Strawberry Semifreddo

I’ve never seen or ate a semifreddo before. After seeing it on the internet, it seems like a cuter alternative to ice cream, so Boyfriend and I experimented on one of our Sunday baking sessions.

(This photo was taken using Boyfriend’s Nokia N82! I think the phone is cool.)

Quiche

I’ve always been curious about quiche. It isn’t something commonly eaten in Singapore. So, when I came across this recipe from Use Real Butter, it went straight into my bookmarks. Of course, the gorgeous pictures there definitely helped me to decide that THAT quiche recipe was the one to try.

There you go, my version of quiche. Made with matchsticked carrots, sliced red onions, a handful of parmesan and lots of crispy bacon. Yummm.

Dad liked it, sis liked it, boyfriend liked it. I think this is a winner.

Coral’s Birthday Cake

Made this vegan chocolate cake for Coral for her 21st birthday. She’s vegetarian. It’s meant as a gift, so I made it small. Decorated it with icing sugar and halved strawberries.

Blueberry Muffins

I wanted to try out a basic muffin recipe which I can use for any flavoured muffins. I found one on AllRecipes and it worked pretty well.

Bakery Style Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Muffins

Wow, that’s a mouthful. These muffins are the best when slightly warmed, with all the chocolate bits all gooey inside. Mmmm.

I came across this recipe on BakingBites (again), and whipped it up for breakfast one morning. This one uses creamed butter, as opposed to oil/melted butter that muffins usually use. I can’t really tell the difference between the two types, but I’ll add a touch more butter next time.

Snickerdoodles

I’ve never heard of snickerdoodles before. Apparently, it’s more of an American cookie, but I love cinnamon, and after reading about these on BakingBites, it was pretty hard to resist. I HAD TO MAKE THEM. I mean, it’s CINNAMON SUGAR COATED, what’s there not to love about these?

BakingBites used a Mrs. Sigg’s Snickerdoodles recipe from AllRecipes. It has 1,700+ reviews to date and is hitting pretty close to 5 stars, which is an amazing rating.

Blueberry Cheesecake

I’ve never made a blueberry cheesecake before, since blueberries are so expensive in Singapore. One 125g box of blueberries costs $3.50. Apparently, that’s the only type of blueberries sold in the larger supermarkets like Fairprice and Giant.

Boyfriend’s sister requested for blueberry cheesecake for her birthday, and I looked for a recipe to experiment with first, before Boyfriend makes the actual cake for her. While shopping at Giant, I found that the blueberries were on offer at $2.80, so I bought 4 boxes, and froze those that I didn’t use for next time.

I found this recipe from Epicurious, and chose to use the topping recipe from one of the comments.

Egg Tarts

I’ve always had a fear of pie crusts and “cutting the butter into the flour”. I don’t own a food processor, and I don’t have a pastry cutter. The times when I tried to “rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips” failed rather miserably, when all I did was to melt the butter between my fingers and get a whole lot of flour stuck up my nails. I never really got “crumbs that look like coarse sand with bits that are the size of peas”. Nuh uh.

When Boyfriend wanted to make egg tarts, I vehemently refused to, insisting that tart crusts are just plain difficult to get right. Boyfriend went ahead with his egg tart project on his own though, that brave guy (I’m so proud of him), and it actually turned out rather alright, save for a few changes he might make in the future.

Cherry Tomato Salad

While waiting for the cheesecake to bake in the oven, I got a bit peckish and fixed up a snack for myself. It’s really easy to throw together, and very refreshing for the hot weather, since it’s forever summer in Singapore.

Just take a handful of sweet cherry tomatoes, slice them in half lengthwise, throw in some raisins and dried cranberries, and top it off with a sprinkle of salt and a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Sweet, sour, tangy and just slightly salty. Seriously good for hot weather.

Japanese Cheesecake

My younger sister mentioned that she liked the Souffle Cheesecake I made previously, a couple of months ago. I didn’t take any pictures or post about it because I didn’t think it was that good! I was too impatient in waiting for the cake to cool, and the top turned out all wrinkled and ugly. That cheesecake also has 2 layers in the end, because I didn’t fold in the egg whites thoroughly enough, and it kinda floated on the top half of the cake, resulting in a bottom half that was dense and eggy.

I decided to try another similar recipe that I had already stuck on the fridge door, a Japanese Cheesecake, which I took from DianasDesserts.