Easy Lemon Cheesecake

Marcel and Ken made an Easy Lemon Cheesecake for dessert at the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors.

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This has to be the best part of the meal. It’s cheesecake, my favourite dessert.

Ingredients

Crust:

  • 1 1/2 cups graham crackers crumbs
  • 5 tablespoons butter

Filling:

  • 1 x 8 ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 3 tablespoons sour cream
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Garnishing:

  • fresh fruit: berries, mango, orange, etc (optional)

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Source: adapted from Lisa Zwirm

Prep time: 30 minutes;  Bake time: 30 minutes;  Serves 12

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Microwave Brownies

The last dessert demonstrated in the South Arm Community Kitchen is the quickest dessert you can make. It’s Microwave Brownies that can be ready in 10 to 12 minutes, including preparation time. Erika demonstrated the Microwave Brownies which her family’s favourite.

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Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 100 grams butter (slightly less than a stick, use the extra for buttering the pan.
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 1 cup pecans
  • icing sugar for garnishing

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Source: Erika

Prep time: 5 minutes; Bake time: 6 minutes; Serve 9

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Spanish Almond Cake

Minoo shared this Spanish Almond Cake as one of the dessert in the South Arm Community Kitchen. I enjoyed this kitchen most as I love sweets.

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This is a simple and quick cake recipe. It comes handy when you have unexpected guests.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup ground almonds
  • 3 tablespoons slivered almonds
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • icing sugar for garnishing

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Source: Minoo

Prep time: 15 minutes; Bake time: 25 minutes; Serve 8

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Spinach Cake

This is a healthy cake. It has green power. It has the source of Popeye’s power. This cake is great for picky kids who defy vegetables.

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The whipping cream makes this Spinach Cake more attractive.

Source: unknown

Prep time: 30 minutes; Bake time: 30 minutes; Yield 1 loaf

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 250g (1/4 pound) spinach, washed, drained
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2.5 cups flour, sifted
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup whipped cream
  • 3L Pyrex dish (we used a loaf pan which takes longer to bake because we cant find a Pyrex dish in this kitchen)

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Amish Friendship Bread

Lorna gave me a bag of Amish Friendship Bread starter back in October.  Since then, I had made three batches of this Amish Friendship Bread and shared them with 9 friends.

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This Amish Friendship Bread is more cake like to me. It is moist and taste very good.  The only problem with the recipe is that you’ll end up with 4 bags of starter.  You’ll have to share 3 bags with your friends if you decide to keep one for yourself.  When I took the starter to the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors to share with the seniors, none of them want them.  For those who has so much life experiences, at one point of time, they had tried this Amish Friendship Bread and end up with excess starters that they cant give away as many of their friends already have them.  So, I’m going to change the recipe a bit so that I’ll end up with only one starter to keep the bread rolling.  I hope it works.

Ingredients:

To be added to the starter on the 6th day:

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup milk

To be added to the starter on the 10th day:

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I’m going to cut this to 1/2 cup to create only 1 starter)
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (I’m going to cut this to 1/2 cup to create only 1 starter)
  • 1 1/2 cups milk (I’m going to cut this to 1/2 cup to create only 1 starter)

For the bread:

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup oil (or 1/2 cup oil plus 1/2 cup applesauce)
  • 1 cup sugar (I reduced this to 1/2 cup)
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon (I leave this for the chocolate marble loaf)
  • 1 large box of vanilla instant pudding
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract (I used vanilla)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • optional nuts, dates, dried cranberries, raisins, etc)
  • 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (this is my own addition to create a chocolate marble loaf)

For topping (I left this out for my chocolate marble loaf):

  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon

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Best Cocoa Brownies

The South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors made the Best Cocoa Brownies for sales in a Christmas craft fair hosted at the South Arm Community Center.  The proceeds from the sales will be donated to the Richmond Food Bank.  It is a good course for the Senior Kitchen.

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This Best Cocoa Brownies are not the dense type. It is light and cakey. The aroma of cocoa fills the kitchen when the brownies are being bake.

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While there were 3 pairs of people working on the brownies, 2 other members made a Butternut Squash Apple Soup for lunch.  Charlene also brought some bread to go with soup.

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During lunch, we had an apple tasting and apple guessing game.  It’s a fun way to know our apples.  I can only distinguish Gala and Granny Smith.  Can you name the apples above?

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Click on the images above to review the name of the apples.

Ingredients

  • 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 2 cold large eggs
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

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This recipe is taken from Alice Medrich and it makes 16 2-inch brownies.

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Toffee Apple Cake

Chris shared this Toffee Apple Cake recipe with the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors as dessert.  According to Chris, this cake is tops.  The best part is we can make most out the local apples in the fall.

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This Toffee Apple Cake is very moist and almost custard like.  The toffee bits topping add some crunch to it. This is certainly not a dietary kind of dessert.  Well, it’s ok to let ourselves indulge for a treat once in a while.

Chris and Paul worked on this dessert.  This recipe serves 24.

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Five Minute Chocolate Cake in a Mug

I just received this recipe from my friend, Jean.  It has a very captivating title which is “The Most Dangerous Cake Recipe in the World”.  I thought of sharing this with chowtimes readers.

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This looks like any ordinary chocolate cake but it is made in the microwave oven in 5 minutes.  What makes it so dangerous is that you can have this indulgences whenever you have a crave and it can be prepared so easily and so quickly.

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa
  • 4 tablespoons flour (Nanzaro preferred 3 tablespoons  of flour for a more denser texture like brownies)
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 3 tablespoons oil
  • 3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
  • a small splash of vanilla extract
  • 1 large coffee mug

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Crispy Red Bean Cake

While Minoo’s Salmon and Potato Chowder is in the making, Heidi showed us how to make a Taiwanese Crispy Red Bean Cake. We had to have both the demonstrations going at the same time as it takes time for both to be ready in the 2 hours of the community kitchen. Sometimes, I could miss a picture here and there but I always try my best to capture all the critical steps.

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This Crispy Red Bean Cake is crispy on the outside and yet creamy and lightly chewy inside. The trick to have a crispy crust is to bake it at higher temperature first and then turn the temperature down later so that the crust will not burn.

Ingredients

  • 400g glutinous rice flour
  • 4 tablespoons rice flour
  • 4 tablespoons wheat starch
  • 2 tablespoons custard powder
  • 100g instant coconut powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 5 large eggs
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 cups 2% milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 200g red bean paste

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p/s: the brown sugar was missing in the photo.

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Steamed Fatt Ko

This post is for Carol. She asked for a recipe of steamed cake. I’m not sure if this is exactly what’s in her mind but nevertheless, as Chinese New Year is approaching, steaming some Fatt Ko seems to fit the festivities. Fatt Ko in Cantonese sounds like rise and high which is what Chinese wishes one another during Chinese New Year.

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The Fatt Ko did not rise as much as it should be because I ran short of the double-acting baking powder. Anyway, I love the taste and texture of these Fatt Ko.

Ingredients

Starter:

  • 200g Hong Kong flour (I used all-purpose flour)
  • 1 teaspoon instant yeast
  • 150ml water

Dough:

  • 250g Hong Kong flour
  • 20g double-acting baking powder (I used only 12g as that all I have in my pantry)
  • 160ml water
  • 200g brown sugar or gula melaka (I used brown sugar)

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If done properly, the Fatt Go should rise very high and the top will split. The Fatt Go is a little chewy and denser than it should be. It also has a yeasty flavour to it as Nanzaro said it’s like eating Man Tau (in his words, eating Char Siu Pau without the char siu).

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