Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake

I didn't have a certain occasion when I made this. It just happened that I have 5lbs of cream cheese and plenty of fresh raspberries in the fridge. You know already my love towards raspberries and I could never passed on picking one or two baskets whenever and wherever I see them, especially at this time of the year. You will see my fridge full of assortment of berries, cream cheese, which is one of the staples, and heavy cream. Those are some of the things that I always have ready in my fridge. You can practically make countless possibilities of cakes with just these few things (considering you always have eggs, butter, flour too :D).

Sometimes, I just didn't think what I wanted to do with the berries especially, when I bought them. Unfortunately, they have a very short shelf life and I often found myself forgetting them and ended up throwing most of them away :(. It's not that I purposely neglect them but a lot of times, I came home really late and didn't get to open the fridge for a few days :(.

This time, it was yet another time that I had to come up with something to use the raspberries that were really threatened to die. Sometimes, I really think it's a good thing. At least this way, I always have to think of what to do with them, or else I would not bake as much. It wasn't difficult at all this time to come up with something. The idea of making white chocolate raspberry cheesecake came instantly when I opened my fridge and saw all the ingredients for cheesecake right in front of me. Besides, I've been wanting to try this recipe for the longest time. I made some adjustment though, I used different almond crust recipe from the previous mascarpone cheesecake I made before and I multiplied the whole filling by 1.5. Looking at the recipe, it looks like the end result would not be high enough, two 8-oz of cream cheese for 8" springform pan. I like my cheesecake a little higher than that, although not as high as NY cheesecake, so I decided to increase the amount of batter. I substitute one 8-oz cream cheese with mascarpone cheese that I had on hand, hoping that it would give a softer texture and creamier taste. I also decrease the amount of sugar, I forgot by how much (need to look at my notes).

Here's the original recipe:

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake
Source: Epicurious

Crust

• 18 vanilla wafer cookies
• 1 cup almonds, toasted
• 4 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  

Filling

• 4 ounces imprted white chocolate (such as Lindt), chopped
• 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup fresh raspberries or frozen unsweetened, thawed, drained

Topping

• 1 8-ounce container sour cream
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 1/2-pint baskets raspberries or one 1-pint basket strawberries
• 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

Use a good white chocolate as you won't be able to taste it of you use the cheap kind. I used Callebout and I might want to add more to the batter next time. I did omit the raspberry jam though. I also thought it would taste better with vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract. I did go a little overboard on the lemon zest. I have this habit that whenever I used lemon zest to make any kind of dessert, I always rub them with the sugar using my fingers to release the oil from the zest. It makes all the difference in the world. However, I wasn't thinking obviously at that time, that the lemon zest would overpower the subtle taste of the white chocolate. The white chocolate taste wasn't as pronounced as I would like them to be, and I'll blame it on the lemon flavor :P. But overall, I really recommend this recipe though. The texture is smooth and creamy. I would leave out the zest completely next time and use probably 1/2 pod of vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract.

I shared it with my coworkers at work and we all loved it (yes, that would be including me :D)

Mango Entremet

You see, mango is one of my favorite all time fruits (other than raspberries, and some other fruits). My eyes would lit up everytime I heard a mango cake, mango dessert, mango this, mango that and it's definitely one of the cake flavors that I would pick up if I'm in a pastry shop. You can understand how excited I was when I saw Helen's post about her Chocolate Mango and Coconut Cream Cake. I absolutely LOVE LOVE what she did with the cake. It looks gorgeous, clean, neat, superb! I've always wanted my cakes to look like that, but I guess I have a long way to go :(. Ever since I saw her post, I wrote it down in my "to-make" list, that I need to make something with mango and it has to be square and it has to show the different layers. Helen kindly has her recipe on her blog, and I could just follow that, but you know me, I'm a rebel :D. So, I decided to experiment and make a new recipe for a mango entremet, thinking what layers can go along really well with mango. Mango and coconut are often put together, but I'm never a fan of coconut flavored cakes, so coconut is out of the question and so is chocolate.

After some scribbling, I decided that my mango cake would consist of sponge base, mango mousse, vanilla bavarian cream, and thin raspberry gelee in the middle. I waited for the perfect occasion to make this cake and my sister in law's birthday was coming up, so yay! Just like me, my family loves mango, so this is the perfect event to try this. There's not much can be done earlier except the sponge base. Everything else pretty much has to be made just before you use it. I wanted to make 8" square, but my cake ring can only measure 9x10 at least, so I tried a new method using an 8" square baking pan. I lined the inside of the pan with plastic wrap and let it hang on the side, and assemble everything in it, then into the freezer it goes. After it looks strong enough, lift the plastic wrap and trim the sides. It sounds easy enough on my mind.

Since this is a trial recipe, of course everything will not be perfect. My mango mousse is too strong and too soft, my bavarian cream layer is too thick and needs more gelatin, my glaze was not perfect, etc. I only freeze it for less than 30 minuntes I think before pulling the plastic wrap up and it did not completely set yet. You can probably see that the sides are not straight, etc. I was having a hard time trimming the side of the cake while the cake is still soft, not solid. Oh well, lesson learned: do not rush things! I wasn't 100% satisfied with the look of the cake, I imagined it would be shorter, the layers are thinner, the mousse and the cream are stiffer, etc.

But I was really glad that the whole family liked it! We only have 7 people (5 adults and two kids) and they easily finished everything off! Everybody had second except my little niece, I was surprised enough to see her finished her own cake. This cake surely is a winner, I just had to work more on the recipe (and the looks) :)

Indonesian Goodies

There's a time when I want to bake all things with mousse or cream, anything to do with French patisserie, but there's a time when all I want to bake is some simple Indonesian goodies that reminds me of home. Sure all those gateau, pastries and desserts are great, but there's something about a simple dessert that brings your memory back when you were little.

These are just some stuff that I made over a few weeks, there are some that I didn't even bother to photograph. I made them many times before, so no need to have special post for each one of them. I hope you too have something that would remind you all the precious childhood memories back when you were a kid, and try to re-create some of them :)

bika ambon

lapis surabaya

putu ayu


bolu kukus


weird shape?

1st Birthday Cake!

I was asked to make a 1st birthday cake for a little girl a few months ago. At that time, it sounded easy, she picked the decoration from a picture and it didn't look complicated at all. The process of making the cake was pretty easy too and straight forward. The top 6" tier is blueberry-vanilla cake, and the bottom 8" tier is "lapis surabaya" cake, which has 2 layers of vanilla and 1 layer of chocolate (made from all egg yolks and lots of them!).

I mentioned this a few times before and if you know me well, you would know that I'm not really good at cake decorating. I always have trouble when it comes to decorating a cake. My mind goes blank everytime a cake is finished and ready to be decorated. I think mousse cakes are easier though, just throw some fresh berries, glaze, chocolate, and voila! you got a nice-looking cake. But with fondant, nu-uh! I've never had the patience of making little figurines or decoration that usually go into a fondant cake. I love making wedding cakes or bridal shower cakes, that don't require much; in fact, for me, less is more for those types of cake. I always adore the simplicity and cleanliness of a wedding cake.

When it comes to decorating a cake for a small kid, I was really confuse. I tried to remind myself over and over again that it has to be colorful, not plain white or ivory, so I did my best to make it cheerful (although I think I overdid it :( ). It took me probably a good 6 hours total to decorate this! I know I know, I'm slow, I don't even remember or know why it took so long. I guess I underestimated the time it needs for kneading the fondant, coloring each one of them, shaping them, letting it dry, etc etc. I was pretty happy with the top tier, it looks spring-y (which really suits the season at that time) but I was not for the bottom tier :(. I gave up at the end and just let it be the way it is. I guess I REALLY need to practice my fondant skill.

The surprise came in a day later. The mother emailed me that everybody at the party LOVES the cake!! An hour later, I got a call from a friend who attended the party and he (and his wife) confirmed how good the cake tasted. Although I think they're a little exagerating, but it really blew me off. The disappointment I got from the day before for not being able to make a perfect cake, has been replaced by the relieve feeling after hearing and reading the comments. Phew..! As long as everybody happy, then it's all that matters :) (oh, and sorry for the ugly pictures :D).

Seeing Green!

This was actually made a while ago, in May I think.....

It all started when a dear friend, Putu, contacted me and asked me if I would like to make a cake for her birthday, and of course I would!!! without a doubt! She knew what she wanted, and that made it a lot easier for me. She knew she wanted an Indonesian cheese cake, and she showed me a picture of a green cake that she liked.

Green is her favorite color (obviously :D), and I have become a green-fan these past few years. You see, green is used to be my least favorite color, but once my adult life had started, the love for green has been growing stronger and stronger in me :P. It was a little hard to copy the picture she gave me, not just because the picture was small and I couldn't see the detail and everything, but it's also because my lack of skill to do cake decorating :(. I was never an expert nor I was into cake decorating, like making a perfect basketweave cake with buttercream roses, making small fondant figurines, and all that. But it's not me if I just gave up and say I can't ;).

The pictures of the cake here may look simple, and it is simple. I've never said that she asked for too much or anything, in fact, she was nothing like that. She said just do what I can do, if I can't do roses, then that's fine (she's just a sweetheart :) ). The original pic had a lot more green buttercream roses and more buttercream leaves. Since I don't trust myself to make buttercream roses (plus the weather was too hot to hold my buttercream stiff enough to make the roses), I attempted for fondant roses instead. The side wall is just a simple green-colored fondant to make a smoother finish on the cake, or more like to cover my imperfect skill to smooth out the sides :P.

Overall, of course mine didn't look anywhere close to the original picture, but at least I tried my best and there are still lots of room for improvement.

Raspberry Tiramisu Cake

I warn you, with the abundant amoung of berries showing at the farmers' market and grocery storess, you would see a lot of berry-flavored cakes showing often :D. I'm such a sucker for berries, especially raspberry. It's really hard for me to resist really good-looking raspberries, super sweet strawberries, deep purple color cherries, fragrant stone fruits. I could very easily pass those things in grocery store, but when it comes to farmers' market, uh oh... I would be in a really big "trouble" :).

Again, I also made this a while back for my dear friend's birthday. I always use every opportunity I got to experiment with type of cakes I've never made before. I mean, this is the best way to learn new stuff, plus you have the people to eat it, right??? (assuming the end result is edible :D). Fortunaltely, I have friends who are willing to eat anything including failed or ugly-looking cakes (well, most of them at least).

I was determined from the beginning to make raspberry tiramisu cake. My other option was mango tiramisu cake (my two most ultimate favorite fruits or cake flavors). I believe that there are things that are meant for each other (flavor or ingredient-wise :P). This includes raspberry-mascarpone, raspberry-white chocolate, dark chocolate-rum-coffee, mango-mascarpone, I could go on and on and on about this. So here's a way to combine them, raspberry tiramisu cake.

I thought of regular tiramisu components, mascarpone, cream, savoiardi (italian lady fingers), coffee, rum, coffee soaking mixture. I want this rasp. tiramisu to have the same components that make up a tiramisu, a tiramisu :P. I decided to use the soft lady fingers, instead of the hard ones like savoiardi as I don't think that making a raspberry solution to soak the lady fingers is going to be as good as the original tiramisu with coffee. So I made my own lady fingers or what French called biscuit a la cuillere. Instead of piping the batter one by one to look like a "finger", I just spread it all in a sheet pan. It'll be stacked together anyway, so no one will notice :). The lady finger is then brushed heavily (not soaked) with raspberry solution with lots of framboise (clear raspberry brandy), just like you brush a cake with simple syrup. Then, a thin layer of raspberry jam that I thinned out a little with framboise goes on top of the lady finger, a layer of mascarpone cream, and lots of fresh raspberries inside. This process is repeated twice. I didn't use egg yolk for the mouse as I don't usually use raw egg yolks to make a fruit-based mousse/cream.

The end cake is a lot higher than I would have liked. After a quick trip to the freezer and trim all of the sides, the cake is now ready to be glazed. Now, this is where the problem started :(. I always have problem with glazing a cake, especially if I use Oetker clear glaze. I followed the direction carefully, but it just set up like a jelly in a minute after taking it off the heat. I kept reheating it, adding more water and raspberry puree, adding my own homemade glaze, etc but nothing works. You can see the really poor glazing on top. I was really frustrated, and I was already late to the dinner (hence the poor decoration :( ). I was a little disappointed with the height and the glazing and the decoration, but hey, this is an experiment, I should have expected something like this.

But unfortunately, that's not the end of the problem. The real disaster followed 30 minutes after. As I mentioned, the oetker glaze set up like a jelly layer on top of the cake that wasn't really "glued" to the cake. I wasn't really paying attention to this as I drove really fast (a little speeding and maybe juuussttt a tad "zig zag-ing" :P to the dinner place where all of my friends were waiting. When I opened up the box after I arrived, I was just speechless. The glaze/jelly layer on top was sliding down the cake and it looked like a mess!!! I just couldn't say anything at that point.

Here's a picture of the cake after the "accident":

I made a good note of the ingredients proportions (that I might need to try next time), and I will definitely make the lady finger layer thinner. But I'm not done with raspberries, I mean how can I be with lots of them lying around everywhere I go, tempting me to pick up a basket or two (maybe four). So, more raspberries or berry posts comiinnggg :)

Raspberry Rose Pots de Creme

I think it is the longest time I haven't updated my blog. My apology, and I would use the same excuse everytime :(, and I would blame it on...time of course!!! :D. But really, I wish I have 30hrs/day, and if I do, I'm sure I would have asked for 35hrs/day :).

Actually, I made this a while ago. I don't remember when exactly but I remember when I started to have my eyes on these little things. Back when I was in college, when I still had my own apartment in TX, I used to make lots of different custards and desserts, not so much for cakes though. I was more interested in fine cooking, desserts, and I would invited my friends to have a dinner together in my small one-bedroom apartment :). Pots de Creme is among all of the different custards I loved to make (and I still do). From the many times I baked different types, I started to notice the difference between all of them. Custard consists of eggs, sugar, and dairy, those are the main things. I would say pots de creme is nothing different than creme brulee, minus the caramelized sugar on top. The texture is supposed to be silky smooth and velvety.

About a few months ago, I visited my dear friend's house, Kiki and played with her adorable baby Max. The foodtv was on at that time and I wasn't really paying attention on what show is playing. But then I heard the words "dessert", "raspberry", "rose", and "cream", and you know me well that those words get to me very easily. As a HUGE fan of raspberry, rose, custard, I would be really interested in anything with those ingredients in it, among other ingredients of course. Unfortunately, the show ended before I got the change to know what was it. So I began my search immediately (thanks to internet), and finally got this Raspberry Rose Pots de Creme recipe from Giada and immediately to my "to-make" list it goes. The plan was suspended for a while because I was waiting to have leftover raspberries and cream from other cake I made and finally got the chance!

I would say the ingredients are pretty standard for custard. I baked mine in 6-oz ramekins, while the recipe stated for 4-oz. No biggie, it will just yield less amount of ramekins, that's all. I didn't mash the raspberries however, I thought that it would make the appearance less desirable. I just put whole raspberries inside and I also omit the pop rocks candy.

I didn't really eat a lot of this as my friend gulped them all down, but it has a really nice floral taste in the back ground. Be careful not to use a lot of the rose water as it can be very overwhelming. The only thing I would have done differently though, is bake it a little longer. I forgot to increase the amount of baking time, and as a result, the texture was still a little too soft even after being refrigerated overnight.

I think this is a perfect dessert after a dinner party. It doesn't take too long to make, it's easy, and it certainly will wow your guest :)

Raspberry Rose Pots de Creme
Source: Giada de Laurentiis

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup whole milk
  
• 1/2 teaspoon rose water*
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
  
• Pinch fine sea salt
• 3/4 cup fresh or frozen and thawed raspberries, mashed
• 4 packets carbonated candy (recommended: Pop Rocks)

Directions

Special equipment: 4 (4 to 5-ounce) ramekins

*Can be found at specialty gourmet markets

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan, heat the cream, milk, and rose water over medium-low heat until warm, about 4 minutes.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and salt until smooth. Slowly whisk in the milk mixture. Stir in the mashed raspberries. Using a ladle, divide the mixture between 4 ramekins. Place the ramekins in an 8 by 8-inch baking pan. Pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 30 minutes until the custard is almost set. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the ramekins to cool while still in the water, about 1 hour. Remove the ramekins from the water and refrigerate for at least 2 hours until set.

Serve with a packet of carbonated candy.