Strawberry Cheesecake

The creamy strawberry cheesecake is perfect for any special occasion. The two layer cake made with pureed strawberries giving an intense flavor. Here is an  amazing and no-bake strawberry cheese cake recipe and it is of course one of the great gathering treat. 

Related: Strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting

Ingredients for the base:

1. Digestive biscuits-250 gm
2. Butter melted-100 gm

Ingredients for the Cheesecake filling:

1. Cream cheese-500 gm
2. Whipping cream-200 gm
3. Caster Sugar-100 gm
4. Pureed Strawberry-2 tbsp
5. Lemon juice-1 tbsp
6. Gelatin (unflavored)-10 gm

Ingredients For Topping:

1. Strawberry (fresh or frozen)-1 1/2 cup
2. Sugar-1 cup
3. Water-1/4 cup
4. Lemon juice-1 tsp

Preparation:

• In a large bowl (or use blender) crumble the digestive biscuits to fine powder; add melted butter in to it and mix well.
• Grease a spring form cake tin with butter.
• Add the biscuit mix in to baking pan and press firmly.
• Keep it in fridge until the filling gets ready.
• Beat whip cream in a chilled bowl until smooth and stiff. 
• In another bowl; Beat cream cheese and sugar  until creamy and fluffy.
• Fold it with the whip cream.
• Heat lemon juice and strawberry puree in a pan along with 2 tbsp of water.
• Switch off the flame before boiling; add gelatin in to it and mix well. Allow to cool the mixture completely (must cools down before adding to cream mix).
• Add it in to the cream mix and fold once again.
• Pour this over the chilled base and allow to refrigerate for another 2 hours.
• For the topping; boil sugar and water in a pan until thickens (one string consistency).
• Then add mashed strawberries, lemon juice; mix well until thickens and switch off the flame. You must allow to cool completely the mix before topping on the cheese cake (otherwise the cheese starts melting; when you add the warm mix on top; or refrigerate the strawberry filling for 15 minutes to make sure that it is cooled).
• Pour on top of the cheese cake evenly and return to fridge for another 4 hours to set completely or chill over night.
• Gently run a sharp knife around the edges of cheesecake to loosen before unlocking the spring form pan.
• Garnish it with fresh strawberries on top and serve chilled!!!

Moist and Fluffy Oil-Milk Cake on Stove top

Making a super moist and fluffy cake on stove top is not at all a tough task but bit tricky. Here is an absolutely delicious oil-milk cake on stove top with out much more efforts; No need to beat more; just mix up the ingredients as per instructions and bake it...

Ingredients:

1. Eggs-4 
2. Powdered Sugar-2 cup (500  ml)
3. Flour-2 1/2 cup (625 ml)
4. Baking powder-2 1/4 tsp (11ml)
5. Oil-3/4 cup (175 ml)
6. Milk-1 cup (250 ml)
7. Vanilla essence-1 tsp (5ml)

Preparation:

• Keep all the things ready and near by (make sure that all the measurements are accurate)
• In a wide bottom cooking pan add 2 cups of white sand (or salt).
• Place a stand on top.
• Above that place that stand place the baking tray (greased with oil and dust with flour).
• Cover the lid and Heat on low flame to get pre-heated.
• In a large bowl add eggs and powdered sugar.
• Beat it for a minute until just creamed well. (no need to be fluffy).

• Then add all the other ingredients in to it.
• Beat it for another a minute or until mixed well without any lumps. (don't beat for long time).
• Directly pour the batter in to the pre-heated baking tray and give a tap (to avoid the air bubbles).

• Cover the lid of pan; and slow cook for about one hour or a until a skewer is inserted in the center and check whether it comes out clean.
• Allow to cool the cake completely and invert in to a serving plate.
• Enjoy the lovely slice or by top it with frosting.

How to Make an American Flag Cake

I've been wanting to make an American flag cake for the 4th of July and had pinned several possible versions including this one from Food52 and this ice cream cake version from the Food Network.  But the problem with those round layer cakes though is that I only had one round cake pan and no way to transport the finished product.  I wasn't too keen on having to pull out my piping bag to make Ina Garten's (or as Brit + Co called it, Taylor Swift's) version either, so when I came across Smitten Kitchen's version from four years ago, I was truly smitten.  Not only was it a single layer rectangular cake, but all you needed was some powdered sugar to make the "stars" and stripes!

In her post, she includes a recipe for the cake and frosting, but I cheated by making the cake with a box mix and using store bought frosting.  After baking the cake, allow it to cool completely before frosting.  If it's domed on top, you can level it with a serrated knife or just do as I did and "spackle" in the sides with frosting so the top is level.

While the cake is baking, wash and dry the berries.  While the cake is cooling, you can start arranging the berries to make sure you have enough.  I used a piece of paper towel that was the same size as the cake to plot out the berries on.  The blue part takes up about half the short side of the flag and extends about a third of the way across.  There are 13 stripes (one for each of the original colonies; yay AP American History!) but you probably won't be able to fit that many on the cake.  If you can, try to make an odd number of stripes so that the top and bottom stripe will be red.

After frosting the cake, start putting the berries that you want to appear white on the cake, leaving room for the other berries.

Dust these with powdered sugar, then arrange the rest of the berries into the spaces left for them. 

In reality, it took a lot longer to make than I thought.  The first batch of raspberries I bought were overripe and broke apart when I was washing them, so I had to go back to the store to buy another pint.  Then I made the mistake of not completely drying the raspberries before decorating the cake, so the powdered sugar started to melt before I could even take any pictures.  But if you learn from my mistakes, it's actually not that hard to make and totally worth it!  Not only is it super impressive to bring to a party, the fresh fruit on top of the cake is really, really delicious!

Fun fact:  if you can someone figure out how to make the starburst design, you can also use this template to make the Taiwanese (or more accurately, the R.O.C.) flag!

Next:  My Mom's Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
Previously:  Maine Blueberry Gateau
Last Year:  Pasta con le Sarde
Two Years Ago:  Papaya Milk and Papaya Milk Popsicles
Three Years Ago:  Bubble Tea Popsicles
Six Years Ago:  Coconut Lime Sorbet

Maine Blueberry Gateau

I first had this cake at my friend Evie's Epiphany Party last year, and it was truly an epiphany.  I never knew homemade cake could taste so good--so buttery and moist and bursting with blueberries!  I e-mailed Evie immediately after the party to ask for her friend's recipe, and it turns out it's from a bed & breakfast in Maine.

The first time I made this cake I made it in a pie pan (because I didn't have a 9" pan) and used frozen wild blueberries.  It was quite tasty but not as pretty so I dusted it with powdered sugar as instructed in the original recipe.  When I made it this time I used a 10" springform pan and fresh blueberries, and it looked nice enough to forgo the powdered sugar dusting.

Don't worry if you think the cake batter to fruit ratio is off.  You will be spooning a lot of blueberries on top of the batter, but while the cake bakes in the oven the blueberries sink while the cake rises so it's perfect by the end.

Maine Blueberry Gateau (lightly adapted from the Benjamin F. Packard House via The Washington Post)
serves 6

1 cup and 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 pint fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained (may substitute frozen wild blueberries)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Confectioners' sugar, for garnish (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Lightly grease a 9- or 10-inch springform pan and dust with flour.

In a small bowl, combine 1 cup of the flour with the baking powder and salt and set aside.

Using an electric mixer on medium-high to high speed, cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and continue beating until well blended. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture. Beat until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

In a medium bowl, combine the blueberries with the remaining teaspoon of flour and the lemon juice. Spoon the berry mixture over the batter.

Bake for 50-55 min, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Slide a thin knife around the edges of the cake to release it from the pan before you release and remove the springform.

Dust the cake with confectioners' sugar before serving, if you want.

Next:  How to Make an American Flag Cake
Previously:  Tortilla Española (Spanish Potato Omelet)
Last Year:  Garlic Naan
Two Years Ago:  Speculoos (Cookie Butter) Ice Cream and Mini Stroopwafel Ice Cream Sandwiches 
Three Years Ago:  Homemade Cronuts
Six Years Ago:  Elote (Mexican Grilled Corn)
Seven Years Ago:  Bulgogi Dumplings

Apricot and chocolate chip loaf cake

Do you really always want elaborate cakes? Sometimes I do and sometimes it is the downright simple that really hits the spot. So, on that note, this cake is going to be one of the downright simple variety and no  less good for that. It is perfect with a hot cup of tea.

One thing that my mother taught me about cooking was:

If you don't put good things into your food don't expect a good result.

So this cake is made with all good things but the making is simple.

What you'll need:

250g self raising flour
120g butter
120g sugar
2 eggs
perhaps a splash of milk
100g dried apricots, the no soak variety. Chop them up a bit
75g chocolate chips
a teaspoon of vanilla extract

To make:

heat your oven to approx gas mark 4 or 160 C.

Put the flour and sugar in a bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the dry ingredients until it resembles small peas. No need to be too fine with this.

Add the apricots that should be about the size of peas, and the chocolate. Stir in.

Break the egg into the mixture and stir well. Do't over stir as this mix is a bit like a muffin mix and you can toughen it if you over mix. Only add a splash of milk if you find that it's dry.

Put the mix into a greased a lined 2lb loaf tin and bake at approx gas mark 4 or 160 C. It will be cooked when as knife or cake probe is insirted into the middle and it comes out dry. Approx 30 - 40 mins. It depends on your oven.

Red Velvet Cookies

Beautiful Red Velvet cookies that are easy to make and delicious too.

1 package of Duncan Heinz red velvet cake mix

1 large egg

1/4 cup of oil

1/4 cup of water

1 cup of white chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350ºF

Combine cake mix, egg, oil, and water. Beat until well blended. Stir in remaining ingredient(s).

Drop by tablespoon full about 2 inches apart on to parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake for 11-13 minutes or until done.

makes about 3 dozen cookies.