Mango Cheese Cake

I am not a huge fan of cakes but once a year, I agree to have one made in my honour. On my birthday, of course. This year, I got a mango cheese cake. Mum begins by making a base of crushed digestive biscuits. Then she creams all this soft philadelphia cheese. She adds mango to the mix and puts the whole thing into the fridge to chill and solidify. 

Here's my birthday cake. I still haven't figured out why she decided on bilingual decor this year.

Walnut Cake

Mum's back and even with her jetlag, she is baking faster than I can cope. I got home this evening to a kitchen fragrant with baking smells and found two trays of walnut cake in the oven. They were already puffing up. Unfortunately, by the time I remembered to take a shot of the finished product the next day, the cakes were already gone. Eaten. Digested. Have to make do with this pic of the walnuts before they were chopped up and an oven shot of the baking cakes.

Strawberry Sponge Cake

Many, many clones of this strawberry cake have been polished off at weddings and birthdays. The sponge cake is first cut into three tiers. In between layers, thick slabs of strawberries and cream are added. The whole edifice is then covered with lots more whipped cream. Very pink, soft and fluffy.

Marble Cheese Muffin

This is one of my favourite muffins and it is mum's invention. It is actually a chocolate cheese variety but what is great about it is that it is layered and has a surprise middle. She starts out by putting a layer of chocolate mix at the bottom of the cups and a large dollop of soft chocolate. Then, she tops up with cheese cake filling and a squeeze of melted chocolate. She finishes with a little swirl to create the 'marbling' pattern.

You can almost see the steam coming out from the top where the cheese and chocolate split. Let your taste buds be attacked by a mix of flavours and textures - the savoury cheese, sweet chocolate, crumbly cake and warm melted chocolate.

Fruit Cake

Mum just left for a much deserved vacation in a winter wonderland but there is still a backlog of material from last week's overdrive baking. In the spirit of the holidays, she made her super potent fruit cake. It's filled with fruits and nuts and the most important ingredient of all - brandy! I am sure I can get a few low-alcohol-tolerant friends drunk on these cracker-sized portions, hehe.

Mango Pudding

Just got home and found one shelf of the fridge cleared for these little mango pudding tubs.

Banana Chocolate Chip Walnut Muffin

This muffin loaded with goodies is one of mum's creations. She blends a special muffin batter using banana mash, chopped nuts and chocolate chips. 

After scooping the batter into little paper cups, she does another round of garnishing. More goodies are added on top to make the final product look, smell and taste goooood.

Cream Cheese Chiffon Cake

This is a new cake that mum is trying out. She normally makes butter or orange chiffon cakes but she picked this up from a random recipe somewhere. I have to say that it tastes quite good. The cheese adds a subtle flavour to complement the buttery fragrance of the body.

Chiffon cakes are great for picnics and parties. They are light, huge and relatively mess free (no cream for kids to smear about).

Blueberry Cheese Tart

At the time of writing, she is baking a batch of blueberry cheese tarts. These tarts are actually rather a lot of work and sometimes I help her with them.

1. She first makes the dough from flour, butter, egg and sugar. Then, she painstakingly weighs up little lumps which are then pressed into the base mould. The base is then baked, removed from the mould and cooled overnight.

2. The next day she makes the cheese filling, pours it into the base moulds, adds a spoonful of blueberry on top, makes a swirl pattern with a mini stick and shoves them back into the oven.

3. The finished product. Yumms...