Cooking Ideas and Tips...Scroll down to see all!

NEWS! NEWS!!

So i officially started a cake decorating course in September to improve my skills in cake making and decorating. See below 2 cakes i have made and decorated by myself so far. I am building my portfolio and if at ever you would like to know how to reproduce any of the cakes/ desserts i post up her, just place a comment and i will most definitely get back to you!!

                                          

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A Collection of Some Cakes I have made!

New York CheeseCake! Mmmmm...

These are the Ingredients you will need : 

3 eggs

15grams All Purpose Flour

2 tubs of 200g Full Fat Cream Cheese

200g Digestive Biscuits

114g Unsalted Butter

Vanilla Essence (1 teaspoon)

150g Granulated Sugar (This is what we usually use for everyday food like cereal, tea etc)

40ml Whipped Cream (Double Cream)

You will also need a round cake tin, it does not have to be this one, whichever one you have will do!

Ok, so lets start! Measure out 200g of digestive biscuits which is about 16 individual biscuits. Crush them with anything that is capable of crushing!

This should be the end result of you crushing the biscuits :

Measure out the 114g of unsalted butter and place in a pan. Place the pan on very low heat and melt the butter.

This should be the end result of you melting the butter :

Add 50g of sugar to the crushed biscuits:

Add the melted butter to the mixture :

Mix everything together, until well mixed :

Take a small amount of butter and use to cover the inside of your cake tin. 

Take a small amount of flour as well and by shaking the cake tin, let it cover the tin. This is to prevent the cheesecake from sticking to tin :

Place the mixture of crushed biscuits and sugar into the cake tin :

Press the mixture firmly with your fingers on the bottom of the tin and also on the sides. Not too high on the sides though :

Cover the tin with cling film and place in the fridge until you have finished making the cheesecake filling! :)

Now for the actual Cheesecake!!

First of all pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees which is also Gas mark 4. So now spoon out all the full fat cream cheese from both tubs into a bowl as shown below :

With a mixer, mix the cream cheese well enough that you see no lumps. Then clean the sides of the bowl into the center of the bowl as shown below. This is to make sure everything is used! :)

Add 100g of sugar and 15g of flour to the cream cheese and mix well :

You do not have to beat the eggs prior to adding as i did, you can add the eggs one at a time. But if you do beat them before adding to the mixture then add a bit at a time. Each time you add a little, mix well, then add a bit more until you've added all the eggs :

This is after all the eggs have been added and the mixture blended well. As you can see i have once again cleaned the sides to the center! :

Add the 40ml of whipped cream and teaspoon of vanilla essence to the mixture :

Mix well :

Now take out the cake tin from the fridge and pour the cheesecake filling into the tin as shown below:

Place the cheesecake mixture in the pre-heated oven and leave at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes reduce the temperature to 120 degrees or Gas mark 1/2. Not Gas Mark 1 but 1/2. Leave at this temperature for about 40-50 minutes.

Your Cheesecake will be done when it is firm, but wobbly when shaken! :)

Whilst its still hot, use a knife to pass around the side of the tin, to separate the cake from the tin as shown below:

Add some whipped cream and TADA!! New York Style Cheesecake is served!!

This recipe was taken from http://www.joyofbaking.com/Cheesecake.html

I hope this recipe was very helpful and you enjoyed making it! I will be very grateful if some of you could post your results in the comment box! Enjoy! x

JOLLOF RICE! (Ghanaian Style)

Always wanted to learn how to make Jollof Rice? Here are easy steps, together with pictures to help you! Enjoy. Find the written steps above the pictures.

Ingredients:

5 Tablespoons of Oil

2 Cans Plum tomato

2 Cloves of Garlic

1 Onion

1 Tablespoon Salt

1 Pepper or 1 teaspoon Powdered Pepper

3/4 Cups of Rice (Any type of Rice, I like Basmati Rice)

Seasoning

1. Chop the garlic and onion as shown in the pictures

2. Blend the 2 Cans of Plum tomato together with the chopped garlic and onion. If you are using 1 whole pepper, blend it together with this.

3. Place the 5 tablespoons of oil in a Medium Cooking pot and place on the fire medium to high heat.

4. This is the blended ingredients as mentioned before.

5. Pour the blended ingredients into the cooking pot.

6. Continuosly mix the contents of the pot as its on the fire. Reduce heat to medium.

6.After about 15 minutes, add in thepowdered pepper in if this is what you are using.

7. Continue to mix the contents of the cooking pots with about 5 minute intervals, making sure it doesn't burn.

8. As you can see on the sides, mine was starting to burn (lol). Now add in the WASHED and DRAINED 3/4 cups of rice.

9. Mix the rice into the stew you have made and now you can add the seasoning you want to add. I used a maggie cube (You can get this from any afro-carribean supermarket or corner shop)

10. Add about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of salt and mix thoroughly.

11. Add a medium amount of water so the water sits about a thumb's width on top of the rice.

12. As you can see, there is enough water but no too much otherwise the rice will be extremely soggy. Just about a thumb's width of water.

12. Find any clean freezer bag, wash it and place it over the rice in the cooking pot as shown below. Minimise the heat to absolute low now. Keep on the fire for about 20 minutes to half an hour or until the rice is soft and edible.

13.  And now you have just made Jollof Rice! Enjoy.

This was basic jollof rice, but you can add many other ingredients to it as soon as you get the hang of it. I would love it if you can post some of your pictures of your own results. I hope this helped! xx