My First and Second Cheesecake.

Recently I started my baking adventure, as a means to occupy my time. When I decided to start, I realized that I didn't have any baking equipment in my kitchen except for a built-in oven, and a set of cake/bread pans bought from the USA. So me and hubby went to search high-and-low, all over Bayan Lepas area for baking equipment and ingredients.

For my first foray into "baking", I decided to start with the easiest recipe - a chilled Oreo cheesecake from the first page of Alan Ooi's "In Love With Cakes" - which actually does not require me to use the oven! Haha... Also, it turned out I didn't need to buy the electric mixer as yet... cos this recipe does not require it too!

So, this is my first creation from two weeks ago. Tada!

#1 - My first cake "Chilled Oreo Cheesecake"   

Chilled Oreo Cheesecake

How does it look? ^^

My first cake turned out not too bad, just that I forgot to add in some lemon zest to add some tangy flavour to the cheese. In the process of making this cake, I felt happy cos I learned something new from my mistakes, like chilled cheesecake need to use gelatine to firm up the cheese mixture, how to melt gelatine correctly (use cold water, not hot water!), and to mix less butter into the Oreo crust so that it turns out less greasy.

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Fast forward two weeks, I was suddenly hit by a craving for fluffy, creamy, soft Japanese Cheesecake. I guessed that this would be a tougher cake to make given my lack of baking technique, so I googled up some online recipes here:

http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2011/02/japanese-cheesecake-fluffy-creamy.html

http://www.thelittleteochew.com/2011/03/japanese-cheesecake-tips-tricks.html

A briefer version of the recipe could also be found in Alan Ooi's book.

#2 - My second cake "Japanese Cotton Soft Cheesecake"

Japanese Cheesecake

Due to too much cake mixture, I filled one long pan and filled less than half of another round pan. The result was not too good. The cake sunk within minutes of opening the oven door. When seen from the side, the upper layer of the cake is dry and fluffy, but the lower layer of the cake is too wet and dense. Not very sure what happened exactly, but after some "debugging" from Internet and my MIL, I think it happened because I didn't beat the egg whites mixture long enough till it formed soft peaks (whatever thatttt is?) and I didn't fold in the egg whites to the batter correctly (just sort of dumped it all in. the other way round!) My mom says maybe I shouldn't use the top heat of the oven, just use the lower heat.

OK I'll try to do better next time~

I also got my eye on this recipe for my next chilled cheesecake. The crushed oats and liqueur for the topping sound very interesting:
http://www.cheekychilli.com/2010/04/06/a-case-for-cooking/

I also cooked two new dishes for the first time this weekend - stirfry Japanese tofu with minced pork, and "bak kut teh"!!! Yeah!~