Japanese Cheesecake for Hubby's Birthday

I read a lot of buzz about Japanese cheesecake. I read reviews on how tasty and good it is. It is light and fluffy with cheesecake goodness. I saw a lot of pictures of it on Pinterest. So I thought, why not try to make it.

It was my hubby's birthday, so I thought it would be a perfect time to bake the Japanese cheesecake. I searched for the recipe. I found one that was easy to follow. The ingredients were readily available except for the caster sugar. I was lucky to find it at Walmart this time. Usually they do not have it. I've looked for it before when I was planning to make macarons but did not find it. Anyway, I was able to gather all the ingredients and baked it the day before hubby's birthday. My Japanese cheesecake did not rise up as I expected it to be. So I have to make two batches, two round pans. Then, I made a light whipped cream frosting to put in between the cakes and to decorate the top. Finally it was done and looked presentable.

I was so excited about this cheesecake. I am not so crazy about the American cheesecake because it is just too sweet for me and too heavy. I know I'm crazy, lol,  I don't have the sweet tooth. Anyway, because of the rave reviews that this is fluffy and light, I couldn't wait to taste it.

Hubby's birthday came and finally the judgment day for the Japanese cheesecake. My husband liked it because it reminded him of a Hungarian cake he used to eat when he was young. But for me, it was a little exotic. It required lemon juice for the ingredients, and it came out a little sour for me. I should have followed one of the reviewers that said to lessen the lemon juice. Anyway, overall it was a pretty good cake. Like they said it was fluffy and light. It is not too sweet. It is like a combination of the regular cheesecake and a chiffon cake. So if you are not fond of the heavy and dense cheesecake this is a great alternative. I just need to tweak the recipe I found a little bit, to fit my taste or find another recipe to try, and hopefully this will be one of my fave cakes in the future. I am just glad my husband liked it.

Filipino Steamed Buns, "Siopao"

Last Friday, I made some Filipino steamed buns called siopao. I made two different kinds but on this post I will share about the siopao filled with meat and boiled eggs. Siopaos are made of dough bread, then you fill it inside with either meat or sweet fillings. It is similar to Chinese steamed buns. Instead of baking the bread in the oven, you cook it by steaming.

I was supposed to make a Pork Asado siopao but I mistakenly grab the frozen ground beef to thaw instead of the ground pork. So it became Beef Asado! I added some cut boiled eggs for the filling, too. Asado here is different from the Argentinian barbecue style, Filipino asado is a term we used for cooking our meat sweet and salty style. The meat is cooked with a mixture of oyster, soy, and hoisin sauces added with sugar and salt to taste. And what comes out is the asado meat filling, a combination of a little sweetness and saltiness. Oops, I'm drooling now. 

So basically you flatten the dough you made after proofing it. Then you put a spoonful or more of the asado filling and then the sliced egg and then seal the bun. Once all the buns are made you steam it for at least 30 minutes.

You can eat the steamed buns warm or cold. I prefer to eat it warm with catsup. You can have it for snacks or even for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It actually fills you up. It is just like eating bread and meat but all in one. 

I made more buns than we can consume for one time so I freeze the others. If I need to eat it, I will just put it in the microwave, cover it in wet paper towel and it will be warm. Or I can steam it again. It will taste like freshly made.

My kiddos loved it! So it was worth all the muscle exercise I did while kneading the dough, lol. But hubby still finds it exotic. Good for me, I will have more to eat, lol. If you like to make siopao, just google it and a lot of other great bloggers have great recipes for it. 

The siopao with the beef asado and boiled egg filling.

Ube Cupcakes!

 

Hello, guys! I have not written anything on my blog for months now. I am back! lol. Just checked my blog again today and felt like blogging again. Hopefully I will have time for it again from time to time.

Anyway, my blog post for today is about my homemade Ube Cupcakes! I have been wanting to bake some ube cupcakes or cake these past few months. But I was not so lucky to find an ube flavoring. It is very hard to find an ube flavoring here where I live. The Asian stores here do not have it always. Maybe if they do, it goes away pretty fast because it is not available all the time. I tried to find it online, found one in Amazon but it was too expensive for such a little amount. It is almost $10 for a 20 ml bottle. And I need to use at least two bottles in each recipe. It is not worth it, lol, I am on a budget.

Finally I found some ube flavoring two weeks ago at the Asian store. I got lucky! I bought two bottles ( did not read the recipe yet prior to buying). I thought the two bottles was more than enough. I regretted it. I should have bought all the four bottles. Because I later found out that the recipe calls for the two bottles to be used. Oh well! Lesson learned. I have to wait again for it to be available at the Asian store, lol. I should have been smarter. By the way, the price for each bottle at the store was just $3 each, big difference from the online price. 

So finally, I was able to bake some cupcakes. Primarily, I wanted to bake a cake, but I thought, if we do not finish the whole cake fast it will be wasted. So I decided to just bake the cupcakes. That way, I will just frost enough number of it that we can eat easily. And then I froze the rest for next time.

By the way, for those who do not know what "UBE" is, it is a root crop. Sometimes it is called purple yam, maybe because it is purplish in color. It is a tuberous root vegetable. It is different from the purple sweet potatoes though which is more common here in the US. In the Philippines, it is very common. You can find ube jams, ube ice cream, and of course ube cake/cupcakes.

Back to my baking. The recipe I followed was pretty good. But not what I was expecting. I was looking for the spongy type cupcake. The one I made was more dense. But it was still good, it was pretty moist. Though a little oily for my liking. But overall, the cupcakes were good and the ube taste did come out pretty well.

I will try to find another recipe next time and experiment. Hopefully I will find the recipe I am looking for. Until next post!:)