Mini oreo cheesecakes

I'm never a big cheesecan fan and always quite afraid to try making cheesecakes because i'm not sure how it should turn out etc etc. I have made small oreo cheesecakes before which turned out fine but came across this recipe on http://kokken69.blogspot.com/2010/07/cookies-and-cream-cheesecakes.html and wanted to make them for dessert tonight! What I like about these is how they are in tiny portions so you don't have to finish a big slice and you can have them as little finger food in parties too!

Here's the simple recipe which I changed alittle because I had more cream cheese mixture to use so I could have more cookies to use:

Recipe

9 cream- filled Oreo Sandwich (whole)
4 Oreo Sandwich , coarsely chopped
227g Cream cheese (I used phildaphia)
1/4 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp Vanilla extract
1 Egg beaten
1/4cup Sour cream
Pinch of salt

Method
1. Preheat oven to 135C
2. Line muffin pan with cup cake liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup
3. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until creamy. Gradually add in sugar and beat until smooth. Add vanilla extract.
4. Drizzle in egg and mix until well coporated. Mix in Sour cream and salt. Fold in chopped Oreo.
5. Scoop cream cheese mixture into each cookie filled cup. Bake at 135C for 22mins.
6. Cool down on wire rack in the muffin tray. Refrigerate for at least 4hours before removing from cup cake liner.

Oreos being placed at the bottom of each muffin cup:


Finished mini oreo cheesecakes:


I was going to drizzle some oreo sauce that I have but didn't want to oreo kill it so perhaps next time i'll give it a try!

So go ahead and try these it's so simple and yummy!

Going nanas

I just love the smell of freshly baked banana cake or bread and the taste when it goes into my mouth! Yesterday I baked a banana cake instead of my usual sponge cake and decided to top it up with slicles of banana...however, when I inverted the tin, the cake came out perfectly but left the bananas on the tin so I had to scoop it up with a spoon and put it back lol!

I had to wait patiently to cut the cake at night when our cousins came over for dinner as you always want to know how the inside turns out after baking!


Banana cake with strawberries in the centre spinkled with icing over the top


This recipe is definately a keeper with its simple and few ingredients needed and definately a different texture to the sponge cake giving it a more firmer richer texture.

Upsidedown apple cake

Having a few granny apples from baking apple crumble the other day I decided to try an apple cake but it reminds me of an upside down pineapple cake because the apples are on top of the cake when inverted at the end.
Here's my not so good looking cake but taste better than it looks cake lol

Place the sliced apples, cinnamon and sugar at the base of the baking tray


Covered half the batter on top of the apples and topped the rest of the apples on the batter


Topped the remainder of the batter on top of the apples and smooth with a spatula


Baked the cake for only 35 - 40 mins because the top was cracking and looked slightly burnt but inside was cooked


but when I turned the cake upside down, the apples were nicely placed and steam was creeping out of the cake


Finished and hubby enjoyed this cake and so did I!


We also tried this cake with vanilla ice cream thinking it will be similar to apple crumble and agreed that this cake is better eaten alone served warm!

Crumbles

Today I think i've found an apple crumble recipe that i'll definately keep! Despite my oven acting funny and burning and overcooking ALL my baking since I've been using it i'm glad that my apple crumble turned out good.

Made this apple crumble today from seasaltwithfood blog and I love the aroma and sweentness of the apples mixed with cinnamon and sugar


The finished product topped with smooth crumbs, the texture of the crumbs are fine and smooth and apple crumble cannot be finished without vanilla ice cream!


Recipe
Base:
3 Big Granny Smith Apples, peeled cored and sliced (I cut mine into cubes)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoon cinnamon

(mix and set aside in a baking tray)

Topping:
1 cup of flour
1/4 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1) Mix flour and sugar together
2) cut butter through flour mixture and rub together till crumbs like
3) Sprinkle flour mixture onto apple mixture
4) Bake for about 30 mins or till top is golden brown

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream!

Enjoy!

More desserts

We were having a hard time to think of where to have desserts after church so we decided to stay in the city. We headed over to Passion Flower in Capitol and there was a few people waiting for seats..definately very packed. Thank God we didn't have to wait long to get seats for the 4 of us.

There were so many choices to choose from it was definately a hard decision. The price here is towards the high end and it pays to have more people so that you can try a little of everything. We decided on this platter: Black sesame, lychee and green tea ice cream with pancakes, green tea mousse, grass jelly, and mini sticky riceballs at the side:


Ice cream flavours were yummy, and I quite liked the green tea mousse topped with red beans, but the other side desserts were only OK...nothing that I will crave about...

Definately will come back again if ever I wanted to have desserts.

Ice cream the asian twist

Desserts and ice cream has gone a long way! I don't recall having ice cream in flavours such as taro, durian or black sesame but ever since the asian market has grown there is nothing I can't find here in Sydney!

Besides the dessert shop called passionflower that sells numerous ice cream and dessert, this shop in chinatown sells a variety of ice cream with asian flavours too such as taro, durian, green tea and black sesame. This shops is next to Helen cakeshop and sells chilli fishballs and other yummy desserts too!

Black sesame and chocolate ice cream with wafers:


It's not very cheap here with a scoop costing $5 and 2 scoops $7.50 it's probably more worth it if you came with a few friends n share! Next time i'll want to try their mango pudding!

It's definately a place to come to if you don't mind abit of noise because in Chinatown it can be pretty rowdy! If you want a more intimate or quieter cafe then I don't recommend this place but if ur craving for mango pudding, chilli fishballs, milktea then why not takeaway!

Eat eat eat

Today we went for a ferry ride to Watson Bay, which is about 30 minutes from Circular Quay in the city and cost $10 return.

Once we arrived at Watson Bay, we walked pass a restaurant where the line was queuing up for their fish and chips so Marcus couldnt resist it and bought one fish for afternoon snack.


The fish here are done differently to the ones we have in NZ, and they provided a small container of chilli plum sauce....

After our trip to Watson Bay we wanted to try this malaysian place but it was closed so we strolled along the road and ventured into one of the many Japanese restaurant:
There were so many Jap restaurants it was so hard to choose and we ended up at Yutaka along Bathurst Street. Here, they offer buffet for $24 so it's not bad but we opted for the a la carte instead having so much food during the day.

Chicken Karaage don:


Fish bento box:



After dinner we went to this place called LNC dessert house on Sussex Street, near Chinatown. They offer many variety of dessrts especially the usual Hong Kong style such as red bean, almond, chestnut soups and other yummy ice and ice cream desserts. There were so many choices and even though we were so so stuffed from all the food we had during the day, I chose the red bean slushy with sticky rice and green tea gelato




We were forcing ourselves to finish this dessert & it was definately a hard task but definately coming back again to try other flavours!

I HEART macaroons

From my previous post I wrote about how I've discover macaroons and how delicate and deliciously light & yummy they are! Ever since then, everytime I walk pass some specialty french cafe or chocolate dessert place I would eye macaroons and buy them!

They're not cheap though, at Chatswood mall they were selling $2 each & you basically finish them in 2 bites or 4 if you savour is slowly! So today while in the city, my sister brought me to Lindt and OMG macaroons galore! There were so many flavours I decided to just think to my usual of hazelnut and my sister got chocolate. The French call them Macarons, but at the Lindt Chocolat Café they are Delice. It's basically 2 delicate halves of almond meringue with a deliciously rich chocolate cream filling or other amazing flavours.

Macaroons on display @ $2.20 each


Ice Chocolate & chocolate Lindy delice (Macaroon)


Delicious macaroon that melts in your mouth after every bite making you want more!


YUMMMMMMMM! The hazelnut macaroon I had was so divine it just made my day!

Eastwood

Last night, we had dinner at this new suburb that we've never been to called Eastwood. It reminded me a little of howick area where the place is full of chinese restaurants. It mainly consist of chinese and hong kong style crusine so if you're looking for jap or korean you won't find too many around here.


We went to this small hong kong shop called BBQ One and apparently it's recommended in the cheapeats book of Sydney.


One meat on rice cost $9.80 and 2 meat on rice cost an extra dollar. They also sold laksa, dry noodles and their service was quick and free soup came with it too! I think my dad in law will like this place because of the roast meat =) It's pretty crammed and you smell after you leave....

Roast pork on rice


After dinner we crossed the road to have dessert. This place is called Taste of Shanngjai restaurant There were about 2 bubble tea place and this dessert store stood out because of the red bean display. This place sells very shanghainese food...there were so many types of buns, noodles, peking duck, and sweet desserts. The list goes on and so it's definately a place where I'll come back again and it's packed even at 9pm!
Here are some items off their menus just to give you a taste of what they have:

Rice cakes with preserve vege


Stir Fry noodles with prawns


Double filling of sesame and red bean in one sticky rice ball


This is the red bean dessert I had

Red bean + Herbal jelly + Ice cream


Vanilla ice cream on the top


Loads of jelly and red bean swimming in the sea of milk


This was sweet, lots of coconut milk so next time i'll probably ask for less milk. Also if you don't select regular size they automatically give you big which is quite big especially after dinner.

Honey melon drink served with herbal jelly and basil seeds


There were other drinks on the menu such as chendol, ice kajang, cheng teng, sago gulaman and the usual bubble tea, frappes, ice cream etc etc....definately a place to visit if you want your asian desserts.

I'm so glad we checked out this area coz now I can bring you to check it out when you come =)

fusion

I am wowed by the differences in desserts and food that one cultural can be from another. I never would have thought that cheese platters would be found under "desserts" in restaurants because they're more like snacks and savory to me. I have come to appreciate the taste & the combination of these cheese/crackers/breads/olives/salami/dips which can give you a rich experience especially with a glass of wine!


Chinese desserts on the other hand are also appealing because of their creativity and their use of different ingredients like coconut milk, red bean, taro, green tea and the list goes on:

Movenpick for Mothers Day

I celebrated mothers day early this year because of the busy weekend and totally enjoyed the night with both our mums.
After eating Italian (full full)we walked over to Movenpick. I've always gone to Movenpick for Ice cream but never tried their dessert menu at all. I shouldn't have indulged anymore because I've been overloaded with coffee and chocolates over the week as well as the weekend to come but I couldn't resist.

We had...

Affagato: (espresso coffee with 2 scoops of ice cream)- my mum pronounced as avocado!
This tasted like ice coffee with ice cream, not bad at all.


Apple crepe with vanilla brownie ice cream:
This was alright but I've tasted better crepes elsewhere.


Chocolate and raspberry pudding with vanilla ice cream:
I think mud cake or moist chocolate cake would have taste nicer =)


Overall I think I still prefer eating their ice cream and better desserts could be found elsewhere such as mecca or frasers or other cafes.

Simply desserts

I love having dinners with people and dessert plays a big part because it’s sweet, yummy and can be so simple. I love desserts that I can heat up and put ice cream or anything cold or warm on top of it. Some things goes so well with ice cream making it even more delicious!

You can buy practically any desserts and pop them in the oven and serve them with ice cream - however, there are some that I enjoy making because it just taste more homemade and you can add more spices such as cinnimon to them!

Here are some of my favourite desserts especially on a cold winter night and also easy to make for a small-medium group of people:

Apple crumble with ice cream or hot custard

Chocolate brownie or cake with vanilla ice cream

Sticky date pudding with ice cream – I love fig ice cream but any ice cream will do

Here is an example of sticky date pudding which can be bought from supermarkets in the freezer section and quickly microwave or heated in the oven for a quick yummy dessert and entertaining friends!


So there is nothing to stress about when it comes to desserts - it can be simple and yum!!!