Pumpkin cheesecake from the Pumpkin Patch

The Patch hosted its first official "gathering" over the weekend - a spurt of baking with 2 of Big's colleagues Jul & Lif, and my sister.

The idea actually begun in late Nov when Big & Jul went on a complimentary baking class at Shermay's school. They came back armed with a sheaf of recipes which called for some really posh ingredients like high quality nuts and honey and Valhorna chocolate and pumpkin puree. Big thought it would be fun to initiate the new oven by trying out some of the recipes at home. He especially wanted to try Pumpkin Cheesecake and Panforte, which is like an Xmas fruitcake of nuts, dried fruits and honey. Panforte was subsequently dropped from the list becos it is not easy to make, and Big thought it might be better to do in his own time. We decided to take on the simpler but popular all-time fav Choc Chip cookies instead.

So, we spent Sat running around Phoon Huat, Carrefour and Cold Storage snatching up baking equipment, and ingredients. Pumpkin puree was especially elusive. In the end. Big made his own puree from baked (and microwaved) butternut pumpkin. And we still missed out salt which had to be bought at the last minute by my sister.

In the midst of the mad rush, we also managed to grab a small cupboard for the master bedroom, a cheapo beanbag, a step ladder which can be used as a (rather high) stool, a magic floor cleaner (which, according to Big, I spent the whole of Sat night talking about - OMG I'm turning into my mother), and a fire extinguisher (don't ask).

Sun turned out to be a very fruitful day.

Big put up his country-styled shelf on the orange wall of the dining area. And plonked three tiny pots of cactus on it. Only to realise that he had chosen an orange cactus which of course blended neatly into the wall behind it...

The baking session was surprisingly accident-free, with the exception of one poor Pumpkin Cheesecake cup which decided to commit suicide flat on itz front. The oven is so air-tight that you can hardly smell anything baking. And it cools down rather quickly too.

So, we churned out, 24 Pumpkin Cheesecake - cup-cake style. And a nice number of Choc Chip and Pecan cookies, which, for some reason, were still bread-ish inside.

And I put together my magic floor wiper and tried it out immediately after we got it. Kinda like how Big takes his Transformers out of the box to play with right after he gets them. Talk about new toys.