Sinfully Sweet Afternoon

It was a sinfully sweet afternoon on the veranda of one of our club member's beautifully done up home. Three members of the WIN club demonstrated some easy-to-make desserts followed by dessert sampling, coffee and conversation.

Tofu Cheese Cake by Deana Wurster
Don’t let tofu scare you away, when eating this there is no way anyone would guess that the main ingredient is healthy tofu….

Ingredients for filling:
1 tetra pack of Silken lite tofu
Juice of half lemon
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1 can Nestle condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 pinch salt
3 egg yolks, beaten lightly
Directions:
Combine ingredients in a blender or food processor until creamy. Pour into crust and bake it at 325 degrees celcius for 50 minutes
After cooling, decorate with fresh sweetened strawberries or kiwis.

Ingredients for Graham Cracker Crust:
1 ½ cups graham crackers or digestive biscuits, crushed
¼ cup butter or oil
1 tsp sugar

Directions:
Mix cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter and press into the bottom of the sides of a pie plate. Bake crust for 10 minutes at 325 degrees celcius. After cooling add pie filling and bake as directed.

Tiramasu by Nicola Pawar
I was never a big fan of this omnipresent dessert perhaps because many times not made well. But Nicola made the authentic recipe that she learned from her mother and it was fabulous! Unfortunately for my waistline I am now a tiramisu fan.

Ingredients:
4 eggs, separated
100 g sugar
500g mascarpone
One packet sponge fingers (substitute with marie biscuits or sponge cake)
Rum or Amaretto
Fresh Coffee
Cocoa powder

Directions:
Mix sugar, egg yolk and mascarpone. Beat the egg white until stiff and add the egg yolk mixture to it. Then dip the sponge fingers half in coffee and half in rum and fill the bottom of a bowl completely. Pour ½ of the cream over it, put one layer of cocoa powder on it and repeat all layers if you like but finish with mascarpone cream and cocoa powder. Leave it over night in the fridge.

Brown Bread Pudding by Sujata Shah

Sujata Shah loves to cook but sometimes when she is expecting guests and is pressed for time she makes this delicious dessert. Keep this recipe handy for those times you need to make something in a hurry.
Ingredients:
½ loaf of brown bread, slightly stale
500ml fresh cream
¼ cup sugar
1 cup mixer of almonds and cashews
Chocolate flakes for decoration
¼ cup drinking chocolate
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp sugar for cream
250 g strawberries, sweetened and chopped

Directions: Grind bread coarsely in blender. Add sugar, nuts, drinking chocolate and ½ tsp vanilla essence. Mix well. Beat together fresh cream, 2 tbsp sugar and ½ tsp essence.

In an oval dessert dish, place half of the bread mixture and pour fresh cream over it. Add strawberries on cream. On it add the other half of the bread mixture. Add rest of the cream.

Decorate with chocolate flakes, chopped nuts and a few strawberry halves. Chill pudding in refrigerator for over 3 hours