Quinn's Baking With Love & Passion!

I can never settle for plain Jane cheesecakes. Alton Brown changed my mind. I really adore his recipes, especially this one. A combination of sour cream and cream cheese produces this yummy, dense and rich slices. I said it was good but it's definitely not guilt free. I would probably have to run the treadmills like an hour to burn off the calories that's building up in my thighs!

Recipe can be obtained here and see how Alton himself did it here and here. I really like his shows because they are very educational. I added the extra tablespoon of cornstarch that makes the difference and prevent cracks on the surface. Like what Alton said, if you do not have any cornstarch in hand, do not fret. What do you supposed whipped creams are for?

For me, it's a drizzle of bitter chocolate ganache. I bain-marie one part of double cream to one part of real good quality chocolate and place it in a piping bag. I keep it in my fridge for convenience sake. It's good on cheesecakes and even on graham crackers if you're a chocolate freak! Nevertheless, I had two slices of these babies plain on its own and I must say it had me blown away.



Give it a shot if you're having good friends coming over for a long chat. These babies work well in keeping you company alongside a good bottle of dessert wine.

Good night people!

My last paper was last Monday and I've not been posting for a week. I have been happily producing in the kitchen. Lotsa new cookings rather than baking. Just finish watching a Singaporean series called 'The Little Nyonya' and am still adoring it. It's all about the Peranakan, very related to me, the Peranakan descendants. Funny isn't it because Peranakan itself means 'The Descendants'.


Been whipping up lots of Peranakan Food....more about that later. I dunno whether I've said this before but I'm actually on a 2 months break but I'm not gonna look for job as of now. I wanna spend some quality time doing things I really like. Quinn and kitchen are best friends as of now and today, I would like to blog about a flourless cake I made for Su En on her birthday. Knowing that that this could end very badly for your hips, I would say this serves 10 rather than 8. Su En loves all things chocolate, preferably dense and bitter.

The recipe is gotten from Exclusively Food. I'm fond of their recipe, simple to follow and great results. We all love the meringue like crust. The inside of this cake looks just exactly like theirs. No cross sections, we all downed it way too fast.

After baking, I quickly removed it from the oven and place it on a wire rak, covered with a clean tea towel. This in my opinion produces a crust that sinks in the centre, the way flourless are supposed to be.

I cracked up the surface a little and heavily dust it with cocoa powder upon serving.


I'm gaining calories faster than I am burning it!

Hey everyone....how's it going with you all?


It is pretty sad to have to put in the word 'almost' but as a matter of fact, I still have one more paper left on Monday and then only I could call it a rest for approximately 2 months. There's so many things I wanna share with you all, from my bakings to my, ahemmm...improved cooking skills (I didn't judge myself, my not-so-picky food taster did!). Also, I would like to share with you some happy and some unhappy things that happened to me.

Online shopping is fun and all. It is pretty upsetting and rather devastating when you part with your money and your goods never arrive and is missing somewhere out there. Just because it is not a registered post and you don't get money refunded.

I'm actually referring to Elyn, the owner of ShopnBake. I ordered a chiffon knife from ShopnBake and it never arrive. Just because it is a 'small business' and I don't get refunded. This is why I sometimes prefer to buy from Ebay. Just create and account and it is really not that troublesome. You can leave them negative feedback if you think it's necessary so that others are aware.

I have nothing against ShopnBake and I am definitely not writing this post just because I want a revenge whastover. To be honest, I really don't care about her, or about anything else. All I care is that I've paid AUD13 including postage for this knife and it never arrive. Another blog pal (I promise I would not reveal IT!!!) send me a knife through air mail and it arrived like a week after IT sent it. IT had been very nice to gave this to me for free, as a token of appreciation for our friendship. Would you believe such nice people still exist on earth??? And the worst part is, she is also from Singapore and she bought the knife and have it registered and it sums up to a total of still cheaper than ShopnBake!

I honestly too don't care about how and from whom sellers bulk buy their goods and yada yada. All I care is the one who can provide excellent service in terms of price, communication and postage wins it all. If you bulk buy from a more expensive dealer, you'll have to deal with the consequences that others will be a strong competitor of yours.

The reason I am writing this post is to promote about a seller who also sells what ShopnBake sells and at a cheaper price. I have personally bought 2 items from her and I think she is very reliable, your item will not be lost and gets dispatched within the same working day once you have paid. Anything happen, sort it out with her and she reply as quick as a thunder. If you think things have been very unfair for you, worst come to worst, leave a negative feedback. The seller I am talking about is Baking Frenzy (pls CLICK IT! this is not me, swear upon my a**)

For example, ShopnBake sells these mooncake moulds. Baking Frenzy has them too at a cheaper price here, here and here. I bought two sets of these cutest-ever-mooncake mould from Baking Frenzy which ShopnBake also used to sell it here. I bought two sets, one for myself so I could make mooncakes very soon and one set for Ellena from Cuisine Paradise because she's been very kind to send me muslin cloth for me to make soybean curd and soy bean drink (soybean drink was easy peasy but I still haven't get the hang of soy bean curd yet, sigh.....).

And guess what Ellena did? She felt so paiseh and sent me the cute yellow Winnie the Pooh set that you see in the picture. Can use to make Bento which I will atempt after exam. Some things I wanna do after exam includes bolognese, soybean curd, bento sandwiches and hainanese chicken rice. These time consuming food has always been on my to-do-list but I didn't get to do it due to busy schedule.



After all that I've said, I wanna get back to my mooncake moulds. They come with 6 interchangable plates and only cost me AUD15 including postages for each set. They included 2 different Hello Kitty, Mickey, Doraemon, Winnie the Pooh and a Garfield for me, along with a 5.2cm diameter plunger. As for the chifon knife, dammit! I just realise I need to buy a chiffon pan since I never make one before but honey likes it, so I thought of attempting. Until I read somewhere, it is not advisable to use a non-stick pan to bake chiffon cake. For God's sake, I only have nothing but non-stick pans in my baking pantry! I kinda like this one here but have yet to decide to buy. Might wanna see whether it is cheaper in Aussie but Aussie's one all also non-stick coating, I've checked most of them :(

Again, to any of you haters out there, please don't send hate mail to my gmail after this post if you are siding Elyn or for any reason. I just wanna share my thoughts and my personal price comparison with public. If you know of any other online seller who sells baking items, lemme know and I could do a price check and review it for you :)

Until then, it's still exam. See you on Monday!



Cheers,
Quinn

These cookies are not the best cookies ever. They are not rich and neither are they fantastic whatsoever. However, when an allergic boy pops it in his mouth, he says these are the best chocolate chip cookies anyone every baked for him.


My colleagues at work loves it. They love the crunch from the nuts and the generous chocolate chips.These cookies are butterless! Only shortening are used here. I know it's unhealthy since shortening contains so trans-fat but I'm only gonna do this one for the sake of people who are allergic to butter! Anyone knows where to get good shortening? I'd prefer lard over shortening sometimes due to this reason.

In the midst of making these cookies, I droped the mixing bowl. It didn't defy gravity or that sorta thing, it landed vertically down to the ground with a loud thud. The batter was salvaged but look at what happen to the mixing bowl...


However, I would have chose to break a plasticware rather than a glassware so I guess that mixing bowl was just unlucky. It was my favourite because it is a conveniently deep bowl.


I don't think anyone would want a recipe for this unless you are only allergic to butter or you are running out of butter in the pantry so I'm gonna keep this post short.

Bonne nuit!

As I've said before, I'll try to update this little dessert blog of mine on a daily basis. I wish I could be half as disciplined when it comes to revising my subjects. Aaron must be dead disappointed when he saw new updates coming into his mailbox again from my blog! Sorry honey but I'll study when I feel like it!



Back to the chocolate torte, I love chocolates! Found a housemate who equally adores chocolate. In fact, she's a chocolate freak and have to remind herself from time to time to 'replace chocolates with fruits'.


Having come to Adelaide, I've been to 4 different chocolate houses in just under 4 months. Considered myself lucky to have really nice housemates and they've got car. So, they practically drive us around to places of interest and places with good food.



They were nice enough to offer me and Aaron fine dines in high-end restaurant on his Birthday. The boyfriend paid for the birthday dinner and the girlfriend paid for our cuppa chocolates in Bracegirdle. What more can I ask for besides getting a job ASAP? I really wanna treat them but I'm on mum and pap's money so times could be hard sometimes.



Why am I swaying again! Alright, I made these last year. The recipe is taken from non other than Exclusively Food. Some closer to me will know I love this website let it be a savory meal or a small sweet treats. The recipe is here and the torte is really easy to put together.

All you need is good quality ingredients and that makes the whole lot of difference. Fresh eggs, good butter, good quality chocolates and even good vanilla paste. I usually will use 85% Lindt's Dark Chocolates for tortes and flourless cakes but these little Lindt's Chocolate with nougatine bits were on sales on Boxing Day so I thought why not.


This was dense and heavy, almost tasted like flourless; only a gluten-allergic person could tell the difference. It has the fudgy feeling and will melt in your mouth given time. I like my tortes and flourless really cracky on top. I I'll usually press the top of the cake with my fingers when it's cooled to give it that rustic look. I'll then give it a generous dusting of icing mixture.


It's yummy, try it if you need a fail-proof look cake for an occasion!