Weekend Baking ^.~

Recently, I got the avocado cheesecake recipe from http://www.avocado.org.au/ and decided to bake one. Again, thanks to Li who always willingly to offer her kitchen for baking ^.~

Here are the main ingredients ~ avocado (get those ripe ones), digestive biscuits for the cake base and 2 blocks of cream cheese.

Instead of crushing up the biscuits with our bare hands, we use the food processor which is faster and less messy.

Mix the melted butter into the crushed digestive biscuits. Then firmly tapped and pressed the mixture in the tray. Li has a baking tool which I think it is for smoothing cream on a cake. She bought it for pressing the crust and it really worked as it was much easier than using the back of a spoon. Smashing up the riped avocado ~ so creamy & yummy! The centre photo is the lemon juice.

2 blocks of cream cheese ~ beat with sugar till it's thick, smooth & creamy!
Thereafter, follow to mix in the eggs, cornflour, lemon juice and avocado mixutre.

Pour the avocado cream cheese mixture into the trays and then into the hot oven.

This was my first time baking a cheesecake. Li thought me the waterbath baking method. I went online to read about this baking method. Just realised that this technique helped the cake to bake gently, without cracking. The french term is known as Bain-Marie.

Still a little crack as perhaps the oven is little too hot but the color and texture were good.

PHEW!~ successful baking of our avocado cheesecake ^.^

The avocado taste was strong as we used 3 avocados.

I brought to office for my colleagues and friends to try it ~ they commented good ~ happy!

As there were time for other baking so we went on to bake lemon ginger drop cookies and muffins.

Baking is indeed fun and fulfilling ~ my weekend was well-spent Wo0OHoo0OO!

The Bistro @ NUSS Suntec City Guild House

My Friday night hung out with my colleagues at the NUSS Suntec City Guild House. Thanks to a colleague who brought us there as she is a member of NUSS Graduate Club. We had our dinner at The Bistro and a Karaoke session at The K room.

I must comment the food at The Bistro is considerably good and quite reasonably priced. However, it takes a while for the food to come. So please be a little patient ^-^

This braised dish is chicken wrapped in cabbage.
The chicken meat is tender and juicy; and the cabbage is so soft.
The gravy goes well with rice.

This lobster with asparagus dish bowl is in their CNY menu and
a little overprice as the serving is small. But the presentation is lovely :)
The lobster meat is fresh and the asparagus is very crunchy and not overcooked.

Crispy Soft Shell Crab

I must say this is my favorite dish ~
Coffee Pork Ribs with almonds slices which is savory and appetizing!

Oops! A blur photo of this Deep Fried Brinjal with Bah Hu (Pork Floss)
This is my first time eating Brinjal cooked in this way. Thumbs up!
The leftover Bah Hu goes well with our rice too :)

Stir-fried Sweet Potato Leaves with Dried Shrimps
~ Spicy Vegetables ~

Silky Tofu with Mushrooms and Vegetables ~ The tofu is so soft and smooth.
A delectable dish ~ I like it ^.~

Next, our desserts ~ Mango Passion Oreos Cheesecake
Tangy and not very sweet. Nice.

Baked Apple Crumble Pie with Vanilla Ice-Cream.
The crust texture is nicely baked, crispy and not hard.
The apple slices are so flavorful with a hint of cinnamon.
I just cannot resist this dessert as it is too yummy ^.~

After a heavy dinner, we continue with our Karaoke session ~ chilling out with some beers, honey-lemon beverage and sings to de-stress ~ wo0OhO0o!

My 1st attempt in Baking ^0^ (Part I)

WOW! I really had a great time at the baking workshop which I registered with BakinCalf. The experience was fun, challenging (handle the whisking, heat, measurement etc ~ hehe!), a little messy and lots of washing too. I'm burnt out after baking for almost half a day. It can be tiring but when you see the cakes and puffs that made by yourself ~ It's definitely worth it! Of course, if your passion is into baking, i guess you won't complain about the mess, all the cleaning and tiredness :P Now I can understand why my baking instructor has quit her job and do full-time baking.

Ok, let's come back to my baking workshop which I gathered 6 of my colleagues to join me and had some fun (sort of team building ~ haha!) We requested to learn 2 recipes (sorry not revealing the recipes as promised to my baking instructor) ~ Chiffon Cheesecake and Choux Puffs with different pastry creams. It seems easy to bake but NOT really for a first timer like me :( Anyway, I still manage to bake something edible out of it..haha! I took quite a number of photos so this may be a long post :)

Measuring all the ingredients and sifting the flour

Boiling the mixture

Cooling the mixture

Hand whisking the mixture can be tiring : )

Whisking the egg white

This is the right texture ~ foamy and stiff ^.~

After whisking and folding the cream and egg white mixtures, we pour the batter into the chiffon tin which is in paper form.

Woohoo, now it's ready to set in the oven.

We are so anxious to see how the cakes turn out ^.^

Look like toilet rolls haha ^0^
Upside down to cool the cakes

My cake mixture was over whisked and become dense so it didn't turn out well. However, it still had the cream cheese flavour and EDIBLE! haha!

I will update my Part II post on the baking of Choux Puff. Cheers ~