Cream cheese pie

It's unbearably warm here now and I'm ashamed to say I dread turning on the oven in the kitchen because of the heat. However, sweet desserts aren't all baked, how about some chilled ones for a change?

Cheesecake is a baked dessert, a dense one with cream cheese, eggs and sugar. This cream cheese pie, however, is a chilled dessert made without the eggs and sugar but replaced with condensed milk. Squeezed in some fresh lemon juice to add some tartness. Smooth, sweet and creamy, and pairs well with a graham crust. I baked the crust for a while though, despite trying to avoid the oven heat...

The only thing about this recipe was that I had to chill it for really long. Even after a day it was still difficult to make a clean cut. Next time I'll go easy on the condensed milk and prolly throw it in the freezer, maybe then it'll be firm enough to cut.

Regardless, my mom and I enjoyed it. I made a teeny small one so we finished it in one setting. The addition of condensed milk to the cream cheese gives the impression that this pie is gonna be overly sweet, but really it isn't (ok, coming from someone with a sweet tooth you wouldn't think it's a good gauge).

Top a slice of the pie with fresh fruits or some strawberry sauce (my slice was too tiny for any fruit topping)...

Or some chocolate bits (drizzle with chocolate or caramel if you like)...

I like mine plain. Old boring me. *gobbles*

Strawberry sweetheart chocolate cupcakes

Und dieses Mal schwöre ich, dass ich ok bin. Ich bin fertig. Es ist nicht mehr dasselbe ohne dich, aber es bedeutet nicht, dass es nicht besser sein wird.

Ich habe endlich meinen neuen Ofen ausprobiert. Ich habe etwas Schokolade-cupcakes gebacken und ich habe sie mit rosa Erdbeere Zuckerguss verziert.

Ich wusste nie, dass ich wieder so fühlen kann. Es gibt eine unausgesprochene Genugtuung, eine unbeschreibliche Freude. Es ist erstaunlich, wie etwas so klein einem Zufriedenheit geben kann.

Ich möchte glauben, dass ich stark bin, aber ich weiß, ich bin nicht stark genug für die Wahrheit.
Ich möchte an dass Gute glauben, aber ich weiß jetzt, dass es alles verdorben ist.
Ich möchte in der Einfachheit zu glauben, aber es kommt mit Komplexität.

Manchmal will ich einfach alles hinwerfen und führen für dich.

For Desmond's wedding

I made these for a beautiful occasion.

This was meant to be a surprise for the bride. The groom gave me the freedom to prepare a small desserts table for his wife-to-be. I worked with some of my favorite colors - and I was told that she likes violet too.

Made some vanilla cupcakes with violet cream cheese frosting. Cream cheese frosting never fails me. (:

Violet and peachy pink go together - my idea of matchy-matchy.

There must be some chocolate on a desserts table; here's some krispies topped with dark and white chocolate, prettified with heart sprinkles.

Mini bite-sized krispies. I personally like the white chocolate ones best. (: Sweet sweet sweeeeet.

Once in a while,

Right in the middle of an ordinary life,

Love gives us a fairy tale.

Wishing you both the best of life on your wedding day, and in the days to come.

Chocolate tarts

I lost my sense of weekends from weekdays. It's funny how the busy period is making it more difficult to keep the mind off things, completely going against the nature of how the mind is supposed to work. Just like how when you are so drained out and lethargic to the point of being almost lifeless, and you lie in bed unable to fall asleep, and the more you try, the harder it gets. Desperately sickening.

Maybe it's due to the lack of sleep, or maybe the massive amount of junk food, the throat is starting to feel a tad sore. And so for those of you who like me are victims of the "heatiness", I give you my best unconventional cure - chocolate. Yes go ahead and have copious amount of water, but in my opinion, chocolate is the best medicine. 

Chocolate is a good source of antioxidants - the antioxidant content of chocolate is actually four times that in tea! The fat in chocolate can help the immune system and outwit cytokines by reducing your susceptibility to infections and inflammation. With a quick search, I found out that chocolate can actually reduce coughing as it contains theobromine which suppresses activity in the vagus nerve. This same chemical substance triggers the release of endorphins that act like a natural antidepressant, relieving us of the blues. Plus it's so yummy, you're bound to feel better after consuming some.

I decided to make some chocolate tarts. I assure you I felt better instantly after my first bite. The crust was intentionally made super thin so I could pour more of that chocolate ganache into the tart cavity. I was in chocolate heaven. Yep, all the sore gone, all gone. (:

Vanilla violet cupcakes

It's been quite a while. I used to believe that I don't need a reason to bake, a reason to make or create some sweets. But I've come to learn that that isn't entirely true. Ich liebe backen. Aber ich liebte ihn mehr.

Nevertheless, time seemed to have just flown by. To compensate for the lack of activity in the oven, I managed to satisfy my cravings scouring this small island for brunch food and delightful desserts. Honestly, I think I can do desserts pre-meals, for meals, and after meals. There was nothing more relieving than a moist and fudgey good ol' chocolate cake - I never knew I loved chocolate so much. Just like how I never knew beef could actually taste good, or that I would actually ingest raw seafood. In the midst of my food-search and checking the to-visit-cafés/restaurants list, I found myself starting to love this place for its bevy of dining options - especially those tucked in quiet corners and ulu places. It was easy to indulge in cakes and cream, seeking solace in the overwhelming sweetness that often resulted a diabetic coma, or perhaps a glucose hyperactivity. Believe me, they are a much more effective solution to insomnia than chamomile tea.

I missed the kitchen, the baking, the mess. There are times when you know you want to do something, but you procrastinate cos' you think you can't do it, and you find all sorts of silly excuses to avoid it - as if deprivation would give you an answer to whatever you thought was missing. It doesn't. Thankfully, I found a reason to re-enter my baking realm days ago. For a special friend, I started mixing, creaming and whipping. With each step, I found that simple joy again.

I attempted these vanilla cupcakes on a saturday morning. I was happy with the way the cupcakes turned out, light and fluffy. I contemplated infusing it with buttercream but decided against it as I know I tend to have an exceptionally high tolerance to sugar compared to many others I know. These cupcakes were topped with violet vanilla buttercream, and then prettified with silver dragées and sugar flowers. 

And here's a special THANK YOU to my sister and her friends for their kind encouragement. Totally made my day! (:

I will be back soon. The only thing that keeps me away would be work and other commitments. Not myself anymore. So silly. (:

The avocado

I was grocery-shopping with my mom one day when we came across Haas avocados. We have never bought avocados before and hence did not know how to pick ripen ones - I had to google it. Apparently, the nice firm green ones are not ripe; ripen ones are of a dark-purplish color to an almost black hue - perfect for our avocado milkshake.

Avocados are known to provide health and beauty benefits, from being a naturally nutrient dense fruit to being part of a hair and beauty regimen. They have high vitamin content and each of the vitamins are important in their own ways i.e. for blood clotting, for healthy eyes, skin and hair, as antioxidants, as antibodies. However, those were not the reason I got them. Who needs a reason to have a good milkshake? :D

We had avocados left over which could be made into another jug of milkshake. Or some sweets.

These chocolate macarons with avocado fillings were made from a new silicon mat and piping tips my mom got me as a gift. <3 Thank you, I love it.

Mom and Dad and my trusty taster gave the thumbs up. I like the avocado filling. It's not at all hard to make, just have to replace the milk in the milk shake with icing sugar. Kinda like trial and error actually, but it turned out pretty well anyway. (:

Red velvet cupcakes

I've been itching to be in my kitchen again, to work the mixer, heat the oven and smell like a cookie. Other commitments may have kept me away from my kitchen (ok, my mom's), but that doesn't stop me from thinking about what I should create next. I've a list of things I would like to bake, actually I always have a list. This time I decided to make some red velveties.

Working in the kitchen is somewhat similar to working in the laboratory. We are precise with our measurements, but yet we know when we can give some leeway for a little more or a little less of this or that. In the making of this red velveties, I witnessed an acid-base reaction and a decomposition reaction. During the process, I added baking soda with white vinegar which resulted in the formation of carbonic acid from the reaction of bicarbonate ions and hydrogen ions. Carbonic acid then decomposes into carbon dioxide and water, which resulted in the effervescence observed. I was laughing to myself diabolically like a mad scientist when I saw those bubbles.

Anyhooo, I made these red velvet cupcakes and topped them with my favorite cream cheese frosting. Plus a bit of heart sprinkles on some and pink flowers on others. Prettify them well for the pretty people in cosmo. :)

I've seen red velveties that are a whole lot more red. Like bright red. Hmm, I think I prefer them less intense - I feel a slight bit uncomfy with so much red coloring. However, I think my red velveties aren't red enough. Maybe next time I'll add a wee bit more red, if I'm comfy with that then.