I love having blocks of butter and cream cheese at home. I love the I-need-to-clear-my-butters-so-I'm-baking! feeling whenever I open the fridge and see them arranged on top of one another. Its like a reflection of my passion for baking!

I don't know if that's the same for you, but they certainly are the fastest-moving yet most expensive ingredients I use.

Cakes, cookies, pies, tarts, bars...... I can hardly escape from opening sticks after sticks of butter. Especially when baking becomes a little more intensive, like how I've been baking almost every day for the past one week, I've finish almost 4 cups of butter!

Last night, I was really tempted to 'clear' my cream cheese again. LOL. It'd be the best chance for me to finish my remaining sour cream from the superlicious Blueberry Crumb Cake too! After much consideration on what cheesecake I should I bake, I decided on New York Cheesecake!

The recipe was from a book bought by one of my best boyfriend in Taiwan. Although the entire book was written in CHINESE..... (Okay, I'm a Chinese, but I really dislike reading chinese words!) I still wanted to use its recipe because I'm actually very appreciative to get his support for my interest! I adjusted the recipe a little as I was a bit disturbed by one of the ingredient "butter" in the cream cheese filling. I substitute it with milk instead =)

The result was really great. I love how the surface of the cheesecake is slightly brown. The best part was that it didn't cracked, it didn't sink in the center, and it wasn't over-baked!

See. Still nice and creamy, one of the best cheesecake texture I'd made!

read more ..

Hello everyone!

Sorry I've abandoned my blog for more than 3weeks. I guess that's what most food bloggers'd have experienced because it really isn't easy to maintain a food blog! From the baking to the photography to the editing of pics to the posting...... Yeah, you know what I mean!

For me, it's not an issue about my passion for baking  But, the lack of diligence to carry my DSLR again! In fact, I've baked S'mores, Chocolate Cherry Pie, Peanut Butter Tart, Chocolate Souffle and Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake over the past few weeks! Oh and S'mores did live up to their name, I baked them TWICE because they were that good :D

read more ....

Hello Bakers, it's New Year! Happy 2010 and here wishing you guys a great year filled with fun and happiness ahead :)

As much as I'm enjoying every moment of my holidays, I still have to face the anxiety most 16-years-old are experiencing now: O'levels results will be releasing in another 10 days. Gosh..... There's this huge part of me really afraid that I've screwed my results, especially English. Because.. I wrote a crap essay that was incomplete and I usually depend on my essay to do moderately well for this subject. (By saying moderately well, I already mean a low B!)

But of course I don't intend to live in fear and worries every day till the very second I hold my results slip..! So, here I baked a cake for. ermm.. nobody? HAHAHA. It is cute anyway, right? It is certainly one of the funniest cake I've baked. Not that it is funny, but what I've done stupidly that are funny. Especially when my brother saw the mess I made.............

I was really embarrassed. and trying to control my laughters (which I failed. which WE both failed)..... I started slapping his arms - for being there to witness all my stupidity!! AND for laughing at me!

read more ...

The entire Decemeber had been one super enjoyable month with all the parties, work and my prom night going on (reaching home as late as 4am!). Great time with my dearly missed schoolmates, but I also managed to bake Cuppucino Cheesecake, Torta Caprese, Brownies, Apple Crumble & Jelly Cheesecake (5times!!! My all-time favourite). I love baking :D (didn't update because my DSLR was brokened)

This morning I made these Banana Muffins w chocolate chips. Awesome, I say! I love them because they are so homey and fragrantly sweet. In fact, Banana Muffins were memories of my first baking experience! I was only 14years old then. You might want to know more about it here. It is seriously funny and interesting :P

RIGHT. So.... Does muffins taste better using butter or oil? My hypothesis was that oil would be a better option and this morning, I divided the same muffin batter into two, half using butter and the other half using oil!

The results wasn't apparent so I could barely tell the difference! (the picture below: those w topped chocolate chips are baked using oil. those without topped chocolate chips are baked using butter) The 'oil' muffins are just really SLIGHTLY lighter than the 'butter' muffins. Besides this, they are equally moist and soft. Very tender and light! Not oily at all!! But if I have to make a decision, I think I'd still use oil in the future which I believe is only a personal preference :D

read more ...

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

Tomorrow will be Christmas Day! Merry X'mas to all the bakers and foodies! ^o^ I believe most of you are in the festive mood of this special occasion! For me, though, I might admit Christmas day was only considered another 'date' in my childhood. My family never celebrated it and I grew up knowing Santa Claus does not exist. But maybe because I don't have much impression or any opinions towards Christmas, I actually don't feel that 'I have missed out a damn lot of things' either! Hey, I suspect I haven't even eaten a roasted/baked turkey before. LOL.

Until I celebrated my first Christmas Countdown with my basketball teammates (I was already 14 by the way), I realised that Christmas is a beautiful and extremely lively festival. (a bit slow right) That was certainly a wonderful experience for me but if you ask me, I think I'd still prefer to avoid every area that is heavy in human-traffic. Haha. I believe I am somebody who treasure peace a lot!

Staying at home to bake or just drinking under the tree with my small group of buddies suit me more :) We can still have our christmas countdown happily! You know, the extent of my displeasure for noise includes the noise sound of my mixer at speed 10! That is also why I decided that my husband-to-be should not be over-ly talkative....! LOL

read more ...