Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

Good morning everyone, 2014 is quickly coming to an end and that means holidays, shopping, parties, vacations....Well, no vacation for me as the boss froze our leaves for these 2 months ;( but lotsa shopping (even the husband noticed that I've been shopping too much this month, haha) and an upcoming Xmas party, say YES!

How are you ladies spending the holidays? I'm sure there'll be lots of cooking and baking involved ;).

Yesterday I baked this sinfully fudgy brownies with swirls of Nutella Cheesecake in it..hmmm, it was even better than how I expected it to be. It was for a friend of mine and still we got to taste it. So here goes, Nutella Cheesecake Brownies which is super moist and chocolatey to the max. Enjoy!!!

 

You need :

An 8 inch square pan, greased and lined with baking paper.

Brownie batter :

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1/3 cup plain flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5 tbsp. Nutella

Cheesecake batter:

8 oz Philadelphia cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/3 cup Nutella

Method :

Heat oven to 170C.

Brownie batter:

Beat butter and brown sugar, add eggs and beat well. Add in cocoa powder, flour, mix. Lastly add Nutella and mix till combined. I just mixed it all using a bowl and spatula.

Cheesecake batter :

Beat room temperature cheese with an electric mixer. Add in sugar, mix well. Add eggs one at a time, beat. Lastly add in Nutella and ensure that all in combined well.

Now pour brownie batter into prepared pan. Then scoop out cheesecake batter onto the brownie batter till it forms a top layer. You may leave it as that or do swirls using a butter knife.

Bake in preheated oven at 170C for 45-50 minutes till a skewer inserted in the middle comes with crumbs (not too dry).

Cool on a wiring rack. let it sit in the pan about an hour.

I'm linking this to my on going event
Bake Along Challenge # 6

Cooks Joy , Bake Fest

What's with my cuppa

Bake Along Challenge # 6 : Chocolate

Hi everyone...I'm back with my event after a looonngggg absence. Yup, life has been super busy with the arrival of the princess, a new job, an upcoming new house, a home baking business and a long distance marriage with the husband pursuing his Masters..Phewww. In the midst of all this, I've missed cooking and baking for pleasure. So, here goes.. Bake Along Challenge #6..I hope it will inspire me and you to try out a new recipe as it's the holiday season after all!

And the Theme is : Chocolate

Yes, let's start off with this favourite ingredient of mine.

 So, do join in and make some yummy treats ;)

The simple rules are :
1. Follow my blog
2. Bake anything using Chocolate, it can be cocoa, white, milk or dark chocolate..your choice.
3.Add your post to the linky tool provided and also post a link of this event in your post.
4. Usage of logo is mandatory.
5. Any number of entries are allowed.
6. Event runs from 17/12/14 till 30/1/15.

I will post a round up of the event in the month of Feb.

Happy Baking ;)

Anniversary Dinner at Tamarind Hill Kuala Lumpur

It was our 4 years Anniversary on the 12/12 and I decided to make a reservation at this restaurant in KL which I've been waiting to try out for quite some time. The reviews on this place has always been good and consistent. So when I called up the place and was told that they might close up the restaurant for a big party booking, I was truly disappointed ;(. I was told that my reservation will be put on hold till they get a confirmation from the other party,,,hmmm.

Well, when they called back on the 9/12 and told me that my reservation has been confirmed, I was over the moon...haha. I even requested for a corner table in the outdoor setting as it was our anniversary.

On the day itself, I surprised the husband with a cake I made specially for the occasion. Here's a couple of pics of the cake :

It was a Buttermilk Cake with Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting and Fresh Berries.
I was hunting for some edible flowers bt there was no stock in all the usual places so had to put up with just the berries. I was a little sad that my whole idea of the cake did not materialize due to the flowers but the cake itself was truly enjoyed by all and had the perfect crumb and texture. Haha..so happy ;).

Now, back to the dinner....It ended up being a rainy evening (been raining on and off here in Malaysia) and the rain stopped just before we reached the restaurant. Thank God for that as the restaurant itself is atop a little hill and the pathway of stairs are lit with beautiful lanterns and we still managed to enjoy our walk up.

We were then greeted by a friendly waiter and quickly led us to our reserved table...yes, at a corner. The lighting and ambience gave out the romantic feel. We started off with a cocktail for me and a whiskey for the husband. Upon the waiter's recommendation I chose the Apple Cinnamon cocktail and my, it was truly a great start. I loved it so much!

Apple Cinnamon Cocktail

Next came our platter of starters and every bit was flavourful with different textures, me and the husband gave it two thumbs up.

Starters

 

 

Now to our main course, we had Jasmine fragrant rice with my all time fav Green Curry Chicken, Steamed Ginger Fish and broccoli in oyster sauce.

Main course

The fish came deboned and so flavourful. The green curry wasn't the best (guess I've tried too many to say so) and the vege was just nice. Overall a lovely meal that we were so full at the end of it.

But there has to be dessert, right. It's a celebratory dinner after all. This time we decided to go for liquid dessert..yes, dessert in the form of cocktails ;). I chose the Black Forest and the husband went with the Chocolate Volcano.



Black Forest



Chocolate Volcano

Yummmssss...it was boozy treat indeed ;). Mine had a strong Baileys taste and the husband's was more of a chocolatey one.


And so our lovely romantic dinner came to an end with both of us feeling refreshed and me a little giddy from the cocktail ;)

Cheers!

 

Dry Spicy Prawns

I won this Modern Indian Cookbook in a recent contest and was excited to try out the wonderful recipes in it. The book is filled with yummy looking pics of glorious food that made me so happy to win it. Here's a pic of the book cover ;)

And here's the simple Spicy Prawns that was enjoyed by the husband..

Ingredients :

500 gms prawns
1 large onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled
2 inches ginger, peeled
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilli powder
salt for seasoning
2 tbsp. cooking oil
1 stalk curry leaves (didn't have it when I made this)
1 tbsp. lemon juice

Method :

Clean, peel, de-vein the prawns. Blend together onion, garlic and ginger with a bit of water.
Heat a skillet and add the prawns, the blended ingredients, chillii powder and turmeric powder.
Season with salt. Mix well. Add water and bring to a simmer. Lower heat and cook with lid on about 5 mins. Take lid off and cook till the liquid evaporates. Then, add the oil and curry leaves, stir. Continue to cook till sauce thickens and coats prawns. Turn off heat.
Drizzle lemon juice over prawns and serve hot.

Vegetarians can replace prawns with diced peeled potatoes.