Rose water cheesecake

For the Baha'is all over the world, the Ridván Festival is the biggest one all year. Why? Because the Messenger of God for today - Bahá'u'lláh declared during those days that He was the Promised one of all ages. So there, enough reason to celebrate!
It is called the Ridván festival because these events took place at a garden called "Ridván". This festival lasts from the 21st of April until the 2nd of May. Roses were Bahá'u'lláh's favourite flower and this garden had an abundance of them.

"Every day,... ere the hour of dawn, the gardeners would pick the roses which lined the four avenues of the garden, and would pile them in the center of the floor of His blessed tent. So great would be the heap that when His companions gathered to drink their morning tea in His presence, they would be unable to see each other across it. All these roses Bahá'u'lláh would, with His own hands, entrust to those whom He dismissed from His presence every morning to be delivered, on His behalf, to His Arab and Persian friends in the city."
(Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 153)

So, remembering those days and the smell and taste of the beautiful fragrance of those roses, we are making this rose water and cardamon cheesecake. This post is part of the collaboration for the "Walking through the garden of Ridván" series.

INGREDIENTS:

- For the crust:
1 pack of Marie cookies
100 gr melted butter
Milk
1/2 tsp cardamon

1. Powderize the cookies and mix with the melted butter.
2. Add the cardamon to the milk and then pour slowly and knead until you reach the desired consistency (if too dry add more milk but be careful not to add too much since you will have to find where to get more cookies from)
3. Once the crust is ready, spread on a pie tray and bake at 180ºC for 5-10 minutes until less wet. Remove from oven.

- For the filling:
1 can of condensed milk
1 pack of cream cheese (250 grams)
2 eggs
2 tbsp of rose water
A splash of lemon juice

1. Add all ingredients to the blender and blend until well combined.
2. Pour onto the baked crust. Burst all bubbles (if possible).
3. Bake for about 30 minutes at 180ºC. The time will vary so you have to check it and make sure it is not under cooked. To do this you have to shake the pan and if the center wiggles, it needs to bake longer.
Let cool at room temperature and then refrigerate.
Please note that cheesecake tastes better when it has set so if making for a party or function, you can bake it the night before or early in the morning to allow enough hours for it to set.

Magnolia Bakery cupcakes

These cupcakes are sooo yummy that we had to research on the recipe. This may not be 100% like the ons you can get in the bakery (yum!) but it is delicious!

Our friend Yumei from Mum n Babies made them and was kind enough to send us pictures :) Thank you!

Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups of self-raising flour

1 1/4 cups flour

227 grams of unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs at room temperature

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven at 180ºC
2. Line cupcake baking trays with liners
3. In a bowl, combine the flours and set aside
4. On another bowl cream the butter on an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. 
5. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy (about 3 minutes)
6. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Add the dry ingredients in three parts while alternating with the milk and vanilla.
7. After each addition beat until ingredients are well combined but do not over beat.
8. Spoon the mixture in the lined baking trays up to 3/4 full.
9. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes on the tins for 15 minutes and then remove and cool completely before icing.

Icing
INGREDIENTS:

227 grams of unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 cups of soft icing sugar
1.2 cup of milk
1 tsp of vanilla extract

1. Put the butter and 4 cups of the sugar, the milk and vanilla in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth and creamy (3-5 minutes).
2. Gradually add the remaining sugar 1 cup at a time beating well after each addition until the icing has a good think spreading consistency.

NOTE: You may not need to add all of the sugar. You can also add a few drops of food colouring. You can store at room temperature for about 3 days but do not put in the fridge since this will harden the icing). You will most definitely have left over icing - this recipe can also be used to ice a 9 inch cake. This pic shows cupcakes with a little icing but we usually cover the whole top with it :)

Magnolia's banana pudding!

While in NYC we visited the famous Magnolia Bakery and really enjoyed their banana pudding (sometimes even more than their cupcakes!) and had to look for this recipe and make it when back in Australia. Although we could not find the specific biscuit they call for in their recipe, we made changes and used the ingredients below and it worked quite well :)
F, Mr. F and I really love this!

INGREDIENTS:
1 can condensed milk
1.5 cups of ice cold water
1 box or bag of vanilla pudding (in our case we used a bag of vanilla "Pudding Magic")
750 ml of heavy cream
Lady Finger biscuits
About 6-8 bananas cut in slices.

1. Mix the water and the condensed milk until well combined. Add the pudding and allow to set (this can be made and left overnight). Make sure it has had enough time to set completely.
2. Whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
3. Start softening the pudding mix with a fork and then fold it in the whipped cream gently until they are combined and you can no longer see lumps or streaks of yellow pudding.
4. To assemble: put a thiner layer of cream at the bottom to start, then the sliced bananas and then the biscuits and repeat making thicker layers of cream until the last layer is cream and then decorate the top with some banana slices.

Delicious and easy!

Mexican hot chocolate ice cream

So, we have come across a site called Safari Love that specialises in exotic drinks and one of our favourites is their Mexican hot chocolate (Aztec elixir). It is so delicious! Very thick and with a hint of cinnamon...yum! So...we decided to make it into ice cream (of course!).

INGREDIENTS:
300ml thick cream (we used light)
300ml milk
5 generous tbsp of Aztec Elixir hot chocolate powder
200ml thickened cream for whipping
1 tbsp of icing sugar
100gr Chocolate chips (we used Lindt orange intense)

1. In a small saucepan mix the 300ml of thick cream with the milk and the chocolate powder. Stir until well combined, set aside and let cool completely. Transfer to the fridge.
2. Once the chocolate milk is cold, whip the other 200ml of thickened cream with the icing sugar until stiff peaks form.
3. Gently fold the chocolate milk and mix until well combined.
4. Set in the freezer for an hour or two and then transfer to your ice cream maker (we have a Breville bowl and scraper but if you don't have any type of ice cream making machine, you can just remove from the freezer every 2 hours and scrape and mix so you get a soft consistency rather than a hard frozen piece of chocolate milk).
5. Mix until you get the desired consistency and then add the chocolate chips and mix for a few more seconds. Store in an airtight container in the freezer and enjoy!

Easiest cheesecake!

INGREDIENTS:
- If you want to make the crust:
1 pack of plain cookies (we use Marie)
200 gr melted butter
a bit of milk

- For the filling:
1 pack of cream cheese
1 can of condensed milk
2 eggs
A splash of lemon juice

To make the crust, crush the cookies and mix with the melted butter and some milk until it has a doughy consistency. Press on the pie pan either just on the bottom or the bottom and sides and bake in preheated oven (165 C) for about 10 minutes until the top is no longer shiny. Remove from oven.



While baking the crust put all the ingredients for the filling in the blender and mix well. Spray the edges before adding the cheese mixture so it doesn't stick. Top the baked crust with the mixture and put back in the oven for about 25 minutes or until the middle doesn't shake when wiggled. Remove from oven and let cool.

NOTE: You can add pretty much anything to your cheesecake from fruit to chocolate and nuts. We added Lindt balls to ours. Just spread the toppings you like over the crust and cover with the cheese mixture.

Also, cheesecakes taste best the day after they are made once they have set, so if you're planning to make it for an event, we suggest you make it the day before :)

Piña Colada ice cream

So here is a recipe my son and I made yesterday. Took us right back to the Caribbean :)

INGREDIENTS:

1 can sweetened condensed milk (you can use light if you prefer)

1 can coconut milk

1 can pineapple in juice

Some shredded coconut

A bit of milk

Add all the ingredients except the milk into a blender and mix for about 1-2 minutes until well combined. You can add the milk only if necessary.

Put the mixture in an airtight container for 2 hours before transferring to your ice cream maker (this speeds up the process).

Once in the ice cream maker, check periodically until it achieves the desired consistency (ours was still a bit soft so we put it in the freezer for a few hours). You can store any leftovers in an airtight container in the freezer.

NOTE: If you don't have an ice cream maker, just take the container with the mix out of the freezer every 2 hours and scrape the sides and give it a good mix until you reach the desired consistency.

Piña colada ice cream