Mini Baked Oreo Cheesecake

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Today I made a batch of mini baked oreo cheesecakes using a recipe I found on the internet. I modified the recipe a little based on my preferences and my previous cheesecake making experience. This cheesecake is about the size of a cupcake as it was baked using my silicon cupcake moulds. Here is my modified recipe if anyone is interested in making this mini version of the baked oreo cheesecake. :)

Mini Baked Oreo Cheesecake Recipe (makes about 16)

Base

Half of an oreo cookie without the vanilla cream filling (You can use an entire oreo cookie if you like)

Cream Cheese Filling

1 block of Philadelphia cream cheese (250g) soften at room temp

1/3 cup of extra fine sugar (or caster sugar)
1/3 cup of sour cream

3 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Dash of salt

6-7 oreo cookies finely crushed (with vanilla cream filling removed)

Instructions:

1) Prepare the silicon cupcake moulds and add one half of an oreo cookie as the base. I removed the vanilla cream filling between each oreo cookie before putting one half of the cookie in. You can use an entire oreo cookie as the base according to your own personal preference.

2) With a electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until fluffy, then add in 1/3 cup sugar and continue beating until integrated. 

3) Add the sour cream, condensed milk, lemon juice, vanilla extract and dash of salt and mix again. Lastly, add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

4) Remove the mixing bowl containing the cream cheese mixture and mix manually a few times using a hand whisk, making sure that the final mixture is smooth and well mixed.

5) Add the crushed oreo cookies into the cream cheese mixture and fold it in until well incorporated.

6) Spoon the cream cheese mixture into each cupcake mould. Fill up to about 3/4 of the mould (about 3 to 4 tablespoons of mixture).

7) Bake in the oven for 25 mins at about 170 degree Celsius. Bake in a water bath (fill the baking tray with water enough to cover up to 0.5 cm of the base of the cupcake mould). This is to reduce cracking and to ensure that the heat is evenly distributed.

8) After baking, cool the mini oreo cheesecakes on the tray for about 10 to 15 mins before turning it out from the silicon moulds. 

9) Refrigerate for 3 to 4 hours before serving.

Job Offer

I just accepted a job offer from XX hospital. It was a pay cut compared to my current job in the private sector, but somehow I was inclined to accept the job offer. I have been out of the healthcare sector for 4 years and I think it's time for me to come back. When comparing between the private and healthcare sector, I think I felt a difference. I don't know if it is the people there. They seem to me to be devoid of emotions. I don't feel the passion and drive to work. Things are rushed, a lot of last minutes stints just to be able to satisfy the customer and company timelines. I think it's my sense of responsibility for what I do, I work late hours to rush out stuff that are handled by me just to meet the last minute timelines, but more than once, people in the workflow chain just doesn't comply. You can end up rushing out the work on a late night and over the weekends but they just ended up in a bottleneck due to someone holding it up before it reaches the end of the workflow. Sometimes, things just ended going back and fro just because someone who reviews your work is not satisfied with how you write the report. These changes can be as minor as rephrasing the entire sentence although it means exactly the same thing. This is not an english class, shouldn't the focus be on the content of the report?
What makes things worse is having a boss who only knows how to exert her authority but doesn't communicate the right information down. A lot of times we end up rushing work due to her crazy timelines and the fact that the email information has been lying in her email inbox for one month "untouched". We have been getting news of the department we have been working with through our co workers instead of our boss herself. She never understood the time and effort we all put in for the work due to limited manpower on our side. That is because we still managed to cover our work in the end. She can leave urgent matters hanging just to leave work on time. There was no form of appreciation for the effort we put in to complete the tasks. Because of all these issues, people in our team are slowly leaving and transferring out of the department. I would say I have been able to stay on till now despite all the complex issues because I have a fantastic team of colleagues working with me. We were able to keep the team together despite the fact that during the first one and a half years we had no one to report to who can make decisions for the team. When our boss came in last year, matters just got worse instead of better. It makes me really sad to see our team disintegrate due to her, with people leaving the team because they feel that they can't work with her.
I hope I made the right decision moving on, because I don't anticipate being able to stay in my current job long term. The manager who interviewed me for this new job seems sincere in having me join them. He shared with me his passion for the job and how excited he was with the upcoming new hospital plan. It was then I reminisce the days I spent in healthcare, when the days I actually put in long hours was to test urgent samples for the benefit of a patient, not to meet the timeline for a report.

Food for Thought @ Singapore Botanics Garden

Food for Thought @ Singapore Botanics Garden is a place I have been yearning to go to since trying Food for Thought at Queen Street sometime ago. Today, I finally got a chance to visit this place with my friends. :) I love the concept of this cafe:

"Food For Thought is about transforming community spaces and bringing people together to enjoy Good Food for a Good Cause."

and their causes:

1) Give clean water

2) Feed good food

3) Make poverty history

4) Teach them all

5) Inspire kind acts

How awesome is that?? totally cool :D

You can check out their webbie here: http://www.foodforthought.com.sg/index.php

Their food are good too, check out the food pictures below:

Pancakes with Dark Chocolate and Raspberry

My Basic Works with Garlic Mushrooms

This is Cool! ~~ Map of the Places I have Been to...

Stumble across this by accident on a cool travel website... quite surprised to know that there are actually so many places in the world to visit. This is not the most accurate representation as it goes by states (in USA), provinces (in Canada) and countries in the rest of the world. Sadly, I only managed to cover 9% of the places in the world. There goes... it means I have to start making travel plans soon. :)

Create your own travel map - TravBuddy

Georgetown, Washington DC

For a random person who has never been to USA or for a traveller who has only visited Washington DC via the usual tourist's footsteps in a rushed few days itinerary, they might not be aware of this quaint historic area located in northwest Washington DC.
For me, I am lucky to be able to get to know this place through my short stay in USA. This is a place I like due to the historic and beautiful architecture that was preserved in the area, the kinda laid back feel walking along the streets and alleys and it's close proximity to Washington DC that could easily constitute a short half day trip.
My times here were occasional, short, but memorable.

 The cupcake display

Georgetown Cupcakes... aren't they lovely??

 At Martin's Tavern, one of the oldest restaurant in Georgetown.

 Crabcakes... a famous dish in Maryland. Yummy...

 Meatloaf with special mushroom gravy

French Onion Soup

Throughout the streets and alleys of Georgetown

Guess Who's Who...

Miss the Sunset...