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Thursday, March 27, 2014

Mocha Truffle Cake

My son turned 16 last month and he wanted me to bake him a cake.  So I baked this Chocolate Truffle Cake from The Australian Women's Weekly recipe.  Yup, again from that recipe book..lol.  Now do you believe me that I'm crazy over The Australian Women's Weekly??   

I'm a big fan of The Australian Women's Weekly recipes as I find that at most times, you don't need to make any adjustments to the recipes.  They are all perfect and the cakes are all moist and delicious and not too sweet.  Whenever I feel like baking and want to bake something out of norm but just don't know what to bake, well, out comes this book.  I do, mind you, have quite a few of The Australian Women's Weekly cook books and I love all of them.

I like to challenge myself to do a slightly more complicating recipe than the ones I had baked.. well, again it depends on whether I'm in the mood to be adventurous or if I'm lazy.  For this particular cake, well, you can say that it's not very difficult for me and the word 'trufle' caught my eyes.  I would however, try to bake a more complex ones like the Dobos Torte,a 7-layer cake.  Wow!  Let's see..when I have the sudden 'oh I must bake this now' kinda feeling and when I do, I'll definitely tell you all about it. 

So here's the recipe for Choc Truffle Cake.  This cake is so chocolaty dense and moist.  One word to describe it... HEAVENLY!! Especially for chocolate lovers like me and my family.

3 eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup cornflour
1/4 cup plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp Tia Maria or Kahlua
2 tbsp milk
2x300ml cartons thickened cream
100g white chocolate, melted
200g dark chocolate, melted

Chocolate Ganache
1 cup whipping cream/thickened cream
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
Method: Boil cream until bubbling, take it off heat.  Put in the choc chips and let it melt into the hot cream.

1. Grease 23cm round cake pan, cover base with paper and grease.
2. Beat eggs with electric mixer until thick and creamy, gradually add sugar, beat well.
3. Lightly fold in sifted flours and cocoa, spread mixture into prepared pan.  Bake in moderate oven 180dC for 30 mins or until firm.  Turn onto wire rack to cool.
4. Split cake in half, brush with combined liqueur and milk.
5. Beat cream until soft peaks form, divide into 2 bowls. Quickly stir cooled white chocolate into one bowl of the cream and cooled dark choc into the other bowl of cream.

Assemble cake:
1. Place 1 cake half into a springform pan and spread cake with half of the white choc cream and top with dark chocolate cream. Then spread with the remaining which choc cream.
2. Top with the other half of cake.  Refrigerate cake for several hours or overnight until firm.
3. Carefully remove cake from pan and spread with chocolate ganache.  Chill before serve.



HAPPY 16th BIRTHDAY, Son.. Enjoy just being 16.  Love ya much... muachk!


Friday, March 21, 2014

New York Cheesecake

Oh my gosh! It's already almost end of March which means 1Q14 is almost over.  It does seems like the globe is spinning faster and faster each day.  Anyway, do you know that most of 'creative' people are born in the month of March?  Err..hmm.. wink wink. lol

Today, I want to share with you this wonderful wonderful recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly on New York Cheesecake.  If you love the creamy smoothness of real cheesecake, you don't want to miss this.

Easy to make and delicious to eat!  Try it..

Base:
250g plain sweet biscuits (I used digestive)
125g melted butter

Filling:
750g cream cheese, softened (I used only 500g as I think 750g is a bit too cheesy)
2 tsp finely grated orange rind
1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
220g (1 cup) caster sugar
3 eggs
180g (3/4 cup) sour cream
60ml (1/4 cup) lemon juice

Sour cream topping:
240g (1 cup) sour cream
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp lemon juice

1. Process biscuits until fine or put them in a plastic bag and using a rolling pin, crushed them to fine crumbs.  Mix the butter in and press mixture over base and side of 24cm springform tin.  Place tin on oven tray, refrigerate 30 mins.
2. Preheat oven to 180/160dC fan-forced.
3. Make the filling by beating cheese, rinds and sugar in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth.  beat in egss, one at a time, then cream and juice.
4. Pour filling into tin, bake 1 hour or until the sides are brown but jiggly in the center.  Remove from oven, cool 15 mins.
5. Make the sour cream topping by combining all ingredients in small bow, spread over cheesecake.
6. Bake cheesecake for another 20 mins, cool in oven with door ajar.
7. Refrigerate cheesecake 3 hours or overnight.



Nothing beats homemade!!

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