MARTHA STEWART'S CREAM CHEESE POUND CAKE

I've made a lot of mistakes in my life and this is one of them. I over beat and over baked this pound cake and Martha Stewart would not have been pleased.

Look at that fissure. I do wonder if it was supposed to be like that. Look at those sugar spots. Look at those holes. Yes I'm guilty.

But at least I've used up the cream cheese that I've had in my fridge since forever. This recipe used no baking powder. So it was heavy and dense but it had a lightness and moistness to it when sliced. Six eggs must have done that. It cuts very well. Very few at home got excited. But many reviewers raved over this. So it must be me.


I'm not too happy with the photographs either so I'm not saying much. 


Click here for the recipe ~ Yes .....I'm so unexcited and feel so guilty that I don't even have the desire to type out the recipe.

BUT it's almost gone though. H liked it ^o^. Phew! I've been acquitted. *Taking off the leg irons*

CANDIED KUMQUATS ON AN ORANGE CHEESECAKE

Kumquats are citrus fruits that are as deliciously sweet as they are sweetly fragrant.

They look very much like over ripe kalamansi limes. And that's what I thought they were when Terri of Hunger Hunger first introduced them to me.

As soon as I got home from meeting Terri I ate a ripened one and allowed the rest to shed their last tinge of green over the next few days before I turned them into candied fruit. Because, as delicious as they were, I felt they were deserving of being displayed and admired in the form of an elegant dessert.

 

It was in a beautiful blog by Vera of Baking Obsession where I saw this beautifully elegant cheesecake topped with a kumquat jewelled crown. It sang to me......so I yielded. 

The cheesecake was creamy, dense and rich with only a slight orange flavour since I had omitted using the rind of an orange as stated for in the recipe. But it was delicious nevertheless. And the kumquats? They topped it all.

Candied kumquats are ridiculously easy to make especially since I relented to Simply Recipes' version because it required less boiling time.

Unfortunately, when the 10 minutes of boiling was up the kumquats were not yet as translucent as I had hoped they would be. I faltered. But not trustung my own instincts I took them off the heat and drained them of the syrup. I bottled them and chilled them in the refrigerator while I made the cake.

And when, later, I read Vera's version of candied kumquats it made me wish that I had done as she did. Boiled them for 30 minutes instead of 10 until they turned truly translucent, looked preciously fragile with a sparkling crystal-like quality to it. 

But it was done. So I proceeded and, as you can see, it is not as translucently beautiful as it could have been. But please........ do imagine it to be. 

I may also mention that I halved the recipe, it being very rich, and divided the halved mixture between 2 4 inch pans so that I could give one away to avoid the family consuming too much cake.

The recipe...........by Vera of Baking Obsession

For the candied kumquats

2 cupswater

2 cups sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

9 oz kumquats, or 25 medium, thinly sliced crosswise and seeds removed (I used a toothpick to push the seeds out)

Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean. Add the bean. (I used vanilla extract). Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and then add the kumquats and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 30 to 35 minutes until the slices are translucent. Drain, place kumquats in a bowl and add 1/4 cup of the syrup to it.Keep aside.

Return the remaining syrup to a medium heat and let it simmer until it reduces to about 1/4 cup. About 8 minutes.

The Crust ......( I had made my own without measurements but this is Vera's recipe.......

2 cups vanilla wafer cookie crumbs (from about 9 oz cookies and finely ground in a food processor)

1/3 cup packed golden brown sugar

7 T butter, melted

Set the oven ad 170 C. Line a 9 inch spring form pan with parchment paper. The pan should have 23/4 inch high sides.

Combine all above ingredient for crust. Mix well with fingers and pat and press into pan and up the sides about an inch. Bake for about 20 minutes until the crust is golden brown and set. 

Wrap the bottom half of the pan well with heavy duty aluminium foil so that water from the water bath does not leak in when baking. 

(I did not use a water bath and the cheesecake turned out perfectly baked).

(I used 2, 4 inch removable bottom pans, unlined and pressed the crumb crust only on the bottom and did not bake them). I may, also, have omitted to mention that lazy is my middle name.

The Cheesecake............

1 cup fresh orange juice 

1 cup sugar, divided

2 T finely grated orange peel (please do add for beter flavour)

4 8 oz packages cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup sour cream

3 T all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 large eggs

Combine 1/4 of the sugar and orange peel in the saucepan. Rub with your fingers until the sugar is moist and aromatic. (I wished I had an unwaxed orange so I could have done this. I suggest that you do not omit this step at all). 

Add orange juice and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and simmer about 8 minutes until the syrup is reduced to 3/4 cup. Cool completely.

With an electric mixer beat cream cheese, remaining 3/4 cup sugar until creamy and smooth. Add in flour, salt and eggs one at a time. Combine well. Finally add cooled orange syrup/juice. Stir well to combine.

Assemble........

Pour the cheesecake batter over  the crumb bottom. Place the pan in a roasting pan and fill with hot water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until softly set about for 1 to 11/4. When baked leave the cake in the oven for an hour to cool down and to prevent cracking the top. Chill overnight and loosen the edges with a knife the next day and unmould.

Arrange the candied kumquats in circular rows on the top. Serve.

 

BULL'S EYE CHEESECAKE

I feel detoxed. A few weeks of self exile, away from the comp, and I actually feel cleansed. Perhaps it comes as a close second to a self imposed exile on a remote island in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do, nothing to look at, nothing to think about except for the lapping of the waves against the sand and the breath of the breeze swirling through palm fronds, with a boring sun and moonless nights.

This is the place where I wasn't......





These are the sea creatures that weren't.....


So, you see, it is a fact that, I was on no island but was completely in the middle of Somewhere with a lot of noise, plenty to think about and so much to do.

But I do feel cleansed nevertheless. Comps can be intensely intense, demanding and addictive. It was good to get away and ignore my laptop. Completely. Almost. It was refreshing to live life back in time.

And it was good to get a letter in the mail box this morning. I mean a real letter. Not an email, not a mobile text message, not a virtual image but a real touchable, tangible old fashioned letter/ greeting card and a family photograph from a good friend who is now back in her home in the States.

It was good to see colourful stamps from another country and my name handwritten instead of an official black inked 'stamp' with our name and address printed on the envelopes of bank statements and cell-phone or credit card bills.

It was good to tear open the sealed envelope wondering who the letter was from. It was good to have to scrutinize her handwriting, trying to make out the letters, the words, written in cursive and then wonder if you have lost the ability to read real writing. It was good to know that someone had bothered to lick some stamps and mail a personal letter.

Old times are always described as the 'good ole times' at any point in time. At this point in time the 'good ole times' could be described as the 'good ole real times' as opposed to our present virtual existence which will, one day, in turn, become the 'good ole times' 30 years in the future. I do wonder though how much more virtual could we get. Surprise me.

And speaking of surprises, surprised he was, my Hub, when I made him a birthday cake this year. Yes you read it correctly. 'A birthday cake this year'.


Because I've never baked him one before. Simply because he never did like cakes as in western cakes. But I have converted him over the years and the conversion is now complete. For him to actually like this rich rich bulls eye cheesecake and to say that it tastes just like ice cream is like faith had just found him or vice versa. And finally embedded itself. No questions asked.

I found the recipe at La Table de Nana's beautiful blog. It is a blog you must visit. It will inspire you. Endlessly.


Oh... how I heart cheesecakes.


Here's the recipe............The method for this cake is similar if not exactly the same for the zebra cake that I have made before. The only difference being that this one is chock-full of cheese, cheese and nothing much else but cheese. I do heart cheesecake. And you will too.

32 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tsp instant coffee powder
3 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup grham cracker crumbs

Adjust rack 1/3 up from bottom. heat the oven at 350 F 170 C. Grease an 8 inch springform cake pan on the bottom and sides well. Wrap the pan in one large piece of foil making sure the foil comes at least 2 inches up the sides of the pan. You will also need a larger pan for a water bath.

Beat the cream cheese in an electric mixer until smooth making sure you scrape the bowl well once in a while to make sure all of the cream cheese is evenly beaten and smooth. Beat in the sour cream and then the extracts. Then add the salt and the eggs one at a time until well incorporated. Keep scraping the occasionally after each addition.

Take the bowl off the machine and divide the mixture equally between 2 bowls. There should be about 3 cups of mixture in each bowl. Stir in the granulated sugar into one bowl and the brown sugar into the other bowl. The mixtures will thin out.

Remove about 1/2 cup of the brown sugar mixture to a small bowl and add in the coffee and cocoa powders. Stir well to mix and then pour it back into the brown sugar mixture and stir to mix well.

You will now have about 4 cups of mixture of each.

Start by pouring one cup ( I used 1/3 cup) of any one of the mixtures into the middle of the prepared pan followed immediately by the alternate mixture to be poured right on top of and in the middle of the previous one and continue to do that until both mixtures are used up (Do not shake the pan to let the batter spread because it will do so on its own). Do go to my zebra cake post if you would like to see the process pictured in stages.

When done place the pan in a larger pan and put it in the oven. While the pan /pans are in the oven slowly and carefully pour hot boiling water into the larger pan being careful not to get any water into the cake mixture. The hot water should come about 1 1/2 inches up the sides of the cake pan. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours. I think mine was ready before that.

When ready remove the cake from the water bath and allow to cool completely in the pan. When cool cover the top with a piece of cling film and refrigerate for at least 8 hours to allow to firm up. (I don't think I waited this long). :))

Remove from refrigerator, and unhitch the springform sides. Place a flat plate over the top of the cake and then flip it over (upside down) and then remove the springform bottom. Sprinkle some cracker crumbs over the base of the cake. The crumbs are just so that the cake does not stick to the serving plate and makes for easier serving.

Place a serving plate over the crumbed cake bottom and flip the cake over, right side up. Decorate with chocolate curls, barks or shreds. Decorate it any way you like.

Cut the cake with a knife dipped in hot water after cutting each slice.

Enjoy this creamy, cheesy almost ice-cream-like cake.


Then you'll know why I heart cheesecakes.

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE LAYER CHEESECAKE

With 2 cheesecakes, 1 tray of brownies (by accident), 1 platter of steamed crabs, 1 platter of oyster sauced beef fillets with snowpeas, 1 platter of crispy fried squid rings, 2 presents and an aloof cat we had a little family do for 2 of our sons birthdays which happen to fall on the same day.

Some years ago and a few weeks before the big day I knew in my heart of hearts that, with God's will, our youngest son was going to share the exact same birthday with his eldest brother. I was right.

Our youngest son arrived, bawling, on the 15th of an August day, just like his brother.


So with 2 impending birthdays looming up ahead I baked 2 birthday cheesecakes. One was a Cappuccino Cheesecake like the one I have posted before and the other was a Triple Chocolate Layer Cheesecake that I have been meaning to try but have never gotten around to..... until my boys approaching birthdays have finally pushed me to the edge, made me haul my Old Faithful cake mixer off the shelf, scrutinize the recipe, engage my brain to fiddly and make a Triple Chocolate Layer Cheesecake.



And it was worth it. It was beautiful and utterly delicious!

Four chocolate flavours in one cheesecake. Heaven, Nirvana and Paradise and a Utopian Oreo bottom. It uses no egg, is chilled as opposed to baked and it almost liquified as soon as it entered my mouth when I took a forkful. It was very mousse like in texture, utterly creamy without being sickly rich but worst of all I couldn't stop ladling more forkfuls of it into my mouth and I could not stop my cheesy mind from wandering to its picturesque layers.... as pretty as a chocolate rainbow.


Here's the recipe........................
130 gm Oreos without the cream
70 gm butter, melted

Filling..

6o ml water
1 Tbsp gelatin
380 gm cream cheese
125 ml milk
1/2 cup castor sugar
60 gm each of white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate, all melted seperately in individual bowls
250 ml of cream, whipped

8" inch cake tin with a removable bottom, greased.

Crush the biscuits in a medium bowl using the top part of a pestle until fine. Add melted butter and mix until the crushed cookie are evenly mixed with the melted butter. Press into the base of the cake pan to an even layer. Refrigerate 30 minutes or longer until firm while you make the filling.

Filling....

Place the 60 ml of water into a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over. Place the bowl in a pan of boiling water. Stir s little and let stand. The gelatin will dissolve.

Beat cream cheese in a mixer till soft. Add sugar and beat again. Add milk and beat. Divide mixture equally between 3 bowls.

Fold white melted chocolate into one bowl of cream cheese mixture and mix until smooth. Fold milk chocolate into another and mix as well. And add dark chocolate to the last and mix well.

Divide the gelatin into 3 portions and add each portion to each of the cream cheese mixtures. Mix well. Then divide the whipped cream into 3 portions and add each portion to each of the cream cheese mixture. Mix well.

Pour the white chocolate cream cheese mix over the Oreo cookie base and spread evenly. Let it firm up a little while in the refrigerator (about 15 to 20 minutes) and then pour over the milk chocolate mix, spread evenly and let that firm up as well and finally the pour over the dark chocolate mix and spread evenly and let chill overnight or a few hours until set.

Remove from cake pan carefully by loosening the sides with a thin palette knife, decorate with clouds of whipped cream if you like and serve. YUMMM...

A DECADENT CAPPUCCINO BROWNIE CHEESECAKE

Cheesy, Chocolatey Cappuccinoey

Once in a BAD BAD while I indulge in cheesecakes as I sinfully do in brownies and anything chocolatey. But what I do love even more is a combination of chocolate, cheese and coffee. This cake was over the top. It was rich as in cheese, dense as in brownies and addictive as in caffeine. A killer combination. So I did away with the whipped cream and served it 'plain'. As plain as only plain could be.

Inspired by the enchanting Chinese bowls I had bought and displayed in my previous post I took pictures of this decadent cake in the garden. As you can see, I went over the top with that too and while I was thinking flowers and of what kind I should use (inspired by Denise from chicky egg in her recent Apple cake post photos) I remembered the bunch of dried roses hanging off the corner of my gilt-framed mirror in our bedroom. A fresh bouquet of roses that was given me by my children for my birthday a year ago which I had, as I always do, when I 'm lucky enough to get a bouquet of roses, hung them upside down in the least humid area of our home and I let them dry to a crisp. It would last forever.




Being extremely partial to dried roses I sometimes think they are more beautiful than fresh ones. Call me strange, but there is something very romantic in dried aka dead roses. They remind me of old oil paintings in their subdued, muted tones. Shriveled and blurred at the edges and not quite distinct.



Back to the cake....

Having added 2 heaped tablespoons of instant coffee to a basic brownie recipe I have come up with a brownie bottom with a slightly bitter edge to it and combined with the creamy cheese top the flavour becomes lusciously cappucchino-ey. I love the strength and flavour of the coffee when it melds with the warm, dark chocolate in the oven. The aroma was quite incredible. It started off as a dark and smudgy flow of edible molten lava ready to solidify into a sticky mass just so as to suspend a rich, moist and creamy top. Cheesecake, brownie and coffee heaven.

An absolutely immoral combination.




Now with the recipe...

The Cappuchino Brownie Bottom :

150 gm butter
125 gm dark semi sweet chocolate
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tbsp instant coffee granules

1/2 cup of walnuts, chopped

Over a double boiler of simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate. Once melted take it off the heat and add in the eggs, sugar and essence. Mix well. Add the flour, cocoa and coffee granules. Stir with a spatula and fold until just mixed and no flour remains visible. Add the walnuts. Mix them in. Pour into an 8 inch removable bottomed pan that has been buttered and floured. Bake in a pre-heated oven of 150 C for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the top is quite firm but not too firm.

Note : You will not need the whole batch of brownie mix. Leave about 1/2 to a cupful of mixture behind. You can bake the extra in cupcake cases later.

TIP : When the brownie bottom is done you will notice that the top would have puffed up a little making a very slight dome. Don't worry. Just take it out of the oven and let it cool so that it settles down and the surface will level itself ready for the cheese layer.



The Cheesecake :

500 gm cream cheese
2/3 cup castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 eggs, lightly beaten

Cream cheese in a mixer until smooth. add the sugar, essence and continue to beat until smooth. Add the eggs a little at a time until well mixed. Pour batter over the brownie bottom and bake in 170 C oven for 40 -45 minutes or until the top of the cheesecake feels firm and is a lovely golden brown, amber almost. Turn off the oven an allow to cool in the oven with the oven door slightly ajar so that the cheesecake will not crack.

Note : I allowed the cake to cool a few hours before removing.

TIP : There is no need for a water bath with this recipe. The cheesecake cooks beautifully without it.

TIP : As I did not want the brownie layer to be over baked I padded a baking tray with some newspapers and placed the cake tin on top.The paper gives the brownie some insulation from the heat so that it does not overcook.