A little bit about cheesecake brownies

Who loves brownies? Who loves cheesecake? This one's for you!

I have a Studentlife conference reunion tomorrow and a group of girls are baking a lil some'in ;)

Although I can't join them, I thought I'd make some brownies to bring along...

I used Cadbury baking chocolate, but I think it would be nicer with eating chocolate; Whittaker's dark ghana, for example.

Okay, confession: I incorrectly read the recipe I was following- I thought I was supposed to melt chocolate and butter together, but it was actually just the chocolate to be melted, so I had to quickly reinvent the own recipe, altering the method and quantity... It turned out great in the end!

The cheesecake mixture: cream cheese, egg, caster sugar and vanilla.

Pour in brownie mix then cheesecake mix. Dollop remaining brownie mix over top

And marble with a toothpick

 

Half an hour later, you have cheesecake brownies!!

Cheesecake Brownies

Brownies:

200g block of dark chocolate

200g unsalted butter

1 cup caster sugar

3 eggs

1 cup plain flour

Cheesecake mixture:

250g cream cheese

¼ cup caster sugar

½ tsp vanilla essence

1 egg

1.       Over a low heat, melt butter and chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon.

2.       Remove from heat and cool. Meanwhile, make the cheesecake mixture: Beat all ingredients until smooth and creamy.

3.       In a separate bowl, beat caster sugar and eggs until combined.

4.       Fold in flour and pour in the melted chocolate mixture. Stir until smooth.

5.       In a lined tin, pour in brownie mixture, reserving about half a cup.

6.       Pour in cheesecake mixture over top.

7.       With the half cup of brownie mix, dollop over the top and make marble pattern using a toothpick.

8.       Bake at 180C for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

9.       Cool in tin then cut into squares.

Om nom noms <3

And to conclude,

LOOK AT MY NEW MIRROR!!
It flips around and it's so great to put on my desk when I need to do my makeup, I can just flip it when I'm studying so I don't distract myself!

Signed,
Elisa

A little bit about a bridal shower

Michelle is the first of my friends to get married, and we threw her a bridal shower!

I follow her blog... I love all things pretty and that includes weddings; she writes extensively on her job as a bridal consultant and to-be-bride journey, this is her latest blog post:

http://vintage-affections.tumblr.com/post/51957655887/i-dont-know-about-you-but-im-feeling-22-everything

Eleven girls of us in the kitchen produced a lot of food together!

We made brownies...

with an alarming amount of sugar and butter in it :p

they were so fudgy; I loved them!

Ham and egg sandwiches and scones...

Cupcakes...

and cake pops!

Cake pops are so fancy looking...

This is the woman's blog who first made them, I've been following her inspiring blog for ages. I always check them for new ideas, although I've never really made much from her site; they look too over the top, with ingredients that aren't usually found in nz

http://www.bakerella.com/pops-bites/cake-pops/

Also perplexes me; how does she have that much patience to decorate baking so neatly??

Making cake pops: 

I started with making a vanilla cake, they were from a betty crocker's packet mix, which came with a packet of frosting! So handy cause we needed the frosting to make the cake pops.

Then we crumbled the cake when it was fairly cool, putting it in the fridge to chill and dry up faster, cause it was still moist.

Ydnim then mixed the packet of frosting with the cake crumbs and rolled them into firmly packed balls to be placed in the freezer for roughly half an hour. This is so they firm up.

When they were firm, we melted dark chocolate and placed it in a deep V shaped bowl for easy dipping.

We had two different pop sticks, regular ones and lollipop ones for making mini cake pops.

Now the trickier part...

Dip the end of the stick into the chocolate, covering about a centimetre and insert halfway into a cake ball.

Dip the cake pop vertically and gently tilt to cover the base of the cake balls.

Careful not to move it while dipping, otherwise the stick will detach and you'll be left with a cake ball inside a bowl of chocolate :p

Holding the cake pop with your left hand, gently tap your left wrist so excess chocolate will drip off and you'll be left with a clean even surface.

Add your sprinkles before the chocolate dries and stick on a styrofoam block to set.

We set up a picnic rug outside and had a nice photoshoot with professional photographers

The photographers are from Cue Photography.
They were so great, they captured great moments and are really friendly.
Especially patient when taking a jump photo of 12 girls :p I totally recommend them!

You can view the album of the bridal shower photoshoot by Cue Photography here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.502670243132865.1073741832.435734303159793&type=1

But this is my favorite photo I took :D

A massive congratulations to Michelle and Richard who got married last Saturday.
The ceremony was beautiful...
Ydnim and leeynaffit performed the most romantic song, A Thousand Years [they have informed me they take bookings. Even advanced ones.] and the bride and groom walked down the aisle at the end to Taylor Swift's Love Story <3

One of many weddings to come!
God bless you two always.




And to conclude,

I got to be part of the engineering revue again this year as a dancer!
To those of you who missed it... You missed out on a great show. We sold out 3 out of 4 shows!!
I had such a great time, became friends with some... interesting people ;) and got to ride a segway for the first time...

Karl Stol (engineers would know him from first year, 121 mechanics paper) was in the revue and he brought along his segway.
Oh my so scary, I screamed so loud when I first got on hahaha... was not prepared for that.

Signed,
Elisa

Microwave brownies, the recipe

To those of you who asked for it:
Lauren's recipe of Jess's brownies passed on to me

Seriously good brownies! Made in the microwave in just 4 minutes

MICROWAVE BROWNIES

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla 

100gr butter, melted
1 cup flour  

1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 c chocolate chips 

1. Beat together eggs, sugar and vanilla.

2. Drizzle in melted butter, continue to beat.

3. In a seperate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa and baking powder.

4. Mix together with egg mixture by hand and add chocolate chips.

5. Spoon into a lined microwaveable container or dish and microwave for 4 minutes (times may vary). Test with a toothpick

Yes it only takes four minutes in the microwave! Perfect for impromptu dessert or tea. You can sit there watching it 'bake' away. lol jks microwaves are dangerous...

Yesterday when I made this, I substituted the chocolate chips with 3 rows of chopped dark chocolate and added a handful of hazelnuts. Yum. Serve warm with ice cream, or cold with strawberries :)

A little bit about hazelnut mint brownies

So a while back, my mum bought a block of peppermint chocolate to make peppermint cheesecake.
Months later, no cheesecake and only half a block left.

So I decided to make mint brownies.

With hazelnuts!

This recipe is great if you don't have any cooking chocolate, because it only uses cocoa powder

It was after mixing this and putting it in the pan that I realised I should've added Nutella !!! for that real hazelnut flavor

Improvements for next time:
Don't let anyone eat the chocolate beforehand, so you can have more in your brownies

Arrange squares of chocolate in the middle and cover it up with the rest of the batter

Hazelnut Mint Surprise Brownies

1 2/3 cups sugar
170g butter, melted
2 Tbsp water
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsps vanilla
1 1/3 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup crushed or chopped hazelnuts

block of peppermint chocolate

1. Combine sugar, melted butter and water in large bowl. 

2. Mix in lightly beaten eggs and vanilla. 

3. Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in medium bowl, stir into sugar mixture. 

4. Stir in nuts and chocolate. 

5. Spoon half the batter into prepared baking pan, arrange squares of chocolate pieces and cover with the rest of the batter

6. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes. Cool completely in pan on wire rack then cut into squares, bars, triangles or parallelograms

Variations:
You can omit the hazelnuts, or use chopped walnuts or pecans
Try replacing 2 Tbsp of cocoa with Cadbury Mint Chocolate drink powder for an overall minty brownie :)
And any kind of chocolate would be good, really... White chocolate, caramel, chocolate chips, Crunchie pieces, peanut butter chocolate, any kind of chocolate!

The brownies I've made in the past resembled cakes, they were crumbly or weren't dark like the ones you buy from cafes
But these were good.
I especially like the peppermint soft-centred chocolate surprise

I took these to Suze's BBQ yesterday.
Start of summer, no exams, Castor Bay, ultimate frisbee... mint.

I heard a funny story that happened in Thailand, involving JoJo and 1K2:2 "I am about to go the way of all the the earth... So be strong, show yourself a man."
But you'll have to ask the Chan brothers for the full story :P


And to conclude,
It's practically summerrrrr and the sun will come out and it's going to be a gooooood week. xoxxo

Signed,
Elisa

A little bit about oreo cheesecake cupcakes

Oreo cheesecake!

I made these for my first Action Group last week.

Pauline gave me the recipe a while back and they are so delicious and addicting.

You need one whole packet of Oreos

Beat the batter well before adding in the chopped cookies.

 Line a muffin tray with paper cases and one whole Oreo on the bottom of each.

 Drop spoonfuls of the batter in. Bake.

Oreo cheesecake cupcakes

1 packet Oreos
450g cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 135 Celcius. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup. Crush the rest of the cookies.
Beat cream cheese until smooth. 

Add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.
Add eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. 

Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in crushed cookies.
Fill each cupcake tin almost to the top. 

Bake, rotating pan halfway through until filling is set, for about 22 minutes. 

Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate for 4 hours (or overnight). 

Remove from tins just before serving.

And to conclude,

Lauren and Glenn cooked us lamb and feta meatballs for a double date dinner. And it was delicious. Like absolutely fabulously delicious.

And we also made chocolate brownies that took 2 minutes in the microwave. And it was also delicious. . . like you wouldn't believe. But I forgot to take pictures :( I'll get the recipe off her and make it at home.

Signed,

Elisa