No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake (Recipe)


You know why I like making no bake cheesecakes? Because it's the easiest. The texture of this cake is more like a mousse compared to a traditional cheesecake so it tends to melt more easily when left outside the fridge. Considering Malaysia's climate, you might need to consider keeping it in the fridge. If you're baking it for a huge family, I'm pretty sure it will be gone before it even melts. Though it takes overnight to set before you can devour it, there's really nothing else bad about this recipe. With the classic no bake cheesecake recipe, it acts as a base for any flavoured no bake cheesecakes that you plan to make. If you want a strawberry cheesecake, put strawberries in it. If you want a lemon cheesecake, squeeze a lemon! It's really up to you. If you have some digestive biscuits, butter, cream cheese, whipping cream and sugar in your kitchen right now, this recipe is perfect for you.

BASE
Ingredients:
A pack of digestive biscuits (I used McVities)
1/4 cup melted butter
Directions:
Crush the biscuits in a ziploc bag to small crumbly pieces. Put everything into a bowl, add melted butter and mix until they are well combined. If it's still too dry, add a little bit more of melted butter. Texture of the mixture should be soft enough for you to press into the bottom of your pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes for a firm base. 

CHEESECAKE
Ingredients:
Strawberries, about a pack
16 oz cream cheese (2 packs of the small Tatura cream cheese)
2 cups of non-dairy whipping cream
3 tablespoons fine sugar 
Directions:
1. Puree your strawberries. I used a blender until it becomes a liquid but with some small pulps in it.
2. In your mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until creamy.
3. In another bowl, beat whipping cream until soft peak forms.
4. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.
5. Fold strawberry puree into the mixture until nicely combined.
6. Spread evenly onto your cheesecake base.
7. Let it sit in your fridge overnight.
Now the waiting game begins... Does any one of you play the Sims 4? I am obsessed. It has become the greatest distraction for me and one of the biggest reasons behind my procrastination, too. I spend hours decorating just one kitchen. It's crazy. Now that we're still under the restricted movement order, it's the only fun thing I can do at home. 
Random Sims 4 house tour that nobody asked for.
Anyway...
If you're planning to take nice photos of this cake, do it fast. 😂

Sirap Bandung Cupcakes (Recipe)


Sirap bandung. How do I say that in English? Rose milk? Rose syrup? Somebody help. Hahaha. It's basically a popular Malaysian drink made up of rose syrup and milk. It's pink, too. It's really common to see this drink on the menu of the local restaurants here. I had to google up how this drink originated and apparently, this drink is an adaptation of the rose milk served in India. Okay, new knowledge! There's even bandung-flavored soy milk sold in the supermarkets. Now that Ramadhan is approaching, I'm pretty sure it's easier for you to find it on the shelves of the supermarkets near you. 

Anyway... this recipe was made out of curiosity. I knew it was possible to create another new recipe from the good old vanilla cupcake recipe, but I wasn't sure if sirap bandung would work. So I tried. Since the vanilla cupcake recipe required milk as one of the ingredients, I tried substituting it with rose milk instead. It worked and I never felt so good! Here's how you can make these lovely sirap bandung cupcakes.

Cupcakes
Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream, either one)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 sirap bandung (rose syrup, condensed milk, water)
If batter is not pink enough, add in a drop of red food coloring. Not too much!

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven. Go.
2. In your mixing bowl, beat sugar, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla extract until the eggs and oil are well incorporated. Keep mixing until the batter gets lighter in colour.
3. Mix in the yogurt and beat until well combined.
4. Add half the flour into the bowl together with baking powder. Beat on low speed while pouring half of the sirap bandung until the mixture starts to incorporate.
5. Add the remaining flour and continue mixing while pouring the remaining milk. Beat until all of the ingredients are well combined.
6. Divide your batter evenly into your cups. Be sure not to overfill them. Stop trying to taste the batter with your finger too 😛
7. Bake for 17-20 minutes at 160 degrees C. Once done, let them cool completely.

I once participated in a cupcake decorating competition with my friends and won third place. One of the judges told us that the reason why my team didn't make it as the champion was because our cupcakes weren't frosted properly (refer photo above). The right way to frost your cupcakes is to make sure that your cupcakes are fully covered with your frosting. 


However, as you can see, whatever he said didn't change my way of frosting my cupcakes. I like my cupcakes the way I like them to be. I'm not doing it professionally, so I don't need rules. #rebel 🙊 And yes, those are mint leaves.

Yup. You figured. It's buttercream frosting! Nothing different, except for the fact that I added a drop of rose extract into it. If you don't have it, you can totally proceed with the regular buttercream frosting. 

Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
 125g butter
250g powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon rose extract (optional)
Directions:
 Beat butter. Add powdered sugar gradually and mix until fluffy. Add rose extract into mixture and mix until well combined. If you want it colored, drop your desired food coloring into it.
Okay, that is one lengthy post. If you made it up to this point, you're the best! 
Ramadhan Kareem to everyone 💗
p/s: leave a comment and tell me what you're planning to bake, i'd love to get to know my readers hehe

Lemon Bars (Recipe)

When life gives you lemons, you make lemon bars.

Can you tell that I'm a huge fan of lemons from how I named my blog "lemonluna"? I LOVE LEMONS. Lemonades, lemon bars, lemon meringue pies, lemon candies, the list goes on... 🍋 I've had the recipe in my book for as long as I can remember but I never had the motivation to get my hands on the mixer. When the recipe appeared on my Pinterest dashboard, I knew it was a sign for me to start baking these. It was an obvious sign. Thanks to Jenn Segal for making it easier for me.

First, you gotta bake the crust.
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, cold and cut into small cubes
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 cup powdered sugar
Directions:
Jenn used a food processor but I used a mixer instead. 
1. Mix flour, cornstarch and powdered sugar until combined.
2. Then, pop butter into the mixture and mix until everything is well incorporated.
The texture of this mixture should be crumbly and soft enough to be pressed into an even layer.
3. Get your baking pan and start pressing the mixture firmly into a thin layer, forming a crust for your lemon filling to sit on.
4. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and bake for 15 minutes or until nicely browned.
Next, you make the filling.
Ingredients:
If you'd like the filling to be thicker, you can always double the measurements.
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup lemon juice
Lemon zest (I honestly don't care about the measurement. I feel like the more I put, the more lemon-y it tastes)
Directions:
1. Mix everything until it becomes a smooth, silky mixture. There should be no lumps of flour.
2. Pour onto your crust and bake for 30 minutes or until it is set nicely.
Let it cool completely before you sprinkle some powdered sugar on top. Yes. It takes time. Good things take time. Stop touching the top of your lemon bars as if you have the thermometer hands. 😂 Here's how they looked like after I sprinkled powdered sugar on top.



Heavenly good. Let me know if you're trying out this recipe! 💗

Moist Coffee Cupcakes (Recipe)


Like, really moist! I was so infatuated with the nice coffee scent, the soft texture, and how amazingly moist they are with not even a hint of dryness. Might even go as far as suggesting that you should skip your daily morning coffee routine (or cancel your expensive Starbucks trip) and pop these babies into the oven instead. What's amazing is that you get to taste a perfect balance between both chocolate and coffee in these cupcakes. I love this recipe because not only there is a high possibility that you have all the ingredients in your kitchen, they are so easy to make too. Nothing expensive, nothing time-consuming in terms of preparation.

CUPCAKES
Ingredients:
Bowl A:
1/2 cup of brewed coffee
1 1/2 teaspoons coffee powder (I used Nescafe Classic)
1/2 cup fresh milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Bowl B:
1 1/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2  teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Bowl C:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg

Directions:
Preheat the oven. Come on,  you know the drill.
Bowl A:
Mix the coffee powder into the brewed coffee until dissolved. Add in milk and vanilla extract and set aside.
Bowl B:
Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
Bowl C:
Beat butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until nicely combined. Add flour mixture (Bowl B) into the egg-butter-sugar mixture in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of coffee mixture (Bowl A) until well incorporated. Flour-coffee-flour-coffee-flour. 
Lastly, pour the mixture into your cups! Bake for 20 minutes at 160 degrees. Cool completely before you frost the cupcakes. Be patient, please.



You can see how moist and soft they are just by the look of it. Did I tell you how much I've missed doing food photography? I felt like my skills and creativity have deteriorated during the times I have not held my camera. Really loved how the pictures came out for this recipe, though. My mood boards on Pinterest really helped me a lot. #photographytips 😂 Aaaa, I need to shop for more props. I've been using the same props in almost all of my photos. It gets boring.


The good old buttercream frosting. Don't tell me you have no idea what buttercream frosting is unless you're new to baking. YOU. MUST. KNOW. THIS. It's the only thing that can save you when you are clueless of what to frost your cupcakes with. All you need are butter and powdered sugar. If you want it flavored, PUT ANYTHING YOU WANT. Chocolate, mint, lemon, caramel, butterscotch, and even coffee... You can always keep it in the fridge for the times you're not using it. For its long shelf life, I can say it's a lifesaver.

How to make coffee buttercream frosting?
Ingredients:
125g butter
250g powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of brewed coffee 
Directions:
Beat butter. Add powdered sugar gradually and mix until fluffy. Pour coffee into mixture and mix until well combined. 
** you might wanna check the consistency of your frosting to know when you should stop mixing. If it's still too soft and runny, piping will be a hard work. Try mixing a little bit longer until it becomes stable!


Anyways, I have a lot of things to be done for my final year project. I have yet submitted my draft to my supervisor. I have yet started writing for my chapter 3. I am so behind the schedule. SEND HELP. 

After 5 years



Oh my god. My last entry was in 2015? It has been that long?
It just stopped there. You know, degree and stuff. Blogging is a commitment, guys. I don't think I can commit to blogging while juggling 10 subjects per semester. It's hard 😔 We can even use emojis on blogspot now? I feel so old! I remember having to look up for html codes to generate even a heart symbol. Hahaha. What else have I missed for the past 5 years?

Quick update about me. I am currently in my final year of my degree (YES. ONE STEP CLOSER TO GETTING THAT SCROLL) doing Physiotherapy. Never did I imagine myself pursuing this course, but oh well, God knows best and I am very happy with whatever that's been sorted out for me. I had different ambition, different dreams, different goals. What I have now is definitely something different too, but I can see myself doing it even for another 10 years. It has moulded me into a person who knows how to talk, how to convince, how to motivate and how to explain. Skills I never thought I would develop. Friends who knew me before this whole degree thing know that I was a total introvert. Now I just can't stop talking. I get to help people and I get to see them recover with my own two hands. I. Love. My. Job.

Do I still bake? I do! Most of the time I post them on my Instagram or Twitter.
It's much more convenient there. Blogs have no longer become the main channel for people to retrieve info that they need, it's a common phase of technology advancement. Things just get easier each day. However for me, blogging helps me keep whatever I need to keep for my future reference. When people ask me for a recipe, I'll just give them the link to my blog. #selfpromote 😜

I am currently on a long break until my university decides to call us back due to the recent pandemic outbreak. I have nothing else to do at home. So why not! I'll try my very best to update as frequent as possible. If you have any recipe that you'd like me to try, drop it in the chatbox ok! 💖

Coconut Lime Cupcakes (Recipe)

Hello hello hello! *wipes dust off my blog*
Now... how long have I been gone? Totally not in the mood to do the math now. Pretty sure it has been almost.. a year, I think? The last time I wrote was when I was on my foundation semester break. Now I only have a month left before I start degree. A friend asked me if I had a blog where I write about what I bake and stuff, and then I remembered leaving my so-called recipe blog abandoned for a long time already. So here I am, trying to come back to posting recipes. Guys, blogging does involve a lot of effort and commitment, and time. But whatever! I'll post whenever I bake (and have good photos) sooo, have fun. Do leave comments too, would love to interact with my readers!!
I can totally feel my laptop telling me, "as if you have readers....."

Anyway, I've been on Pinterest for quite a number of times lately, and boy do I love Pinterest. It's like, the adult kind of Tumblr, you know? Where you get legit cool stuff like DIY ideas, simple but cool recipes and design ideas too?! So I stumbled upon this coconut lime cupcakes recipe, and thought, "why not?" One, because I haven't baked in a long time. Two, because I love anything citrus. (Don't you, too?!) Three, because they're so easy to bake. Plus the recipe doesn't require expensive ingredients too so that's a bonus.



I don't know if people are going to judge me for the "messy background" but I kinda purposely made it messy. Art IS messy sometimes guys, deal with it!! Hehe. Borrowed my sister's studio for this shoot. By the way, my younger sister is amazing at arts.

Ain't she amazing?!


Back to my coconut lime cupcakes. Yes. I made coconut cream cheese frosting for the cupcakes and it's heeeelllaaaa good. I know some people don't like coconut (why though?!) so you can always go with the normal cream cheese frosting, or maybe lime, yum! These cupcakes are super moist, probably because the recipe uses vegetable oil, and who hates moist cupcakes? I definitely hate dry cupcakes. They're not fun to eat. Here's the recipe!

CUPCAKES
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar (I personally prefer using caster sugar)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Lime zest
About 4-5 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon coconut extract
3/4 cup coconut milk (Used the santan kotak)

Directions:
1. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
2. Whisk eggs and sugar in a separate bowl just until they're well combined. 
3. Add oil, lime zest, lime juice, coconut extract and coconut milk into the egg-sugar mixture and mix until incorporated.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Make sure not to overbeat.
5. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, 165 degrees celcius.

That easy! 




COCONUT CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
Ingredients:
8oz cream cheese
3/4 cup non-dairy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract (or some lime juice if you don't want coconut)

Directions: 
1. Beat the non-dairy whipping cream until it becomes stiff enough.
2. Beat in cream cheese until well-combined.
3. Add in coconut extract and mix.





The frosting didn't fail me this time. I absolutely love my frosting this time, the consistency is satisfying. So yeah, that's it. Are you baking anything special for Raya? Do share with me :)




I totally forgot

Oh my god.... now how long have I been gone? I was blog-walking until I realised that I actually own a blog, and I haven't even been updating it. How responsible of me, I know. Well, for a quick update, I am doing OK and currently on a very mundane semester break. Not travelling anywhere, not even hanging out with friends, not even in the mood to take showers sometimes. That's how much of a sloth I have been during this semester break. Initially my plan was to MAKE MONEY and sell my baked goods but nah, TOO LAZY. Anybody help me get that L word off of my life's dictionary, please. It's making my life miserable.

Anyway, it's not that I'm abandoning this blog or anything, it's just that I haven't been baking much, so I don't really have any new recipes to post, and I try to avoid posting stuff about myself. I mean it gets really awkward if I start writing about myself or my life because I can totally feel the awkwardness now... ok anyway, the reason to why I haven't been baking much is because I'm trying to avoid sugar (the healthy term would be 'eat clean', I know, so lame!) and even if I weren't doing so, nobody eats what I bake, so I kinda end up finishing what I bake myself. You see, I'm into baking whole cakes, and anything with LOTS of frosting, but my family doesn't really dig heavy cakes like that. Sometimes I would just bake whatever I've baked in the past, like pavlovas, brownies and chocolate cakes, the simplest recipes I can find to fulfil my baking desires.

I'm really into experimenting and trying new stuff but MONEY is a huge contributing factor right here. Most of you might not know this (might not want to know either but I'm still telling you so deal with it) but I spend my own money on the ingredients I need to bake, so sometimes when I don't post anything new it's because I am broke. That's probably the saddest thing I said today. I mean guys, even one butter costs a lot today. Cheese, whipping cream, THEY'RE EXPENSIVE. I'm jobless and nobody buys my desserts #sadlife. And good cakes NEED those expensive ingredients. The real nightmare comes when you fail the dessert you're "experimenting" on. The ingredients go to waste, and your purse cries butterflies. It hurts even more when that failed dessert uses 6 eggs. My fellow baking friends, you get me right??

But that's the adventure I have gladly decided to go through. Ceh, like it makes any sense. Nothing beats the satisfaction you get when your dessert turns out well. For me it's quite a gamble, but it makes me happy. (I'm lying. I get crazy angry when I fail.) But heeeey, giving up is not an option! I'm planning to bake a lemon/orange cake next week, or make my own ice-cream. I hope my blog gets updated with new recipes soon!