Assortment of Cheesecakes and White Chocolate Cheesecake

I've been on a cheesecake craze lately. I am again, on a mission to fatten up the man (after a failed attempt 1.5 years ago) and cheesecake is one of his favorite dessert, and the most calorie-dense too! Despite his picky-ness towards  food, when it comes to cheesecake, he is pretty flexible. Bread and cheese, are the top two food in his list, which is a bit odd considering his slim figure. He would eat 4 slices of cheesecake any day with no problem while still having cheese pizza or cheese quesadilla for his meal.

Molten Chocolate Cake with Pierre Herme's Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

We are finally having some really hot weather here for the past week or so, and I am just talking about upper 80s. Sometimes it would reach 90s but probably only a few times. I've been waiting for this all along, this is when I start craving Jamba Juice, Ice Creams, and many more for sadly, this has been the coldest time for me this Summer. While it is soaring 88F outside, it is 60F inside the office! The AC in my hallway has been broken for a week now and the AC has been blasting like crazy. My hands and feet are cold and I am wearing a thick jacket just like in Winter. My neighbor is starting to get sick from the AC blowing straight on her head. My other neighbor showed up with 3 layers of sweater today, it is crazy. We've complained to the facility group but nothing has been done so far. I am planning to bring my portable heater tomorrow. I feel colder now than I am in Winter time.

Crémeux

It has been busy lately, not so much about work, but life in general. Work has been great, my boss has been really generous to me in many ways (he is the best boss ever!), no more long hours and weekend work. M is back in the States, it has been a month now, the longest period he's been here this year and hopefully will stay that way and we've been spending lots of time together. It is difficult to find a free weekend, they are pretty much booked for either wedding, graduation, art festival, more wedding, birthdays, gathering with friends, coworkers, many things. It is a good thing that we can celebrate many events in life. Weather has been perfect in many ways and when we have a weekend to spare, we've been doing long walks in the beautiful Standford campus every weekend, playing Wii games. Baking has been fun too (except that I wish I have more time for this) and many cakes have been made in the busy kitchen, and many more. I can't complain much.

Pierre Herme's Cheesecake

I cannot tell you how many cheesecakes and it's variation I have been baking during my baking life. I don't think I have one go-to recipe for cheesecake as all of them seem to be really good (it's hard to go wrong with cheesecake). If I have to pick one, it will probably the mascarpone cheesecake, but it is also neck to neck with Alain Ducasse's cheesecake. Needless to say, I am still very open in trying out great-looking cheesecake recipe when I see one, especially one that's from Pierre Herme's book, Pierre Herme Pastries.

Foret Noir

Or what we call Black Forest Cake. I made this cake a few months ago, one of the first cakes I made after I got back to the States. I've made my fair shares of black forest cake in the past, but they are all different. See this, this, this, and the first one I made in college (using canned maraschino cherries. Yikes!).

Key Lime Pie Bars

Tomorrow is Independence Day holiday. It sucks because it falls on the middle of the week this year, so no trip planned for this time. Besides, the weather is now a bit odd. I would expect mid 80s to low 90s by this time of the year but it has been staying around 75 F - 80 F, at the most. For some of you it might be the perfect weather, and it is, but I just want a few hot days and cool breeze at night. Here in northern California, no matter how warm the daytime is, you will most likely need a jacket at night.

Mariee

The weather in San Jose has been scorching hot lately. I am not complaining really, in fact, I LOVE it! I began to open the window in my room when I sleep at night. My next door neighbor whom we share a fence with, has jasmine plant spreading along our side of the fence facing directly into my room and I love the smell. I just love this time of the year.