Blueberry cheese tarts and white choc cheese cream cupcakes

Recently, I made a couple of blueberries cheese tart for fun. Had this craving for them since Melvin made them once last year.It turned out well being my first time baking them. :P At the same time, Esther made white choc cheese cream cupcakes which tasted quite good too.

I had a few friends who came over to eat the blueberries cheese tart and Art even said that he is willing to pay 3 pounds for one. :P How nice...




This is Esther's white choc cheese cupcake + my bright idea of giving it a bit of decor by adding choc shavings.




At the same time, I made a oreo cheesecake for a Nick's bday.

Gateau

I know some may criticise my cake saying that it doesn't look pretty or whatever compared to the shops in Msia. Haha...but in UK, it is precious cuz good cakes are hard to get. :p I tried cakes in various places and none can satisfy me. I tried starbucks cheesecake which disappointed me greatly. Even Marcus (one of my best british friends who can really cook very well) hunted me down for my cakes and told me that he remember my cakes tasted very good but he couldn't remember which was good as all of them were.

I picked up baking cuz I dun like any of the cakes in the shops in UK. The chinese cake shops in UK are few. They can decorate the cake so beautifully. However, the cakes tasted so dry and horrible. So horrible that I decided to bake my own.

Therefore, I came up with my own chinese cakes to suit my appetite....At first, it was done voluntarily in my first two years when I started learning baking as a hobby. Then, people starting requesting me to bake cakes for them. Did a few on a voluntary basis to practise + I could use the leftover cake ingredients which were bought by my friends.

Haha...thanks to all for the compliments saying that it taste so much nicer than the shops in UK.

Anyway, a few pictures I took of the cake I made today.





Not very happy with a slight white patch at the side of the cake. Grrr perfectionist. LOL...

Yes...I am practising writing words with white chocolate on a chocolate slab I made. hahaha...

For nick if he is reading this (I don't think he does anyway), u can have that piece of choc slab with your name on it. Haha...practice purposes. :p

Duck

Made a Chinese roast duck for the first time when gresingham duck was on sales. Tasted really really good...even WL was speechless. This duck was made to treat him and Jean for always treating us to Tong palace. :p






The duck meat was so tender that it melted in my mouth. :p

Double choc cake

My double chocolate cake was a failure cuz my sponge didn't rise very well. It was a failure in my opinion, but strangely people liked it and took loads home. I told people that my cake didn't turn out so well, but after trying the cake, they said, 'it's nice, she is just trying to lower our expectations so that we will say that the cake is nice.'

I need to improve the sponge as well as the ganache. The ganache was a bit less smooth in my opinion.

Anyway, a pic of my 'failure' cake. I purposely put swirls on the top of my cake instead of icing sugar.

Stuffed chicken legs wrapped with bacon

Imitation of Gordon's recipe on youtube: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=y_tcvvStxAs&feature=related




Made a few mistakes here and there. Had too few pistachios in the centre and I skipped masala wine cuz thought it wasn't necessary. Other than that, sherry vinegar was given by a friend so that wasn't too bad.

Maybe because I skipped masala wine,that's why my sauce isn't as brown as Gordon's. Hmmm...

Overall, it was delicious and fun to make once a blue moon!!

Christmas eve dinner

2pm yesterday WL suddenly called me and wanted me to cook christmas dinner. He told me to plan and then go shopping.. :S

Anyway, I decided to try one of Gordon's recipe which is 'crispy' salmon as the starter. Unfortunately the salmon in Marks and spencers had no skin on it. There was no choice as I could not find salmon in tesco. I was lucky enough to find a goose in Tesco which had been reduced from 50 pounds to 27 pounds and it was a really really HUGE goose. Three times the size of the duck.

Anyway, the starter: Sorry that it is burnt at the top cuz I couldn't see what I was cooking..WL never repaired his kitchen stove's lights. So I was really cooking in the dark.









Ai shin and David gave us a christmas present! A cake baking tin by Circulon. Really good baking tin and is life guaranteed non-stick.


A pic of the goose we had for christmas dinner.



Esther was in charge of the goose as I was busy with starters. Unfortunately the goose was a bit too well done.But it is still quite nice with the orange sauce.

Anyway...thanks WL for the meal! Expensive meal...since most of the ingredients was bought in Marks and Spencers being the meal a last minute planning.

Chocolate banana cake

Chocolate banana cake (an imitation of secret recipe)
Though I dun really know how blueberries really fit the taste of the cake. :p