top of the boiling water. Please don’t let the bottom of the bowl touching the boiling water.
(2) Add sugar in. Stir butter and sugar until they are melted.
(3) Add lemon juice and zest into.

(4) Add eggs the bowl. Keep stirring it around 10~15 minutes until it turns thicken.

(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: If you think it is hot in the bowl now, please don’t put egg in. Leave the bowl out from the boiling water for a while. We don’t want to boil egg.)
(5) Then, leave at room temperature to cool down. Stir occasionally when cooling down.

Red Velvet Cake Made with Beetroot

For me, red velvet cake is always considered as a very elegant cake. Because of it beautiful red color, it lets people image to eat red velvet cake with a cup of coffee or tea in the high-end restaurant. I would like to bake red velvet cake for ages, but I gave up because I didn’t want to poison myself to eat red food coloring. I know it can be replaced by beetroot. I always forgot to buy it. So, I have no chance to bake it. Last Saturday, my friend gave us some beetroots. I thought, Oh… Yes… My red velvet cake… Finally, I can bake it by myself. I used beetroots so that I didn’t use vinegar and buttermilk to have the reaction. So, here you go.

 

Oven Temperature Setting: 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3

Baking Time: 40~45 minutes

Recipe: A 7” Round Baking Dish

 

Steps of Red Velvet Cake

(1) Prepare a small saucepan filling a half full with hot water. Place a bowl over the top of saucepan, but not touching the water. Break dark chocolate into small pieces and place into the bowl. And cut butter into small cubes and place into the bowl. Switch on the small heat. Stir the chocolate and butter until it is melted. Remove the bowl from the pan. Set aside.

 (2) Place eggs and mashed beetroot into another bowl. Mix them well

(3) Add flour, baking powder, and sugar gradually into mixture. Make sure incorporate all ingredients before adding more flour and sugar in.

 (4) Add chocolate mixture into the beetroot mixture. Well incorporate all of them. Pour into the baking dish. Send it to a pre-heated oven at 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3 and bake around 40~45 minutes.

(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: Insert the cake tester into the middle of the cake. If there is no batter left on it, it means it is ready)

 

Steps of Cream Cheese Icing
(1) Place soft cheese, butter and icing sugar into a bowl. Mix them well. Leave in the fridge around 30 minutes to be set. It is easier to spread.

 Steps of Assembly

(1) When red velvet cake is ready, cool the cake completely on a rack. It takes around 1~2 hours.
(2) Slice the top off of the cake
(3) Spread the cream cheese icing over the top. And, place some strawberries or chocolate on the top of cream cheese icing as the decorations.

 

Hee… My dreamy cake… Red Velvet Cake. Just feel like it is a cake, but it is SUPER HEALTHY cake. Bake with beetroots. How is your idea? Enjoy it.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

I would like to do sticky toffee pudding for ages. Last time, I flied back to Taiwan, I had a very tasty sticky toffee pudding. This is what I wanted to do. So, I studied this recipe for ages. Actually, the salted caramel sauce was prepared for my sticky toffee pudding. But, the day I was going to prepare it, my friend brought some apple crumble to us. So, I just put my all baking things back to the cupboard waiting for another day. Finally, I did it yesterday so that I can’t wait to share it to people

 

Oven Temperature Setting: 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3

Baking Time: around 30 minutes

Recipe: A 7” round baking tin
(Butter needs to put at temperature at least 30 minutes before using it)

 

Steps

(1) Place egg and milk in a bowl. Whisk it into a light yellow mixture

(2) Add flour and baking powder into egg batter gradually. Mix the batter well before adding more flour in.
(3) Add Light Muscovado Sugar and coffee extract the batter. Mix them well

(4) Add soft butter into the flour batter. Well incorporate all of them

(5) Mix chopped walnuts into the cake mixture. Pour the batter into the baking tin, and then send it to the pre-heating oven at 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3 baking around 30 minutes.

 

When serve it, drizzle a spoon of caramel sauce. And place a vanilla or toffee ice cream over the top. Don’t worry if it will be too sweat. This cake is designed to eat with caramel sauce so that the cake itself is not sweet. Of course, you can eat without anything.
I tried to eat it in HOT and COLD yesterday. Personally, I prefer to eat in HOT. It is very chewy. Enjoy the wonderful baking work.

Chocolate Brownie

As a chocolate obsession, I’ll say chocolate makes my life BETTER. When I feel sad, I eat it. When I feel happy, I still eat it. What is the most favorite chocolate cake for all chocolate obsessions? Is it chocolate brownie? I don’t know.  But, when talking about baking chocolate cake, chocolate brownie will the first thing popping up to my mind.

Some people said brownie is developed by mistakes that a baker forgot to put baking powder. But, it was actually created for ladies, who can simply put cake-like characteristic in their boxed lunches and easily eat them, went to World’s Columbian Exposition in 1983. Later, the chocolate brownie has lots of relatives, like Blonde Brownies, White Chocolate Brownies… Anyway, I would like to share a simple and easy to bake brownie recipe this time. When I have no time to study new recipe or I am busy at doing my work, I still want to bake something. This is what I am going to bake.

 

Oven Temperature Setting: 180C/356F for 10 minutes. Lower to 170C/338F for another 20~25 minutes.

Recipe: A 13cm X 21cm baking tin

 

 
 

 

Steps of Chocolate Brownie

(1) Weight all ingredients

(2) Place eggs, milk, and vanilla extract in a bowl. Whisk them.
(3) Add butter into the bowl. Incorporate the well.

(4) Add melted dark chocolate into the bowl. Mix them well.

(Selena’s Kitchen Talk:
*When melting chocolate, don’t let the bottom of the bowl (with chocolate) touching the boiling water. It will change chocolate’s physical characteristics.
**Also, it needs to cool down for a while before adding into the batter. Otherwise, the batter will be cooked before we send it into the oven.)
(5) Add the rest ingredients into the chocolate batter. Incorporate all ingredients well.
(6) Pour chocolate batter into the baking tin. Send it into the pre-heat oven at 180C/356F for the first 10 minutes. Then, lower the temperature to 170C/338F for another 20~25 minutes.
(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: Insert the cake tester into the middle of the cake. If there is no batter left on it, it means it is ready.)

When it is well-cooked, I’ll leave it into the oven with an open door around 10 minutes. (Of course, the oven is switched off!) It can prevent the sink because the temperature difference.

The best chocolate will be served when leaving in the fridge overnight. The chocolate will be totally incorporated into the whole texture. Cut into squares or bar. Either eat directly or with ice cream. Um… YUM…

Upside-Down Blackberry Cake

 

It is blackberry season in the UK. There are a lot of blackberries over there. My classmates and I walked by some last Saturday that they were surprised about it. They said they were curious about it and not sure these are blackberry. One girl picked up some. I think she likes it. Why is my new blackberry cake? Upside-Down Blackberry Cake. I never bake this one, but the principle of upside-down cake is same. Let me show you how to do it.

Oven Temperature Setting: 160 ℃/ 320℉. Baking Time: around 30 minutes

Recipe: For a 8” baking tin

 

Steps of Blackberry Topping

(1) Weight all ingredients

(2) Switch on small heat. Add butter into the pan and melt it. Add 45g sugar into the melted butter. Whisk it well. It is no need to melt sugar.
(3) Add Blackberry in the pan. Switch to medium heat. Mix blackberry and butter-sugar.
(Selena’s Kitchen Talk: Use a fork to squeeze few blackberries. It is easier to cook.)

(4) After boiling around 3~5 minutes, add the rest of sugar in the pan. Keep boil around 10 minutes.

(5) Pour the blackberry in the baking tin with baking paper. Set Aside.

 

Steps of Cake

(1) Weight all ingredients

(2) Add milk and egg in a bowl. Whisk them.
(3) Add butter into the batter. Mix it well

(4) Add flour, sugar, baking powder into the batter. Make sure they are mixed well.

(5) Pour the cake batter over the top of blackberry.
(6) Send it to a pre-heated 160 ℃/ 320℉ oven.

 

When it is well-cooked, I’ll leave it into the oven with an open door around 10 minutes. (Of course, the oven is switched off!) It can prevent the sink because the temperature difference. Then, wait around another 20~30 minutes to wait the caramel blackberry be set. Then, put a plate over the cake. Flip the cake over, CAREFULLY.

Compared to my previous Blackberry Cake, this upside-down blackberry cake has a different taste. When you eat upside-down blackberry cake, the taste of blackberry is stronger than Blackberry Cake. Because the upside-down blackberry cake layers the topping and the cake separately. Blackberry Cake is mixed blackberry filling with cake so that you feel blackberry flavor instead of eating blackberries. So, enjoy it. And see which one you like more.