a weekend to ourselves!

my parents-in-law will be away today till this sunday. hooray!! we can have 4 whole days to ourselves... i'm going to monopolise the kitchen. i have to think think think...what am i goin to cook and bake?
hhmm... beef sandwich? fried chap jae? cookies...what cookies? we'll see.......:)

chilled lemony peach cheesecake - everyone's favourite

i still remember eating this cake when i was in secondary school. one of our relatives is a very good cook / baker. we always order this from her and it was sold at rm90 at that time, about 15 years ago! i never knew it was so easy to make this cake, until i tried it myself. this cake has never failed me.

i've done a 3-layer cheesecake before but this time i did a 2-layer instead coz i was running short of time. i omitted the jelly topping, and just roughly chopped some canned peaches to mix with the cheese filling.

the recipes below is for 3-layer; i hv also modified the measurement a little after a few tries coz i do not like sweet stuffs. if you too prefer not so sweet cakes, this recipes may be just right for you. :)

Ingredients: (9”)

Base:
250g digestive biscuits
120g melted butter + 2 tsp warm water

Filling:
250g cream cheese
60g castor sugar
300ml whipping cream (i used vivo brand-low sugar)
60ml syrup from canned peaches
4 tbsp lemon juice
Grated lemon zest (optional)
2.5 tbsp gelatin dissolved in 100ml hot water

Jelly topping (original version)
Cook 45g jelly powder (any flavour of your choice that you think will go well with the lemon cheesecake) and 8g gelatin powder with 250ml water till jelly dissolved. Set aside to cool.

OR (my own version)
250ml water
70ml syryp from canned peaches
2tbsp lemon juice
Some sugar to yr liking
2.5tbsp gelatin dissolved in 50ml hot water

Method:

1. Mix crushed biscuits and melted butter.

2. Press firmly onto lined cake base. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

3. Whip whipping cream with icing sugar till mousse state.

4. Beat cream cheese with castor sugar till smooth. Stir in the syrup, lemon juice, lemon zest and gelatin solution. Mix well.

5. Stir in whipped cream. Mix well. Pour the mixture into the chilled cake base.

6. Refrigerate for 15 minutes and top with assorted fruits. Put it back in the fridge for another 20 - 30 minutes.

7. Spoon cooled jelly topping solution onto the chilled cheesecake gently.

8. Refrigerate for 2 - 3 hours before serving, or overnight for best results.

crushing the digestive biscuits

mixing melted butter with the crushed biscuits

ta-daaa....

Merry X'mas Everyone!!

Wishing all my friends, family & bloggers a merry merry x'mas! happy holidays!!!


Cheers,
Loh's family

banana cake

banana cake is one of my fav. i tried baking it myself using the recipe i found here. the cake turned out okay, but it was a little too dense. why eh?? could it be because i didn't follow the recipe's exact measurement and pandai pandai added extra milk? i will have to try it again and again till i perfect my baking skills.

Ingredients:

180 gm. Butter

180 gm. Fine sugar

2 nos. Extra large Eggs - beaten lightly (i couldn't find XL eggs, so i used 2 normal large eggs, weighing 130gm)

250 gm. Cake flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. Bicarbonate of Soda

220 gm. Bananas - mashed (i used pisang rastali)

50 gm. Dairy whip cream (i substituted with baby's formula milk)

1/2 tsp. Banana essence (i substituted with vanilla essence)

2 bananas - slice (i omitted this)

Method:

(1) Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy.

(2) Pour in eggs gradually and beat till creamy.

(3) Add in whip cream, mashed bananas and banana essence and mix well.

(4) Add in cake flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and beat for a while only.

(5) Pour into an 8" round tray, and arrange sliced bananas on top.

(6) Bake at 175C for about 50 to 60 mins. or until cooked.

filling the cake tin with the batter

hot & fresh out from the oven... notice the crack? i used an 8-inch cake tin, the batter was too high, causing the crack. make sure u use a 9-inch cake tin to avoid cracks on top of cake.

ziyi's "drinking" habit

this girl has a weird drinking habit since young. she can never lie still to drink her milkie...that's one of the reasons why she was weaned off my boobs when she at 9mo.

i must always find ways to keep her lie still to drink her milk....either singing to her, showing her flash cards, reading to her, or asking her to point n tell my body/face parts.

here, she's "reading" a book while holding the bottle and i still hv to remind her to suck n drink her milk, otherwise she'll just bite the teats.

besides her usual formula milk and her all time fav H2O, she will not drink any other flavored/sweetened drink (i'm glad). however, after letting her tried vitagen, she loves it so much so that she can gulp the whole bottle at one go.

see mummy, i finished the vitagen...can i have somemore plsss.....

"W" words

last night ziyi was "baby talking" to herself and i heard her saying “duck”. curious as to why she said duck since there wasn't any duck image in the room, i asked her "What?"...
upon hearing what i just said, she imitated too... immediately i taught her a few other "w" words and to my surprise, she can pronounce them quite accurately.

wipe
wet
what
where
why
walk
wait (pronounced most accurately)

she was soo happy when praised her and giggling away when i told her to repeat those words...:)

she wailed when i was trying to capture her photo coz she wanted to view the camera's lcd screen..lol