Christmas 2014 (Part One): Classic Cheese Cake

Ingredients:

1. 900gm of cream cheese (room temperature)
2. 1/2 cup of sugar
3. 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
4. 4 eggs (room temperature)
5. Grated lemon zest (1 whole lemon)
6. Lemon juice (1 whole lemon)

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1. In a large mixing bowl, add the softened cheese and sugar. Mix until both ingredients are blended and well mixed.

2. Add the vanilla essence and mix again.

3. Then add the grated lemon zest and lemon juice and mix until the mixture has softened.

4. Add the eggs one at a time while continue mixing.

5. Preheat oven at 160C.

6. Line a spring cake pan with baking paper.

7. Pour the mixture into the pan.

8. Place the spring cake pan on a larger baking tray. Fill that tray with water (about half-way of the baking tray).

9. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours.

10. Allow to cool.

11. Place the cake in the fridge to chill before serving.

Bon appétit!

PS: I did not eat any of this cake.

Homemade Applesauce

I noticed a lot of gluten-free cake and muffin recipes called for apple sauce. Hence, the existence of this post!

Ingredients:

1. 12 medium-sized Red Delicious apples (peeled, cored and cut into 8 pieces for each apple)
2. 2 cups of freshly juiced apple juice
3. 3 teaspoons of soft brown sugar (*optional) (you can omit this)
4. A squeeze of lemon

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1. Put all the cut apples into a large pot.

2. Pour the apple juice, sugar and lemon juice into the pot.

3. Mix everything up.

4. Cook the apple concoction on medium heat until it boils. Then bring it down to a simmer for approximately 20 minutes.

5. Once the apples have softened, transfer the apples in small batches to a food processor.

6. Once they are all pureed, pour the pureed apple sauce into another pot and bring it to a boil.

7. Allow to cool.

8. You can keep them in mason jars or freezer bags. I kept mine in small freezer bags and kept them in the freezer.

Bon appétit!

Heavenly! *Slurp!*

The Metamorphosis of the Swallowtail Butterfly

I have three different citrus trees growing in my container garden. An orange tree, a lemon tree and a lime tree. These three attract the swallowtail butterfly to the garden. And they come to lay their eggs on the trees. I have caught the Orange Dog caterpillar which morphs into the great Swallowtail butterfly. Here are some of the pictures of the metamorphosis.

1. Egg

2. Caterpillar

The four pictures shows how an orange dog caterpillar wards of its enemies. The two forked-snake-tounge that is extended when under threat is called osmeterium which expels a very FOUL smell to deter its enemies. Believe me when I say FOUL! The osmeterium retreats back into the caterpillar's head when it no longer feels threatened.

3. Chrysalis

4. Butterfly

This butterfly was in the midst of laying eggs on my lemon tree. You can see the tiny egg that was deposited on the leaf in the picture below.

Container Garden - An Update

The garden has been drawing all sorts of lovely bugs to it. There were a few which I have not seen before. And they are amazing!!!

The familiar Periwinkle eater!

This little one fell out of nowhere as I was watering the plants and landed right next to my feet! Imagine if it had plopped on my head! Eeeeeee.....

Another beautiful golden, brown butterfly

This bug is covered in a transparent circle film! I have never seen this bug before!

Mating cucumber bugs doing the gravity-defying-dance!

The red dragonfly

What a beautiful flower! I think it mutated very beautifully!

The dragonfly which had completed its lifespan.

Both zucchini plants died as the cucumber bugs spread the bacteria wilt to them. :( I have never had luck with cucumbers and zucchinis.

The cherry tomatoes are doing extremely well!

Pak Choy in pots!

Pumpkin seedlings

Radish!

The corn plants and okras.

Red Periwinkle grown from seeds!

Periwinkles!

Sunflower seedlings

The Yellow-Banded Wasp Moths Mating!

The lemon tree is growing again after being ill for awhile. It was dropping leaves and growth was stunted. 

This caterpillar was attacking the lemon tree! It ate and ate and ate the leaves and strung webs around the leaves. A pest!!!

The beautiful Allamanda!

Cupcakes, Cupcakes and MORE Cupcakes! And Crackers Too!

My little young man got back his appetite all of a sudden after indulging in my home-made banana cupcakes. He has been talking non-stop about cupcakes, eating cupcakes for breakfast, morning tea, afternoon tea and supper, breathing cupcakes and most likely dreaming about cupcakes at this very moment!

I baked a smaller batch yesterday and Joel finished everything by this morning's breakfast! I made banana cupcakes yesterday. It is salicylate-free if you do not add the sprinkles on the top. Here is the recipe for the banana cupcake.

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Ingredients:

1. 3 tablespoons of butter
2. 2 tablespoons of refined brown sugar
3. 2 large eggs
4. 3 large bananas
5. 1 1/2 cups of self-raising flour
6. Sprinkles (optional)

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1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl.

2. Add in one egg at a time and beat it well.

3. Mash the bananas and add them into the creamed mixture.

4. Beat them well.

5. Add the sifted flour a bit at a time and continue to beat it well.

6. Fill the paper cupcakes with the batter.

7. You can add some sprinkles on top if desired.

8. Bake them in pre-heated oven of 190C. Bake for about 20 minutes or until slightly browned.

Enjoy your cupcakes!

The plain cupcakes are salicylate-free

The little young man made these today. He prepared all the paper cups, mixed the ingredients, beat the ingredients well and did the sprinkling. All I did was to scoop the batter into the cups and put them into the oven to bake and to take them out. He even helped a lot in the 'eating part'!

We made lemon and banana cupcakes today. If you are able to tolerate lemons (I cannot tolerate them at all), you can replace the bananas with the rind of 1 lemon and juice of 1 lemon.

Cupcakes galore! Lemon cupcakes (in front container) and banana cupcakes (in container next to casserole).

I managed to bake wholemeal crackers yesterday. I used a bit less butter than the original saltine crackers recipe. I find that it has its own unique taste. And I have to stop pigging out on crackers and work more in the garden. If not, I'll be looking like cupcakes SOON!

Just replace the all-purpose flour with wholemeal flour and you're all set to bake wholemeal crackers!

Here's the link to my salicylate-free salt crackers:

Salicylate-Free Salt Crackers Recipe



Bon Appetit!