Mocha Walnut Cheesecake, by Accident

Cheesecake is one of my favourite, whether the bake or non-bake type. For the former, I love them in creamy dense and strong flavour, but not overly rich. For the latter, I like them creamy smooth but not overly airy, which is a sign of too much whipped cream.

I've baked American cheesecake a couple of times. This time round, decided to combine two of my favourite flavour, coffee and walnut. I am never a coffee drinker, due to my caffeine intolerance and a small strong cuppa is enough to keep me awake whole night. However, over the years, I have grown to like it as a flavour in my dessert

I did my usual digestive biscuit crump base, flavoured my cheese mixture with freezed dried instant coffee, and incorporated the chopped walnuts into the batter before pouring over the base. As with most cheesecake, I baked it in a water bath, watching it carefully to adjust temperature and to add additional water in the water bath when necessary.

The cake turned out beautifully, except for a crack in the middle of the cake during the last stage of baking!! My heart sank, seeing the line across my beautifully cake. Somehow, I felt a strong urge to cover that ugly line. After much thinking, I decided to make a chocolate ganache and pour over the whole cheesecake while still in its mould. As I unmould the cake after chilling, I realised it was a beautiful three layers from the side view, much to my delight!

The chocolate, coffee, walnut, or rather, the mocha walnut cheesecake turns out to be much, much better than I had expected. Am so well pleased with it that I would like to include it as one of my signatures!!





The layered pattern as seen from the side. The chocolate ganache sits on top of the original coffee walnut cheesecake, but eating the three layers together creates a nice explosive of flavour in the mouth.

 

Cupcakes

Cupcakes is all the rage now, you see them online, you see them at cake shops and you see them in bookshops (books about them). They are not difficult to make, but if you want special styling, they can take up a lot of time, much much more time than I had expected actually.

I had my first experience when an ex-colleague sms me if I wanted to help create something special for her son's 5th birthday. All she wanted was 25 cupcakes, to be collected on the morning of her son's birthday for a teabreak celebration in his school. I checked for some reference online and gamely took on, thinking that they shouldn't take up too much time and shouldn't be too difficult. As it turn out, I was wrong!

Perhaps the difficulties lies in the all chocolate ganache icing that I used, instead of the usual buttercream icing. But then again, our warm and humid tropical weather is not the same as the cool and dry temperate weather where all these cupcakes ideas originate. I also do not have the luxury of an air-conditioned kitchen or room to work in. This experience now makes me understand fully why an ex-colleague said she had to blast her air-con at 15 deg in one of her bedroom for the whole duration whenever she wants to make sculptured cakes.

The chocolate sponge in the cups baked pretty effortlessly, using my usual recipe. In wanting to avoid using colouring, excess fats and sugar, I opted for dark and white chocolate ganache for the decoration. As mentioned, due to the warm environment, I had a hard time making the ganache hold it's shape. As I spend more time working on it, I also lost the shine of the glossy ganache, and as a result, more time had to be spent to rectify this as well. Being the meticulous me, I also spend more time in selecting similar size chocolate coins and placing them as ears on the cakes. At one point, I started to panic as I barely had enough time to do the finishing touches for the eyes, noses and mouth. This can be seen in the photos, not all the drawing were consistent, but it created a unique look for each individual piece.



The 25 cupcakes, all nicely lined and stuck securely to the cakeboard using flour paste.

 


A closer view of the design, personally I like the panda one better.

  I love these cupcakes for their cute looks and delicious all chocolate taste. My friend has also feedback that the 17 kids ate up all 25 cups within minutes and absolutely love them. Would I make them again? Well... for all the time needed, 18hrs in total, not unless it is a very special child!

Here's the link to the Wilton website reference where I got the ideas from

http://www.wilton.com/idea/Panda-monium
http://www.wilton.com/idea/Bear-Hug-for-One

Meantime, if there's any request cupcakes, I am most happy to offer this much much simpler to decorate version and just as delicious no less - banana sponge with chocolate glaze and topped with  fruits. 




Easy to decorate cupcakes. The cake is baked below the rim so that the glaze and topping can be protected within the cup.