Blueberry Cheesecake for dear KL

Cheesecake is something that I don't often make, as my family don't fancy cheesecake, and it would be way too fattening for me to eat it all alone :P Last week, we celebrated our dear Kailing's birthday; she loves cheesecake so this was something I had planned long ago to make for her.

Ever since I started baking, friends of mine who are lucky enough would have Aimei's specially made birthday cakes..hehe ;) Sorry to those who were not so lucky especially BK - you know who you are :) cos' probably that time I wasn't confident enough yet to bake you one or sometimes the timing just wasn't suitable to bring the cake outside, especially when I'm meeting you guys just after work or some other places and my office does not have a fridge. BK, rest assured this year I'll definitely bake the nicest, yummiest cake for you, either before or after your examinations ok? ;)















I combined the recipe from Aunty Yochana's American sour cream cheesecake and Florence's New York Cheesecake. Luck doesn't seemed to be on my side. I had a hard time searching for cream cheese and blueberry pie filling! :(

On the day when I planned to make this cheesecake, almost every supermarkets seemed to run out of Philaedephia cream cheese. I've seen comments that Philaedephia is one of the best brand for cream cheese. I've not tried that before and would so much like to have a go at it this time round. My last resort landed at Phoon Huat - Sembawang Branch where I knew they sell the Redman house brand. Luckily, they still carry this Australian cream cheese (don't exactly know wha brand is that - just stated Autralian cream cheese0. I was rather skeptical whether the spreadable type would be suitable for cheesecake but according to the shop assistant, it could. Otherwise I would have to abort my plan. Same goes for blueberry pie filling; all supemarkets ran out of those canned blueberry pie fillings. I was so lucky to have found it finally at the bakery near my neighbourhood where they actually sold bottles of self-packed blueberry pie filling, those they used for spreading onto waffles. Lessons learnt - I must remember to stock up on the essential ingredients earlier next time round! I had thought I would have no problem with these ingredients and I wanted the freshest so decided to buy only on the day itself.

The recipe had been modified to suit my pan size. So if you were to bake in larger pan, do take note or refer to the recipe source.

Ingredients:

Base

60 g digestive biscuits
25 g unsalted butter, melted

Cream cheese filling

250 g cream cheese
50 g fine sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
7.5 g plain flour
1/2 no. grated lemon zest
1/4 tbsp lemon juice
2 no. small eggs
25 ml whipping cream

Topping

Blueberry pie filling (note: I omitted sour cream topping as this doesn't seemed to be common here)

Method:

1. Tossed crushed biscuit crumbs into melted butter.
2. Press biscuit mixture over a lined pan and leave aside.
3. Bake biscuit base at 165°C for 10 minutes. Leave aside for later use.
4. Cream cream cheese with sugar till light, add eggs one at a time till well mixed.
5. Add in lemon zest and lemon juice.
6. Add in vanilla extract and plain flour and mix thoroughly.
7. Pour in whipping cream and mix thoroughly, then pour into prepared springform tin.
8. Steam bake for 35-40 mins at 160°C. (note: this timing is for my 5-inch pan, which surprisingly took such a short time to be baked. For 7-8 inch, it should take about 1 hour 30 minutes but please note that it varies with your oven, mine probably took shorter time cos' my oven was rather hot).
9. Once baked, let it cool.
10. Put in the fridge for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight to let it set.
11. Spread blueberry pie filling and serve!

Recipe Source: From Aunty Yochana & Florence

Note: The original recipe was for 7-8 inch springboard pan but I halved the recipe and used a 5-inch cake tin with removable base. There was still some extra batter for 2 large silicon moulds. I omitted the sour cream topping and spread blueberry pie filling on top directly.

This is how the 'naked cake' turned out, this photo was taken after it had been chilled overnight. I was actually prepared for the top to be cracked, having understand the temperament of my oven. But not to worry, cos' I've prepared my secret weapon - blueberries!! Nobody would know! LOL...so we could have guessed how bakeries out there could have done to salvage their cracked cheesecake. ;)

This was the first time I made a rich cheesecake, and I was quite pleased with the results, if not for the crack on top. The biscuit base was also too thick as I merely halved the recipe and could not gauge how thick it was when pressing onto the pan. Other than that, it was smooth, rich and the taste was not too sweet. Heavenly! Most importantly it brought a big wide smile on Kailing!



Cutesy
Mini Cheesecakes made from silicon moulds





We had our dinner at Kenny Roger and I had the chance to try their corn muffins once again. The last time I dined in there, I had not closely savour how the taste was like, I just knew it's yummy. This time round, I tried to compare with the corn muffin I baked previously and found that it was not too far off from this original one, with the exception that kenny Roger's more soft and fluffy. I shall try to improve on the recipe again when I have the time!!

From top left: Me, Shunmei, Kailing, Kexian

Our Birthday girl!

Well, the next birthday girl would be me, in less than 2 months time. ;) Haha, wonder if I should bake for myself?? Haha, seems rather funny to bake myself a cake and have my friends celebrate for me hor...LOL.. :D