My Baking Attempt #1 - Valentine's Strawberry Oreo Cheesecake

                                

i only started baking tis year. 'Official' date - 11 Feb'11, just in time for Valentine's day =) Today is 9 Apr'11, that was just 2mths ago. To date, i've tried my hands with 21 different pastries, cakes & bread. Ask me why i started baking, i hv no idea. Perhaps it started with boredom, really. And then it became a personal challenge and an unexplainable obsession.

Anythin food-related, i'm drawn in.

Along the way, i chanced upon other home bakers' blogs (while hunting for recipes) and uncovered for myself a totally new world of baking fanatics. It's both amazing as well as amusing. Amazed by the huge number of active bloggers & readers so passionate abt baking. Amused by how similar our paths may have crossed no matter how wide our difference may be. It's comforting to read up on the lives of others in tis boundless cyberspace, kinda like seeking solace of sorts.

As i bake, i do keep the dates and pictures of all my 'accomplishments'. Which has become something habitual in all of us. Some of my attempts have failed (i always pat my back and remind myself it's okie) and a few hv succeeded wif praise by sheer luck. In any case, i'm just happie baking, regardless of how the dough turned out. i have no intention to prove my hands to be bake-worthy, neither the attributes of precision and patience needed in the kitchen. Only then will this new hobby continue to be fun and stress-free =)

The above pic is my 1st bake attempt - Strawberry Oreo Cheesecake (i call it the Valentine's Day edition =p). I made it very impromptu, rushed to the supermarket before closing to buy the ingredients and the final work only came out of the oven wayyy past midnite. Night baking is very therapeutic, which i'm sure all home-bakers will agree in unison. I didn't keep the recipe for tis one and simply can't recall the source, tried hard as i might. i only remembered the original recipe calls for the standard Oreo cookies but i got the strawberry creme ones instead, for the fancy pink to go wif the Valentine's Day theme. This turned out well but the pink was not obvious. Doesn't matter. The strawberry flavor was present and it was a nice deviation fr the usual Oreo cheezecake. 

I had/have no Valentino to send and seal tis with love, hence i shared it with a couple of frens, some came over to self-collect. How obedient =p One of whom was Hao, my old-time fren fr sec sch who ironically was never in the same class as me. He has keen interest in photography and took these fotos at home before consuming the one & only piece i gave.


I think his portrayal has added much value to my simple bake.