Healthy Cheesecake?! um...

NOTE: SORRY to suscribers who received this is their feed and got a half-done post at first. I accidentally clicked the publish button while trying to attach a photo >< It's all fixed now haha.

What if I told you cheesecake could be healthy?

Well, it can't. But 'cheesecake' can.

I proclaimed my love for cheesecake when I shared my blueberry cheesecake with you all in January. Yes, it's been a long time since I made a cheesecake. And with good reason. I do love cheesecake. But it's not something I can make very often, given that it's so rich and extremely fattening. Well, most of my favourite cakes are. But with most of my favourite cakes, summoning the self control to stop at one slice isn't very hard. For cheesecake... not really :/

Cheesecake is the kind of cake that makes me want to eat the whole cake.

Wouldn't you agree?

Or is it just me?

Meyer Lemon Fennel Pots de Creme

I promised I'd share another meyer lemon recipe in my post on almond meyer lemon tart, so here it is! It's even better than the almond meyer lemon tart I made last time. You know why? Because it's pudding. Well, pots de creme is pretty much a baked pudding to me. No distracting crust here. Just thick, creamy pudding... warm...straight from the oven...

Yes, I do not really follow the traditional method of eating pots de creme cold. I like my pudding warm, as you would already know if you've seen my thick, creamy warm chocolate pudding.

Warm pudding is like hot chocolate or hot vanilla, or just hot cream. Yes, I would steam plain cream to drink. But pudding is a thousand times better. Why? Because it's so much thicker and creamier. So utterly comforting.

Breakfast Sunday XV & a brownie milkshake

This morning I woke up to the most beautiful sky. It was a deep orange and the sun a magnificent red.

Contemplate... now that confirmation is over... what is my faith journey going to be like?

Father John Paul said today, it is inevitable that after 3 months there will be people who stop going to church completely. I hope I won't end up as one of them. I don't think I will. I am bound to the church by Five Loaves. Not exactly bound, but I want to keep baking there, so I will still go for church.

And of course, there's my catechism class.

I'm really really grateful to have been part of Gentleness this and last year. You guys are the best. One of the
funniest and most amazing people I have ever met.

Thank you, especially, Dom and Sasha, our catechists, for your amazing guidance and care.

I hope they enjoyed the cake today haha. It was made especially for Dom, because he likes rich stuff. It's amazing really, just that after a few bites, I'm bending over ready to drop into a sugar induced coma, but Dom is still going strong ^^

13th May 2013: Cashew nutella pizza

14th May 2013: White chocolate and raspberry biscuits

15th May 2013: Mint sorbet

My dad's mint sorbet, which I absolutely love.

16th May 2013: Toast with red miso spread

17th May 2013: Brownie milk shake

1/2 cup brownies

1 cup vanilla ice cream

or chocolate ice cream, if you want it more chocolatey...

milk

blend till smooth and add milk to thin to desired consistency.

18th May 2013: Baked eggs in avocado

19th May 2013: Roast duck omelette

Nutella Biscoff White Chocolate Cookies

Well hello there! I hope I haven't been gone long enough for you to forget me. I know I know, first I procrastinated on my Breakfast Sunday post by pushing it to Monday, then I decided not to blog at all till today. But hey, I have a good reason. Its a legit reason, mind you, not a lame excuse (at least in my mind).

I was testing out some gorgeous and ridiculously chewy (think Subway!!) cookies.

And besides that, I have exams, you know? Exams that decided to walk right into my head and perform mass extermination of my brain cells.

It took me the whole of yesterday, and the earlier part of today, to recover.

You know Murphy's Law? You could say it's crazily true. On the day of the English exam - an essay for that matter - I was suffering from the biggest writer's block possible. Notice how the post on the Sunday before that was so short? I couldn't pen a single fluid paragraph. It's sort of like taking a scenic train ride that keeps jerking and stopping. All the contents there, but the language...ah the language.

Yet now the words are rattling off my tongue like the most natural thing in the world. Talk about good timing :/

Yesterday was the math and chemistry papers. Guess what I learnt?

I'm probably destined to be a baker or a food blogger, in which the only place where math is needed is in scaling recipes and converting U.S. measurement to metrics.

So yea, I actually didn't plan to write all that. But the words were tumbling off the top of my head.

Check out my guest post at Alderberry Hill for the recipe of these unique nutella and biscoff white chocolate chip cookies! They're crunchy on the outside, soft and slightly chewy inside. Flavoured with fragrant biscoff and sweet nutella, they're sure to please :)

Breakfast Sunday XIV & homemade nutella

Damn. Overdue.

I'm sorry.

I was supposed to hold Sunday (almost) sacred so that I will definitely post my Breakfast Sunday post every week. I have failed.

But well, you forgive me, right?

I was busy. We all were, come on. Who isn't busy on a Sunday, with nothing to do, except eat cake and stuff myself to the point where I couldn't eat anymore?

Okay, it's just me. But hey, I was too happy about my gorgeous cake. And in case you didn't see it already, here's the link: S'mores Cheesecake Cake. Because you really have to see it, or justice is not done.

6th May 2013: Blood orange macarons

Oh yes, I can make macarons now :D Not perfect yet, but yes.

7th May 2013: Roasted pumpkin

I think my birthday was a fine excuse to get and roast a whole pumpkin!

8th May 2013: Homemade yoghurt.

Another little experiment ^^

9th May 2013: Bagel with homemade nutella~

2 cups roasted hazelnuts

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup dark chocolate, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

Process hazelnuts in the food processor till it becomes a smooth paste.

Add the rest of the ingredients and process till smooth.

For a perfectly smooth spread, remove hazelnut skins and process for a longer time.

10th May 2013: White chocolate cheesecake with blood orange curd

This is what happens when you have to test bake. Cheesecake for every meal :/

11th May 2013: Smoked salmon bagel sandwich

12th May 2013: S'mores cheesecake cake

The star of the show. Click the link. You know you want to.

4 days late, but still as amazing :D

Happy Birthday to me!

Every year, I will bake my own cake. Well, starting from last year, so it's not a very old tradition or anything.

This year, it's a little late because I only received news that I wouldn't be competing in August on 6th May. So I only knew 1 day before my birthday that I didn't have to lose weight ( = I can have cake!!)

My love affair with layer cakes don't go very far back. But I'll have to credit it to a few blogs that really showed me the beauty of layer cakes. Sweetapolita and Sprinkle Bakes. Both of them make the most gorgeous layer cakes I have ever seen.

Almond Red Currant Cupcakes

Yesterday was my birthday! Ok, it's not related to this post, but I just had to tell yolu because something amazing happened :) Those of you who saw me yesterday would know that I was ridiculously happy despite the mildy uncertain English essay, the overly screwed up biology paper, and the extremely tired ending of a physics paper. So what happened?

Well... my almond meyer lemon tart was feature in the Kitchn's Delicious Links!

Alright. It's not a big deal. But hey, whoever submitted my post, if you're reading this, I just want to let you know that you made my day =)

Okay, back to the point of this post. These cupcakes. These red currant almond cupcakes.

Breakfast Sunday XVIII & baked oatmeal

I'm tired. I really am tired. They're deciding tomorrow if I'll be going for Asian Youth Games. And to be honest, I wouldn't be too sad if I wasn't set to go. I will be able to eat and go about my happy baking and blogging life again. But then again... I kind of want to go.

Well, off to do sprints in the morning tomorrow. Goodnight people. Have a happy week ahead ^^

29th April 2013: Red currant oats

A little mistake of putting too much water in the thermos resulted in a thick starchy soup instead of the regular oats. But it was good haha.

30th April 2013: Maple almond milk

1st May 2013: Baked banana oatmeal

Baked Banana Oatmeal

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 cup mashed ripe banana

1/4 cup milk

1 egg white

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius

Whisk together dry ingredients

Whisk together wet ingredients

Stir the wet into the dry

And pour into a oven safe bowl

Bake for 20 minutes till puffed and golden.

2nd May 2013 Guiltless persimmon banana ice cream

Can I say no? No.

3rd May 2013: Cheesy baked apple

Cheese. Cheese.

CHEESE.

4th May 2013: Wholewheat couscous salad

Giant wholewheat couscous with chopped tomato, curry leaves and bits of duck.

5th May 2013: Egg salad

Made with greek yoghurt :D Yes, a new found love for Fage's greek yoghurt!

Almond Meyer Lemon Tart

Finding meyer lemons in Singapore is like having snow in the desert. I'm not even kidding. Snow is rare in the dessert (what is my mind coming to?) desert, right? If any at all.

In my whole (almost) 16 years of life, I have never seen a meyer lemon. Well, other than the pictures other bloggers post during the meyer lemon season. Yes, that was a very sad season for me. Everyone's posting meyer lemon this and meyer lemon that. Everyone's talking about how the great meyer lemon and those treats are so amazing. All while I'm sitting at my computer, salivating and lamenting the non existence of meyer lemons in Singapore.

Then finally, I find some. Just by chance I decided to take a stroll around the Cold Storage at Chancery Court. Well, actually, I was there looking for Bob's Red Mill's 13 Bean Soup Mix. They didn't have it. But hey! They had meyer lemons =) I was so shocked when I saw them there. My mind ran through the possibilities, what I could make and do with these gorgeous beauties. There were only 3 bags, and I snatched up 2. Because I was worried that there wouldn't be any left the next time. But now they're in every Cold Storage, I think.

So, with the 2 bags of meyer lemons and a block of halloumi cheese (unrelated but yes! The things I found that day =) haha), I brisk walked back home, eager to get baking.

I had seen a beautiful macadamia and meyer lemon tart on Love and Olive Oil and I really wanted to make that. But as chance would have it, the cost of the meyer lemons left me with insufficient money to buy macadamia nuts. So I went with almond meal instead. I made a crust of almond shortcrust pastry and baked it with a filling of meyer lemon curd.

Love and Olive Oil's recipe adds cream to the curd, but I forgot. Yes, I forgot. It wasn't some stroke of genius telling me that the pie would be better without cream. I just forgot. But it turned out perfect all the same.

It's silky smooth, thanks to cooking it over low heat and straining it. The flavour is breathtaking. Literally. There's the subtle fragrance of mandarin oranges along with a pleasant tang of lemons. I guess that's the meyer lemon flavour. That's a flavour I'd want to incorporate into many baked goods and desserts.

You can look forward to another meyer lemon recipe, probably some form of custard or pudding. Oh, and you can also look froward to a halloumi recipe :)

Almond Meyer Lemon Tart

For Crust:
50g almond meal
128g flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar
116g unsalted butter, grated and frozen
1 tablespoon cold water

For Filling:
7 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
150g sugar
1/2 cup grated fresh Meyer lemon zest (from 4 to 5 lemons)
2/3 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice (from 4 to 5 lemons)
Pinch salt
56g unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius. Sift together almond meal, flour and powdered sugar.

2. Cut in butter till the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3. Mix in the cold water until it's moistened and the mixture holds when you press it gently.

4. Press into a greased 9 inch round tart pan firmly.

5. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes until the edges are lightly golden.  Let cool on a wire rack as you prepare the filling.

6. In a saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and eggs. Whisk in sugar, then the lemon zest, juice and salt.

7. Add butter and cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened and reached about 75 degrees Celsius.

8. Pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve.

9. Pour the filling into the cooled tart shell and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the filling is shiny and opaque. The centre will jiggle slightly when shaken. 

10. Let it cool completely, about 1 to 1 and a half hours, then refrigerate until ready to serve.

Adapted from: Love and Olive Oil -Meyer Lemon Macadamia Nut Tart

My first time handling an artichoke.

Do you ever find yourself getting so caught up in life that everything else is forgotten? When life is so busy that you don't seem to have time for anything, for yourself?

What is this life if
full of care
We have no time 
to stand and stare

2 weeks of that. I'm at breaking point. It's stressful really, I have to admit. And I've never been stressed my whole life. I guess it wouldn't be so hard if I didn't have to lose weight as well as train. But that's not the case. I have to lose weight. But I'm thankful, because at least I'm not scarfing down my meals on the go, or over the sink. At least, I have time to sit down and have my meals.