Heart-to-Heart Strawberry Cheesecake

Made with lotsa love for my bestie of whom I nicknamed PGL! :)

We held a surprise birthday dinner for PGL at Windmill and at the end of the party, he blew the candles and officially turned legal.

We all had a fair share of the cake, and one phrase that I'll always remember came from one of PGL's college mate of whom I met for the first time then. He popped over and said, "Your cake taste better than Secret Recipe's!"

Whether or not he was just trying to pull my leg wasn't important, because I took it to heart. I personally liked the cake as well.

During the process I remember how I freaked out. What if it doesn't turn out well? There will be so many people at the party, where am I going to hide my face? Thank goodness, it all turned out great. :)

Volcanic Chocolate-Strawberry Island

"What's your favourite cake, Herng? Do you want to try an orange flavoured one?" I asked.

"Har?" he gasped and said, "I don't want an orange cake! I don't like orange. My favourite fruit is strawberries. Can I have strawberries instead?" Then he thought for a tad while with his pointy finger on his chin then continued, "I like Chocolate Cake! But not the one from the toilet lah," my couzie said with a smirk.

I looked up recipe after recipe to combine both chocolate and strawberry into one cake. And finally I came up with a decision. I'll bake a chocolate cake and have a layer of cream with strawberries in the middle. But the problem is, I've not baked any layered cake before in my entire baking history. "Everything has its first time, sweetie," my mum said encouragingly.

"Give it a try, if the cake don't turn out well, we'll pop by the nearest bakery to get Herng another cake. Deal?" DEAL! I got up early to get my ingredients all well-prepared then started the whole process. And here's the result of my 2-hour-plus effort:

The name of the cake was dubbed by my brother. Well, it was because the cake looked hideously volcanic before the decorations was up. And my smartie-pants brudder said that the creamy strawberry circling the cake makes it look like an island. That was pretty much how he creatively came about naming the cake as such: Volcanic Chocolate-Strawberry Island.

My 8yo little couzie loved the cake very much. He took servings after servings. He dig into them for breakfast, pushing his cereals aside and even had the cake for dessert after a heavy dinner. He told me, "This is one of the best birthday cake I've had." The smile on his face was enough to melt my heart as well as the time taken in the kitchen. I'm happy my effort paid off. :)

The middle cream layer is made arduously with mixing white chocolate and cream. It took a lot of work, but the end result was all worth the perspiration which drizzled down my temple throughout the beating process. One word - luscious. ;)

Blueberry Ribbon Cheesecake

Sorry for the lack of updates. The Bakeanista has been really really busy, with exams drawing near and assignments datelines around the corner. But no matter how busy she is, she just can't keep her hands off the mixer. Baking is her passion and nothing, mark my words, NOTHING can stop her from doing the things she adores. :)

I've been baking since I was 12, and I came across quite a number of mistakes and failures. There were unsuccessful cakes fed into Mr. Bin's enormous happy mouth, there were unsuccessful cookies that were dried up, they taste like desert. There were times when I've thought of giving up, but my passion for baking held me back.

After several attempts on hundreds of recipes, I've found my forte. If there's one type of cake/cookie/dessert that I've tried several times yet not once was it unsuccessful, it is Cheesecakes.

So, without further ado, I hereby bring to you, the Most Popular and Favourite cheesecake on my list:

Quote birthday boy's mum, "Which shop did you get this cake from?"

According to her, it's very well-decorated and it tastes really yummy!

Well auntie, it's from:

The Bakeanista. :)