Rainbow Cheesecake (4th attempt) on 28 Sep 2014

I had tendered my resignation as I decided to become a SAHM to look after my P1 son and have more time to teach or revise with him for his study. Hence, my last day of work is 30 Sep, and I decided to make some cheesecake for my colleagues.

For easy serving, I had chosen to make individual portions. This time, I used 2 flavours of yogurt - Mixed Fruit and Nata de Coco. What did I learn this time? Well, I realised that the cheesecake wasn't as "smooth" looking as my 3rd attempt; there's coconut flakes. I realised that it must be the Nata de Coco (means cream coconut) flavour of yogurt that I added in. Before I realised this, I thought what had gone wrong this time round? hahaha... Hence, I should avoid using Nata de Coco flavour of yogurt if I want a smoother looking cheesecake.

Making Snow Skin Mooncake

There was Teacher's Day celebration at my girl's childcare centre. We were supposed to attend the celebration but we were informed by my son's school that he's sick, so we had to rush down to his school to pick him up. Hence, we had to pick up our girl first since her childcare centre is near our working place. When we reached her childcare centre, they were having mooncake making as Mooncake Festival is just round the corner. The teachers asked us to make mooncake together with our girl first before leaving the centre, so I did.

Mooncake making isn't difficult for me at all, especially the snow skin ones. When I was still schooling, I had been helping my mum to make snow skin mooncakes to sell to make extra income for the household. Hence, when I saw the teachers and some parents sprinkled flour into the mould, I suggested that they should tap the flour on the skin instead of sprinkling flour into the mould. 

Why do we need to tap flour onto the skin and why cannot sprinkle flour into the mould? We need to tap flour on the skin so that the mooncake would not stick to the mould, and hence, it can "drop" out from the mould when you shake the mould sideways. We do not sprinkle flour into the mould as it would cover up the pattern in the mould, and the end product would not have a nice defined pattern on it.

Although I have not made mooncakes for a long time, I still can remember my mum's teaching. See the end products below.

Rainbow Cheesecake (3rd attempt) on 26 Jul 2014

My son had a gathering with his pre-school classmates, and it would be a potluck picnic gathering at West Coast Park. I decided to make Rainbow Cheesecake, and this time, I made few changes as compared to my last 2 attempts.

First, I decided to make individual portions so that it would be easier to serve (no need to cut), especially it's for a picnic at an outdoor venue. Secondly, I went hunting for Philadelphia brand for the cream cheese to see if it really tastes better than the "brandless" cream cheese that I bought at Phoon Huat for the last 2 attempts. I said "hunting" as Rivervale Mall NTUC doesn't sell those blocks of Philadelphia cream cheese; they only sell the spread type. Thirdly, I choose a flavour of yogurt - Mixed Fruit, that should be less sour, in my opinion, as compared to Strawberry or Mango flavour. Since I choose the Mixed Fruit flavour yogurt, I can choose any fruit to decorate the top of the cheesecake, so I decorated with canned longan and nata de coco.

Top View

Side View

Outcome? It was well received at the picnic, especially the parents. My son loves it! I tried it too, and have to say that using Philadelphia brand for the cream cheese does make the cheescake tastes a lot nicer! The Mixed Fruit flavour of yogurt also makes the cheesecake less sour as compared to my last 2 attempts.

I had also made 2 other changes but I don't think these changes had any impact to the taste or look. I had invested in a Kitchen Aid Mixer, so it was my KA's maiden mixing! I only used 3 colours since individual serving is a lot smaller than a whole cake, which I used 6 colours.

Mixing using Kitchen Aid Mixer

Colours - Blue, Green & Orange

To read about my last 2 attempts on making Rainbow Cheesecake, please go to 

1st attempt - http://jenniferphua.blogspot.sg/2013/12/rainbow-strawberry-cheesecake-on-18-dec.html

2nd attempt - http://jenniferphua.blogspot.sg/2013/12/rainbow-mango-cheesecake-2nd-attempt-on.html

As for the recipe, please go to http://www.thebakingbiatch.com/2013/10/cynthias-rainbow-strawberry-cheesecake.html.

Rainbow Mango Cheesecake (2nd attempt) on 25 Dec 2013

It's Christmas Day! I invited 2 friends to my house for a no-baking session, doing the Rainbow Mango Cheesecake, and a playdate session for the children.

I thought this time round, the cheesecake would look much nicer than my 1st attempt, but who knows, the result turned out to be otherwise, sigh... I realised it was a lot more difficult to pour the mixture into the baking pan as it seems a lot more solidified than my previous attempt. It also looked more lumpy. I think it's probably that I didn't mix the cheese cream well enough, and it could be that my food combo processor is going to "die" soon.

Nonetheless, it still tastes cheesecake. :)

It was a Rainbow Mango Cheesecake as my son wanted mango flavoured yoghurt as he doesn't like strawberry. I thought he would eat more this time, but he just ate 1 small slice! Mei mei who is not even 2 years old was a lot more appreciative than the gor gor!

Updates on 29 Dec: It's still me and my girl who finished up the whole cake! I told my boy that I'm not going to make this anymore since he only takes a miserable small portion of it, at least not for near future! Maybe next time, I would do mini versions instead that I can bring out to treat colleagues or friends, that is if it turns out presentable, lol!

Rainbow Strawberry Cheesecake (1st attempt) on 18 Dec 2013

Finally bought all the items needed to make this no-bake Rainbow Strawberry Cheesecake. This was my 1st attempt trying this out, using recipe from http://www.thebakingbiatch.com/2013/10/cynthias-rainbow-strawberry-cheesecake.html.

Before I planned to try making this, I only have 2 mixing bowls (the white ones bought from NTUC). To make it looks nice, I actually invested in getting more mixing bowls (the blue & black ones) and spree those from Amazon.

It wasn't easy to control pouring the cream cheese mixture in to have nice looking effect. Nonetheless, I think it looks not too bad for a 1st attempt. 

I agree with Cynthia from The Baking Biatch that mixing bowls with spout do help to control the pouring of the cream cheese mixture. This was my experience when using these mixing bowls. The white ones don't have a very good profile, whereas the blue & black ones have a deeper profile. Hence, it is easier to control when pouring the mixture from the blue & black ones as compared to the white ones.