Pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving

It was Thanksgiving on Thursday in the US.  We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia, but I thought it would be fun to celebrate by making a season-appropriate dish. I chose to make pumpkin cheesecake.

The recipe that I based it on is Sprinklebake's Sweet Potato Pecan Praline Cheesecake Bars,  but by making it as a round 10" cheesecake rather than bars, and substituting the sweet potato for a cup of mashed pumpkin.  For the base, I used 1 1/2 cups crushed gingernuts mixed with 1/2 cup melted Nuttelex, baked for 10 minutes at 180 degrees.  I baked my cheesecake for around an hour, and skipped the praline.

Here is the finished result:

I think crowd reaction speaks for itself - I put it in the kitchen for any takers, and came back 10 minutes later to find it was all gone.  I thought it was delicious, but then again, I love cheesecake!

I hope that all who celebrate American Thanksgiving had a lovely day on Thursday.

FFWD - Sugar Coated French Toast

For French Friday with Dorie this week, our assignment was Sugar Coated French Toast.  I didn't want to splurge on brioche, so I used Viennese bread instead, and I topped my French toast with natural yoghurt and blueberries.

If you are interested, the recipe is available online here.

This was nice, but not sensational.  As this is only a sometimes treat, it is probably just as well that I didn't think it was amazing.

To see what the other Doristas thought, visit the LYL section of the website.

WWDH - Potato Bacon and Leek Soup

This week, Margaret chose Donna's potato, bacon and leek soup from p24 of Modern Classics I for Wednesday with Donna Hay.  You can find the recipe online here.

This soup was really, really good.  This is high praise from a person who feels rather lukewarm about soup.  I substituted the bacon for prosciutto (because I had some left over from the pumpkin pizza last week), and I used the cream.  Yum!

To see what Margaret, Kayte, Chaya and Sarah thought about this soup, visit their websites.

Night Noodle Markets, Melbourne

On Thursday night, Tim and I went to the Night Noodle Markets in Alexandra Gardens, Melbourne.  I had visited the Night Noodle Markets in Sydney almost 10 years ago (in 2004) with some girlfriends from work, so it was fun all these years later to be able to visit the Melbourne incarnation.

The Night Noodle Markets are on from 18-30 November.  The markets contain food stalls from a number of famous eateries, serving hawker-style food, with bars and entertainment.  On the night we were there, the Melbourne Chinese Youth commenced a dragon dance.

Tim and I chose Thai style food from Longrain.  Tim got the hot-and-sour salad of pork, glass noodles, peanuts, mint and coriander ($13), while I opted for  the yellow curry of cauliflower, pumpkin, mustard greens and chilli ($12):

Both dishes were excellent value and tasted fabulous.  We ate sitting on the lawns, as there were no free chairs even though we were eating at granny hour.  By the time we left at around 7.30, the place was buzzing, with hardly anywhere to stand let alone sit, so my advice is to get there early (we arrived at 5.30pm; the market starts at 5pm).

Gelato Messina from Sydney had some amazing looking sundaes ($9) which I couldn't pass up, so I bought two so that we could share half and half of each.

I chose the halo halo (caramel flan, coconut sorbet, jackfruit creme patisserie, rambutan jellies and condensed milk), which was my favourite:

and the monkey nuts (donuts, cashews, coconut and peanut gelato, jackfruit creme patisserie, toasted coconut):
 

It was a fun alternative dinner venue, and I would definitely go back. 

 

 

 

Lovebirds Cupcakes for Jacqui

 

One of my colleagues, Jacqui, is getting married this week.  As Friday was her last day at work, I made her some cupcakes as a celebratory gift.

The cupcake recipe and buttercream icing recipe that I used are from The Primrose Bakery, and are available here.  This has become my go-to recipe for vanilla cupcakes and buttercream, as I get the most consistent results with this cupcake recipe and it tastes lovely, while the buttercream is pleasant tasting and minus the greasy mouth-feel.

To make the fondant decorations, I started a few days ahead so that they would dry, and used this mould.  I then dusted the lovebirds with gold lustre dust:

 
and the hearts with pink shimmer dust: 

 

and placed the finished cakes in a professional looking cakebox that I sourced online:

I was pretty happy with these and will definitely use this again as a wedding cake idea.

Dalek Mini Cake for Dr Who 50th Anniversary

It is the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who today, and as an ardent admirer of the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), I could not let the day pass un-noticed.

I wanted to make something edible as my way of celebrating the occasion, and I was initially attracted by the ideas in Dining with The Doctor by Chris Rachael Oseland.  However, being a baker, when the time came, I of course wanted to make baked goods.  A quick Google search led me to this recipe on the BBC America website for  Mini Chocolate Dalek Cakes.

 
While I made the whole batch of cake, I only made one Dalek - that is all I wanted, and when you start putting the little sod together, it becomes rather time-consuming.

Instead of using a marshmallow head (which looked a little odd because it was smaller than the body), I had two different shaped dariole moulds (one which was tapered at the top for a head) in which I baked the cakes.  I trimmed one of each type of cake up to make a dalek head and body, and joined them together with some of the ganache.

I couldn't find pocky or FADS at the supermarket (my first choices for Dalek accessories), so I bought a can of yan yan biscuits and dipped them in chocolate for the plunger and eye stalk, joining on a chocolate dipped smartie (I'd used all the brown ones) and a blue smartie to the end of the sticks for a plunger and an eye respectively.  I left the gun plain. 

The cake itself is really rather delicious - although it contains cocoa rather than chocolate, it is deep and rich and chocolatey in flavour.

The backdrop for my Dalek is a first day cover of the complete set of Royal Mail Doctor Who stamps.  Don't you think they are fabulous?

Are you planning to watch The Day of The Doctor, being the 50th anniversary episode of Dr Who? And are you celebrating the occasion, and if so, how?

FFWD - Salty-sweet potato far

For French Friday with Dorie this week, we venture into the intriguing world of salty and sweet, which sounds right up my alley.  This week's recipe is salty-sweet potato far, and the name alone had me intrigued.

The recipe itself is perhaps not so intriguing - it is basically a huge potato cake with prunes added for the sweet part.  It was quite OK to eat, even better  cold, but probably not a repeat for me.  Ah, such promise in the name, but it was not fulfilled for me.

To see what the other Doristas thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the FFWD website.