Tiny cheesecake I

After securing the cutest mini cake tins from a secret store in the East, I excitedly tried making a mini 12cm cheesecake this morning. It turned out looking not THAT appetising/ pretty (cos of the ridged and collapsed top portion) but it was prob one of the better cakes I've made! I'd say the texture falls somewhere btwn that of a typical dense cheesecake and a light FIESTA cheesecake - prob closer to the latter :)

Each little slice can be gobbled up in one mouthful - and my mini cake yielded a total of 6 bite-sized pieces. We easily finished half the cake as a late morning snack when it was still warm :) I'd definitely be making more of these little (and somewhat healthier) treats and experimenting with other flavours!

 玉兔s over the moon ha (originally Easter Bunny decorations compliments of C)

 Ripped off the parchment paper on the side

 Cute tiny slices of cake - the book was translated from a Japanese one. But of course, who else wld come up with recipes for such dainty little cakes? ;)

On a food-related note, we came across a surprise ice-cream find while lunching near our church today - this place called the Ice Cream Gallery. I had a scoop of their sea salt caramel (with toasted almonds) and earl grey with fig (both were REALLY creamy and flavourful). Yay to a another good ice-cream place near us!

I finally baked something this morning, after a > one-month break! Was quite happy to find jappy (many of them were translated from Japanese to Chinese) baking recipe books - and I got a few at Eslite in Taipei. It takes a while trying to understand the ingredients in Chinese, but it's still easier than the Japanese ones. My stash of baking cookbooks is now more diversified, with several exciting Jappy/ Jap-influenced baking recipes to try!

So I tried out a simple recipe from one of my new recipe books this morning - green tea muffins with cream cheese filling. Back at Berk my fav muffin was the black bottom choc muffin at the Free Speech Cafe - these were extremely chocolatey muffins with very generous portions of cream cheese goodness (sinfulness?) tucked within. My green tea muffins are kinda similar - but a lot healthier cos I put less sugar and less cream cheese...

 

 Sneaking in the cream cheese in the middle... heh maybe there isn't so little cream cheese after all...

 Topped with almond flakes and ready to go into the oven!

 Nice and fluffy and un-deformed!

 Effort to create a 'zen-looking' food plate heh.

Stash of new cookbooks!

Home! 

Got home last night! After a week of early mornings I cldn't sleep past 730am this morning so decided to wake up and be a good wifey haha. Strolled to our neighbourhood NTUC to get some groceries and prepared brekkie for D... I miss and really appreciate the convenience back home. Back at the farm I think I'd need to like stroll a good 20 min to get to anywhere heh.

Surprisingly I found mozarella cheese at my NTUC - and so I decided to make grilled tomatoes wholemeal toast with mozarella cheese and fresh basil from our garden! Paired with fresh mango and dragonfruit topped with yogurt and muesli... Heh felt somewhat proud of my relatively inspiring breakfast :P I think my farming stint (and staying with ppl who cook a lot) has kinda inspired me to be less lazy and to try cooking a bit more (with fresh ingredients).

Hope this is not just 三分钟热度 and I will continue believing in this philosophy haha (though I suspect my enthusiasm will gradually wear off a little).

 Toast, fruit salad and a cup of Nespresso coffee

Had a leisurely Saturday exploring Hualien city after packing copious amounts of various veges the entire Friday! I don't think I can sustain v long in a packing job ha...

Yest was my lucky day- managed to secure a night's stay at a lovely little min2 su4; there I also bumped into 2 friendly locals and they recommended some cool quirky places (cafes, farmer's market, bookshop etc) to check out in town :)

Also had a pretty much full day outing to a dairy farm, old sugar factory-turned ice cream joint place, nearby carp lake and a beautiful beach near the Hualien airport.. Thanks to the friendly farm worker Peng Da Ge who drove me all ard today!

Tmr's my last day of work and it will be home sweet home come Tues! :)

Photos of work and play (sorry the order is a bit jumbled up though):