For some inexplicable reason, I had four blocks of Philadelphia cream cheese in the fridge. I have no idea why I purchased them, and why I felt the desire to purchase four?! Anyway, they were just sitting there, so I decided I’d better get my bum into gear and whip something up.

And what do you do when you have cream cheese? Make cheesecake. Naturally!

I don’t often order cheesecake when I’m out, because I’m always swayed by other types of desserts, and also because I’m very particular about my cheesecakes – I specifically like them fluffy, moist, with a thick base. Often, restaurant/cafe cheesecakes are too gelatinous for me, and not creamy or fluffy enough. Plus, it MADDENS me when they come out with loads of cheese and soooo little base (my fave part!).

Cheesecake isn’t that hard to make, and you can do it for waaay cheaper than buying it outside. So, might as well, right? :)

Well, first up is my Oreo-base cheesecake with chocolate swirl.

First I crushed 2 packets of Oreos (minus the cream) in my Magic Bullet blender

I added some melted butter until I could stick it down in a round pan to form the base, then refrigerated it whilst I worked on the cheesecake filling.

HELLO 4 packets of cream cheese

Beat cream cheese, 2/3 cup sugar until well blended. Add 3 eggs, mixing on low speed.

Add 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1 tbsp vanilla. Blend in.

Scoop filling (it will be a thick pudding-like consistency) into the pie base

Melt some good-quality chocolate in 1/3 cup heavy cream

Dollop the chocolate mixture on top of the cheesecake filling using a teaspoon. Drag through it all with a knife to make a pattern (obviously I am not the type to bother making it all ‘pretty’, hence why it looks a bit crappy, heh)

Bake at 180 celcius for around 1 hour, or until the center jiggles slightly when pan is shaken. Leave oven door open a crack to cool for at least 1 hr, then put in fridge to chill overnight.

Oreo-base cheesecake with chocolate swirl. Served with fresh strawberries!

I must note that when I used 4 packs of cream cheese, I decided that there would be too much cheese. And I like lots of biscuit base, remember? So I used only half the mixture.

With the other half of the mixture, I made a Classic cheesecake.

Crushed up a whole roll of Digestive biscuits and made a pie base with some melted butter

Poured in the remaining half of cheesecake filling

Classic cheesecake

I can’t decide which one I prefer!!! :P

This below is my super-sad looking cinnamon rolls. I was struck by a moment of insane craving for Cinnabons, which are sadly no longer in Singapore (WHYYYYY?!?!). And so I decided to go right ahead and make my own. It was my first time working with yeast and boy, I think I’ve been scared off working with yeast forevermore!

I honestly don’t know what I did wrong, but the dough was really really sloppy and wet. So much so that the rolls didn’t ‘hold’ together properly and were a bit of a mess. They baked up just fine, but the texture and flavour was more like cinnamon bread than the sticky, wet cinnamon rolls that I was craving for. Disappointing :(

My weak attempt at cinnamon rolls

But, at least I had fabulous success with brioche french toast!! Then again, it’s kind of a no-brainer to make, since it’s so easy ;) Mum and Dad supplied the brioche, a loaf of it from Wild Honey. The loaf consists of 8 thick slices of brioche for a whopping $9…!! But, the brioche is amazing, so I suppose at least it’s somewhat justified.

Whipping together eggs, cream, cinnamon sugar

Wild Honey's expensive but awesome brioche

Soaking the brioche in the mixture

Brioche french toast with salted butter and pure maple syrup

Mannnnnn THIS WAS GOOD

And this is something very simple to make, plus a good comfort food. It’s potato and leek soup and very easy to throw together. It’s also EXCELLENT for babies – Hunter loves the creamy texture and the leek gives a natural flavour and spice to it. I serve it to him with some bread dippers, and he slurps everything up :)

Pan-frying onions in some butter

Added in chopped potatoes, herbs, bay leaf and chicken stock.. then boil for ages

It's done once everything in there is meltingly soft

Pureed with a food processor, served with a dollop of cream and cracked black pepper. HELLO potato & leek soup!

I had a craving for sticky date pudding the other day, and we had a couple of prunes leftover from the packet that we bought for Hunter, so I decided to try out making it myself! I used this recipe.

Happily, I ended up with a very soft and moist cake, which was the PERFECT texture imho. The glaze on top was a bit heavy-handed though, and I probably should have poured on about half the portion, because we tend to prefer not-too-sweet deserts. I’d say the end result was very similar to what you’d get in restaurants outside in terms of sweetness, and we tend to have our homebaked desserts at half sugar.

This dessert is relatively low effort to make, and is pretty delicious, especially served with a big dollop of good quality vanilla ice cream. We’ve already eaten the whole thing! I’d make it again for sure :)

Cooking the prunes in water

Sifting together the dry ingredients. Love the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg :)

Adding the wet ingredients

Just before going into the oven

Cooking the caramel glaze whilst the pudding bakes. Mmmm... bubbling goodness....

Poured on top of the freshly-baked cake

Homebaked sticky date pudding :) SMELLS AMAZING!

And, I baked a banana bread. Yet again! It seems to be my favourite go-to dish.. I bake it really frequently because we love it, it keeps well, and Hunter LOVES it :) I would never give him store-bought banana bread because I know they have little banana and are loaded with sugar. But when I make it at home, I actually use very little sugar and barely any butter.

My banana bread looks oddly dry, but it’s actually very moist. I cut down dramatically on butter (only a small dollop) and instead use plain yogurt and sometimes some sour cream. It makes the banana bread SO moist and gives a great subtle tang – wayyyy better than using butter imho!

Banana bread fresh out of the oven. Best served with freshly-whipped maple butter :)

[EDIT: upon request, here's the Banana Bread recipe :) ]

1. Beat 100g butter and 100g brown sugar together until creamy
2. Add 1 egg and beat in
3. Add 3-4 mashed bananas, 3 tbsp plain yoghurt and 1 tsp vanilla essence.
4. Add 225g sifted plain flour, 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1 tsp cinnamon and pinch of salt salt and beat in gradually.
5. Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake at 180c for about 1 hour or until golden-brown and cooked.

And this was actually eons ago, but I was craving a good sausage sandwich today and remembered these pics ;) It was a small and casual BBQ dinner we had, kids included. I adore BBQs because it always means we have the typical Aussie ‘dish’ – a sausage and grilled onions slapped on thin white bread, and drizzled with tomato sauce. PERFECTION.

A relaxed weekend BBQ

Super-healthy pasta salad to off-set the BBQ goodness!

Sausage sandwich. LOVE.