Strawberry Jelly Hearts // Strawberry Jelly Cheesecake Recipe!

This Valentine's, I made a tray of Strawberry Jelly Hearts/Strawberry Jelly Cheesecake for R and his family! It was my first time making a cake for him all by myself, so I wanted something easy and non-bake (cos I don't have an oven). While the recipe is easy to follow, it actually took up more time than expected (2hours just to make the crust and cheese layers!), so be prepared for that!

Now let's go into the recipe!

I'll link the original recipe right here! I've added a few items and modified some of the measurements and ingredients, otherwise, it is still quite similar to the original list.

For the crust -
300g digestive biscuits
150g melted butter

1 ziplock bag

1 pestle (those heavy herb grinder that your grandma uses)

note: If you prefer a thinner crust, use

200g digestive biscuits
100g melted butter

For the cheesecake layer -
450g cream cheese (placed in room temperature for 2 hours to soften)
1 & 1/2 tablespoons gelatin powder
1 cup boiling/hot water
Slightly less than 2/3 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
About 10 to 12 strawberries

For the jelly layer -
Tortally Jelly (Strawberry flavour)
1 cup hot water
1 cup cold water

Step 1: Cut your strawberries into heart shapes! Remember to buy bigger strawberries, if not your hearts will sink into the cheesecake and the heart shapes won't be so obvious.

Step 2: Place 300g of digestive biscuits into the ziplock bag. Lock it well, make sure that you let out all the air inside the bag. Now, just whack your pestle hard and start breaking down your biscuits into crumbly pieces.

Step 3: Prepare 150g of butter, clingwrap your bowl to prevent the butter from splattering all over and pop it in the microwave for about 20-30secs. While waiting, use the leftover butter to grease your pan.

Step 4: Mix the melted butter together with your biscuit crumbs. Proceed to spread the mixture evenly onto your pan, try to flatten it and leave as little empty air space as possible. Then, leave it in the refrigerator to cool!

Step 5: Measure out 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of gelatin powder and dissolve it in 1 cup of hot/boiling water. Then, put it aside and let it cool.

Step 6: Now mix 450g of cream cheese together with the 2/3 cup of sugar. This is the tiring part. If you have a whisk, USE IT! It will save you alot of time. I didn't have a whisk, so I had to use a normal spoon to mix it in, and that took me about 20min.

The end product should look rather smooth and fluffy like this!

Step 7: Pour in your cooled gelatine and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the cream cheese mixture. Stir/whisk well. Now at this point, the mixture is going to be VERY WATERY. Do not panic. The cheese will set well.

Step 8: Pour the mixture onto the crust

Step 9: Add in your strawberries!

Step 10: Refrigerate your pan and just let it chill for 4 hours or overnight (that's what I did).

Step 11: For the jelly mixutre, I used the Tortally strawberry jelly and just mix the powder with 1 cup of hot water until all the powder dissolved, then add in another cup of cold water.

Step 12: Make sure the jelly mixture is cooled (to about room temperature), and pour the mixture over your cream cheese.

Step 13: Chill the cake for 4 hours (or overnight) and VOILA! A light and refreshing dessert, suitable for any occasion!

I think this recipe is quite foolproof. Even if you make a bit of mistake here and there (e.g not adding enough gelatine, crust too buttery, jelly too soft), the end product will still be yummy.  Highly recommended for beginners! 

Easy Toasted Marshmallows/S'mores Recipe

My favorite thing to BBQ has to be marshmallows! Since it's not everyday that we get to BBQ, I decided to use whatever equipments/tools I have at home to satisfy my sweet tooth. It is super fast and easy to make. Great snack at anytime of the day!

Introducing...my home-made S'mores!!

S'mores are basically toasted marshmallow and chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of graham crackers. My favorite way to eat it is without the melted chocolate as I find the combination to be too sweet.

What you will need:

Toaster

Marshmallows

Crackers

Optional-Chocolate bars, preferably at room temperature so that it's easier to melt it.

Step 1. There are 3 pieces of crackers per pack. Break the crackers evenly, so that you get 6 smaller pieces, and place the marshmallows on 3 of the crackers. The remaining 3 will be used to sandwich the marshmallows later on.

Step 2. Place them in the toaster, giving each of them ample amount of space, as the marshmallow will expand and we do not want our marshmallows to stick onto each other.

Step 3. Set the toaster at 150deg celsius, for 8-10min. Every toaster works differently, so do check on it every 3-4 min. Adjust the timing according to your own preferences. If you don't like it to be too burnt, take it out earlier.

Step 4. Once the marshmallows are sufficiently toasted, use a spoon to scoop out the toasted marshmallows and crackers from the oven. It should look something like this.

Step 5. (Optional) Place a small piece of chocolate on the marshmallow. The heat from the marshmallow will melt down the chocolate.

Step 6. For the last step, place another piece of cracker on the marshmallow and gently press down the marshmallow.

Step 7: Aaaaanddd, you're done! Now it's time to sink you teeth into those little squares of perfection. It's so sinful, but so yummeh. I just love the combination of gooey marshmallows and crunchy crackers.

Another bonus of these toasted marshmallow is that they fill the entire house with a sweet, yummy aroma! Positive externality!! Highly recommend anyone with a toaster at home to try it out. The rest of the ingredients are readily available at any grocery stores :)

Review: Wimbly Lu

I believe I've found the best cafe (yet) to satisfy my dessert cravings.

Welcome to Wimbly Lu.
 The place to be if you have a sweet tooth and an unsatisfiable appetite for desserts.

Wimbly Lu is one of those vintage, cozy, quaint lil cafes with wonderful environment and setting for camwhoring. It reminds me a bit of Carpenter and Cook (gosh, they serve great desserts too). Wimbly Lu is located at Jalan Riang, nestled between those landed properties and private estates. Not exactly the most convenient location, but it is still within walking distance from Serangoon MRT.

For somewhere so ulu, Wimbly Lu was really crowded. We reached the cafe at around 450pm on Sunday and was told that we had 6-7groups of customers in front of us. We estimated that it will take at least half an hour before it's our turn, so we went to Rokeby (just a few shops away) for a cup of coffee. We returned at 530pm and we were just in time. The best time to visit is around 6pm, the place is quite empty during dinner time.

Anw, we proceeded to order and after a good 15, maybe 20min, we were still waiting for our food! The table beside us ordered later than us and got their food within like 5mins-.- Turned out there was a 'miscommunication' with the kitchen, therefore we had to wait for another 8-10mins-.- means they forgot our order lo. I think i'll be quite annoyed if we weren't playing 'hardest game ever 2'. Actually now that I'm typing this, I feel abit pissed, the waiter didn't even apologize leh:( 

He said 'There was a miscommunication with the kitchen, is it okay if it takes another 8-10mins?'

Lol, you mean I can say not okay meh? Still have to wait right. 

Haha, so bitchy. 

But I think that was just a one-off incident, from what I observed the service was pretty fast.

Aside from the 'forgotten order', yeah, the food was pretty damn good. 

Here's what we ordered

Sticky Date Pudding ($6/$6.50-can't remember)

I think this is one of the best sticky date puddings around (Marmalade Pantry serves nice ones as well). Anyone tried P.S cafe's sticky date pudding before? I tried it once and it tasted like Huat Kueh (发糕). 

The sticky date pudding at Wimbly Lu is legit. It was packed with dates, not too sweet and was sufficiently moist (unlike the huat kueh at P.S). I guess the portion could be bigger, I was craving for more when we cleared the last bit of pudding off the little bowl.

Waffle with salted caramel ice cream and toffee sauce ($8.50)

Oh mah gad. This is da bomb. This is the mother of salted caramel ice cream waffle. As advertised on
several foodie blogs, this waffle was crispy on the outside and fluffy (freaking soft and fluffy) on the inside. Its quite amazing actually.

We requested for the sauce to be served separately so that we could try out the pure waffle, but you could ask for it to be drizzled on your waffle. The toffee sauce was a nice touch and it blends in nicely with my salted caramel ice cream. I like it that they offer toffee sauce, usually you get either caramel or chocolate so it's really good to have another alternative.

And of course, the salted caramel ice cream.
It wasn't too sweet and the texture was quite light, not the creamy kind of ice cream. It beats the crap out of the salted caramel ice cream at Salted Caramel. The salted caramel ice cream at Salted Caramel used to be my favorite, but recently their salted caramel just tasted like vanilla ice cream. You have to try really hard before you realize 'ahh, yes, I can taste the salted caramel'. Yes, maybe some people prefer the subtle, faint and delicate kind of salted caramel ice cream, but for me, I like mine to be real distinct and easy to understand.

The salted caramel ice cream at Wimbly Lu is full on, in your face, 

BAMM! 'THIS IS YOUR SALTED CARAMEL'

 No speculation, no hesitation, once it touches your tongue, you know it. 

Salted Caramel

So as you can probably tell by now, despite the little annoyance, I'm obsessed. 

Here's a little map of Wimbly Lu.