Birthday Cake for Myself

I had always make it a point to bake a birthday cake for each and every family member every year but never once for myself. Today, or rather yesterday, since it is now passed midnight, I decided to make an exception.

It was an extravagant tofu cheesecake, with the use of fresh berries and Chambord raspberry liqueur. Both of these two ingredients are my personal favourite, including the tofu cheesecake. What made it extra special or personalised was the liqueur. Almost 3 years back, while I was searching for different types of fruit liqueur to experiment on cakes, I found out raspberry was available and upon chancing a  picture of Chambord, I was immediately captivated by it's bottle design. Since then, I started my quest to find it at different wine and duty free shops. Whenever friends or family had a chance to travel, I would request them to help me check it out but to no avail. I finally found it at Phuket airport last year and you can never imagine how happy I was when I bought it. However, I found it too precious to open the bottle all this while, until now.

Special birthday cake for me to share with my family

My precious Chambord Raspberry Liqueur

I simply serve the cake as a after dinner dessert, no birthday song and lighting of candle as I had planned. It was not my birthday date and since I am used to bringing cake for dessert, I doubt my family suspected my intention. I was happy though, watching them enjoying the cake silently and myself, I had two servings with my elder brother. The fact that he initially rejected my offering after knowing it was a tofu cheesecake but had two servings after trying a mouthful would attest to how good the cake was!

Tofu Cheeecake

Two to three years ago, tofu cheesecake became popular and is touted as a healthier version for cheesecake lover. For myself, I love it simply because I love soya. The love degree increases further when I adjusted my version to include lemon and pairing it with mixed berries compote. Hence, the actual name for my cake should be, "Lemon Tofu Cheesecake with Mixed Berries Compote"!

I have also made a much lighter version by adding layers of vanilla sponge in between. This is to cater to people who don't like heavy cheesecake or for first timer who are new to cheesecake. This version is so light and refreshing that I can't resist eating 2-3 big slices at one go myself!

I like the versatility of this cake in that it is easy to vary the design presentation, on top of adjusting the inside content to suit individuals needs. This include optional cookie base, vanilla sponge, lemon juice and zest. Having said this, if there's an order to have all the options, it is also a cake which requires much work due to the different components.

This cheesecake is a simple presentation, without the usual digestive cookie base.

This cheesecake is with birthday wordings and digestive cookie base.

This cheesecake is what I would call a classic presentation, with big piping of cream encircling the mixed berries compote. 

A cut view of the cake showing all the differen layers. It is a lot more time consuming to prepare but the result is awesome! 

Oreo Cheesecake

I love cheesecakes but don't bake them much. They taste really wonderful but not many of my family members enjoy them and I usually end up having to eat most of them, which can be too much by myself. This is why I am especially fond of my tofu cheesecake, which is very much lighter and yet so yummylicious that I can't get enough of 3rd or 4th helping!

This Oreo cheesecake recipe is one which I had for years but never get down to trying it as I am not a fan of Oreo cookies due to their sweetness. However, three days ago, a lady requested to have a private class on my cheesecake workshop and she chose Oreo for the baked version. This gave me opportunity to bake this extra for myself and after freezing it that night, I finally took it out to garnish the top and had it for breakfast!! Not my typical breakfast but today is not my typical day either, having been trying to fight off the flu bug for two days.

Oreo Cheesecake, a.k.a Cookies & Cream Cheesecake - I love the extra creaminess which came from the addition of condensed milk. The thicker crust is my typical as I feel that it helps for those who may find the filling too rich and heavy.

Some recipe calls for melted white chocolate, which is made up mainly of milk and sugar, besides cocoa butter. I opted to replace it with condensed milk instead as the taste is very similar and it helped to omit the process of melting chocolate. It helps also for those who like me, do not like eating the balance white chocolate after the baking. I managed to buy cookies without the cream filling for the crust from a baking supply store and that also helped to save time from removing the cream, as well as prevent wastage.

One thing to note when baking, the addition of the crushed cookies should be done only when the cheesecake is half baked as otherwise, you will find them floating to the top. A remedy if you have forgotten this, use a folk to push them down when the mixture is half set during baking.

Strawberry Vanilla Cheesecake

With monthly family birthday and festive celebrations from December to April, my signature chocolate mousse cake, despite it's variations, has been too much over used. Thus, I decided to try something new for my younger brother's and sis-in-law's turn, by combining two of their favourite: strawberry and cheesecake.



Simple deco with initials and big, red strawberries. I was very fortuante to have really sweet strawberries for this cake, which makes the pairing exceptionally nice.

 It's a light cheesecake with strawberries layered between vanilla sponge and topped with more sweet strawberries. It turn out much better than I had expected, though the vanilla sponge needs a bit improvement. This sponge being my first attempt is a tad dry and thus not spongy enough, good thing that a honey syrup managed to rectify this.

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.