Zong - SrProject D16 - Preparation for the Final

   Senior Project D16

Yiling Zong

Location: Houston

Tue May 23rd, 2023 3:06 pm

Today's Hour: 3 hrs

Total Hour: 81 hrs

Tomorrow afternoon will be the final presentation for our Senior Project. So today, during the time I'm still at my house, I started working on baking the Oreo Basque Cheesecake that needs to be brought to school and presented tomorrow. Since I've already gone through the whole process once, the second time to me is much easier. Right now, I'm waiting for the cake to cool down. With different brands of material and a distinct oven, I hope the final result will be good and won't let my efforts and others' expectations down.

Zong- SrProject D15 -Editing Day

  Senior Project D15

Yiling Zong

Location: Houston

Mon May 22nd, 2023 4:25 pm

Today's Hour: 5 hrs

Total Hour: 78 hrs

    I rewatched all my video materials today and edited them. Probably this is the first time for me to edit a baking tutorial, so the overall situation is kind of messy. But I did go over a lot of other tutorials to do some learning. I basically edited an outline for my final video and a few details today. I will add the final text tomorrow and then it's done!

Zong - Week 2 reflection

It is impressive to actually create and bake 5 Basque Cheesecake with different flavors on my own in two weeks. The final 5 cakes are Original, Matcha, Oreo, Black Sesame & Soybean, and Taro & Osmanthus.

No photo for my original flavor one because it was too ugly

During this week, instead of copying the steps from recipes and tutorials online, I started to create my own, which, of course, took a longer time than I expected because there were tons of unimaginable struggles and obstacles on my journey. For example, a simple question, how can I make sure if I’m putting so many layers in the mold that it’s going to spill or overflow the maximum capacity of the mold? OR, after peeling off the skin of the steamed taro, how can I know if the taro I had is enough for the cake? Unknown challenges are coming every day. My taro went moldy, my heavy cream was not enough to finish the whipping part, or my mochi got oversteamed, these are all difficulties I would know only after I’ve been through the whole process. More importantly, finding an angle to film and keep the kitchen clean during baking is really a harsh job. In a word, this journey was not easy, but I did have a lot of fun.

Baking, to me, is been a dream for a long time. My dream job has been having a bakery for a long time. It’s too overwhelming to say that the senior project helped me achieve my dream, but it actually is — partially. I’ve always considered too much about “If I buy this material, I’m not going to use it all up. It’s a waste.” or “My parents don’t like sweetness. Who’s going to help me finish it?” However, I guess I used this period of time correctly: to do something I really want to do and find out my dream major/job/future. Senior project can be a tiny gap year for me. But that’s enough. I think opening a bakery can still be one of my dream jobs in the future.

Zong - SrProject D12 - Finally!!!

 Senior Project D12

Yiling Zong

Location: Houston

Fri May 19th, 2023 8:23 pm

Today's Hour: 5 hrs

Total Hour: 73 hrs

    Finally! Today is the last day of making Basque cheesecake in this Senior Project time period. I'm going to say that I am such a genius because the result of the Taro &Osmuthus & Mochi Basque cheesecake taste so good! After editing my final production --- the tutorial video --- my plan for the few days left is just going to be to finish the videos and bake the Oreo cake again for the presentation.

    Ready to bring the Oreo Basque Cheesecake to Proctor!

Zong - SrProject D11 - Taro & Mochi & Osmanthus

Senior Project D11

Yiling Zong

Location: Houston

Thu May 18th, 2023 11:12 pm

Today's Hour: 10 hrs

Total Hour: 68 hrs

    OMG! I can say that I spent a whole day making this last Basque cheesecake!!!

    The taro alone took me all morning! First, the delivery was sent to a wrong location, I went around the whole neighborhood to find my package. Secondly, after steaming the taro, I found that the grams of taro were not enough, so I resteamed a new pot. By the way, cleaning the blender was also a big problem! I can say that I spent 40 minutes cleaning him! No one knows how hard it is to clean sticky taro under the blade.

    Secondly, I added a little bit of my own idea to the sample recipe I found - adding mochi between the bottom two layers. At first, I didn't believe the online recipe for mochi, since due to my own experience, 90 g instead of 130 g of milk presented a sufficient texture to be ready for the next step. 

    Finally, I just want to say, take your time. Because my cream cheese once again did not completely melt successfully, I hope the texture of the cake is not too bad. The last of the last... There was not enough heavy cream again, and the final decoration part was postponed...

    It's been a long day, but at the same time, I can't wait to try the final product of my Taro & Mochi & Osmanthus Basque Cheesecake!

Zong - SrProject D10 - Plan Changes

    Senior Project D10

Yiling Zong

Location: Houston

Wed May 17th, 2023 10:12 pm

Today's Hour: 7.5 hrs

Total Hour: 58 hrs

    Emergency change of plan!

    I was supposed to make the last cheesecake on the list today, but, unfortunately, the taro I bought five days ago went bad, so I had to reorder online. I thought I could get it delivered today, but it turned out to will not arrive until tomorrow. So many things are going on right now! So for me, today is more of a transition day, I opened the editing software to organize the material, spent an afternoon thinking about how to edit this video can look straightforward and easy to understand, and then organized the notes left by themselves.

    It's hard to believe that the project will soon be over, and I'll cherish the remaining days!

Zong - SrProject D9 - Sesame & Soy bean 2

   Senior Project D9

Yiling Zong

Location: Houston

Mon May 16th, 2023 4:05 pm

Today's Hour: 7.5 hrs

Total Hour: 50.5 hrs

Finally! My sesame & soy bean flavored cheesecake came out successfully this morning! I made some sticky rice balls and put them on top to make the whole cake look prettier, which also surprisingly added more layers of texture to the whole cake. Moreover, the idea inspired me to add more sticky rice elements to my next cake --- taro and osmanthus--- for added texture.

Recently, as our project is approaching the end, I've started editing the video + refining the recipe, which took me about 5 hours. As I've been writing tips, I realized that there are some things you really don't get the gist of until you try them yourself. That's also the main point for me to write the recipes --- I want everyone who reads my recipes to succeed in making the same food!

Sesame & Soy Bean

Zong- SrProject D8 - Sesame & Soy bean

   Senior Project D8

Yiling Zong

Location: Houston

Mon May 15th, 2023 6:50 pm

Today's Hour: 9.5 hrs

Total Hour: 43 hrs

     Today's workload is comparatively the most extensive since the project began, as today is finally the first day of the recipe that I developed. I've been sitting in front of the computer since 8 am refining my recipe, not only searching for recipes from youtube, but also learning from my previous products. For example, my black sesame powder already contains sugar, so I removed a little bit from the amount of sugar I originally needed. 

    Two and a half hours later I finally started making it officially. When I started to make it, I used hot water to melt it in water as usual. However, the bowl I chose was not deep enough, so I accidentally spilled the water into the bowl, which causes the first batch of cream cheese to fail. As I said before, the fun of baking is to learn from each experience to improve yourself.

    Secondly, the oven was not timed today for some reason, so I could only tell by the approximate time and the color of the cake whether it was done or not. Since I haven't started tasting it yet, I don't know if it's successful or not. But the good news is that my vlogs today are clearer and neater than usual, and I feel like a real food vlogger!

    It wasn't until 3 pm that I managed to get the foundation of the cake out of the oven (because it did take a long time to adjust the angle of the video). While waiting for the cake to cool, I also worked on the rest of the soy milk mousse layer. But unfortunately, probably the top decorated mochi won't be made until tomorrow morning --- after both layers have cooled. Hopefully, we'll see a satisfying finished product tomorrow morning!

Zong - SrProject -Week 1 Reflection

  I can’t believe that it’s been a week already since the Senior Project started. Compared to my original plan, my actual situation is a little bit different since I changed my blueberry Basque Cheesecake to the original flavor, which is only cheese, due to my late material arrival. However, in general, I would call it a successful week since I did execute my plan in general by baking three kinds of flavors of Basque Cheesecake (Original, Matcha, and Oreo). More importantly, I did see my improvements throughout the week.

One thing I like about baking, or simply making foods, is that I can LEARN from each experience. Different ovens, brands of ingredients, or ways to stir the “solution” can create unexpected consequences. For example, for softening the cream cheese part, I thought at first that room temperature softening was enough, which is what my tutorial said. But it wasn't until I tried it myself that I realized that softening at room temperature was far from enough to completely melt the cream cheese, and it would leave little white particles inside the cream solution, especially in my finished Matcha-flavored one. I learned from this experience and practiced melting cream cheese in water in my Oreo's cake, and my choice proved to be the right one!

The same principle applies to the way I chose my sugar. In the beginning, when I went to H.E.B. to buy the ingredients, I just picked the most “organic” one. Nevertheless, the particle of the organic cane sugar is way bigger than the granulated sugar, which wasn’t dissolved when I mix the cream cheese with it. Even though I don’t know if there is a flavor-wise difference or a texture-wise difference, I still rebought the granulated sugar. I feel like sometimes baking is scientific because you need to test your recipe, experiment with it, and then refine it to grams.

To be honest, I originally chose this program, baking, only because I was into it for a long time, but could never find a period of time to bake or find an excuse to buy the tools and molds. Nonetheless, what I truly gained from this experience is much beyond what I expected at first. Hope that I will enjoy the final week experience with my two new Chinese special flavors of Basque Cheesecake1

Zong - SrProject D5 - Oreo Basque Cheesecake

    Senior Project D5

Yiling Zong

Location: Houston

Mon May 12th, 2023 9:43 pm

Today's Hour: 8.5 hrs

Total Hour: 33.5 hrs

    I would call it a success for today's Oreo Cheesecake even though I haven't tried it yet. It was mainly because I used hot water to melt the cream cheese, which helped a lot and I didn't see any unmelted particles in the solution.

    Since there is a mousse layer on the top of the cheesecake this time, I set the clock to 30 minutes instead of 23 minutes, and the temperature to 430 degrees instead of 480 degrees, which doesn't let the cake to be burnt that much. 

    Right now, the cake is still cooling down in the fridge with the new-added mousse layer. Hope to try it tomorrow morning!

    I guess the best takeaway for today is that I learned to "reflect" and summarize what caused my mistake. Encountering problems is never a bad thing.

    Moreover, I finally got my tripod today T_T. I started editing my final production a little bit today, but I spent about two hours researching others' food vlogs to see how should I film and edit mine.

Zong - SrProject D4 - Preparation Day

    Senior Project D4

Yiling Zong

Location: Houston

Thu May 11th, 2023 2:27 pm

Today's Hour: 5 hrs

Total Hour: 25 hrs

    Today, to me, is more like a summary day and a preparation day. With more packages I've received, I officially started my journey of baking those Basque cheesecakes. 

    After cooling down for a night, my friends and I tasted the Matcha Basque cheesecake I made last afternoon. 

    The comments are: 

    "To be honest, I like the original flavor more." --- Hieu

    "I think Matcha flavor is better." --- Ingrid

    "I will come back and try it tonight because I don't want to get a stomach ache in my work place." --- lactose-intolerance Emma

    I have to admit that the first bite of the Matcha flavor is a little bit weird because you feel like you are eating a cheesecake and then Matcha just came, being like "Surprise! It's actually Matcha-flavored!"

   However, I've encountered a difficulty which is that the cream cheese never gets soft enough to be dissolved perfectly in the heavy cream solution. I probably need to get a hand from the hot water next time (Actually did research on this). The other reason that makes me take a break from the cheesecake is that there are toooooo many cheeses. TOO MANY. I actually need to have something cleaner and lighter.

    Therefore, I first get some Os from Oreos, for my Oreo-flavored cheesecake tomorrow. Then, I made some poi from the Taro I steamed yesterday. But I feel like I accidentally put too much milk in it and it is going to fit drinks better instead of cakes. Finally, I tried to make a mini coconut jelly, as a sub for my recipes. 

    In a word, today is more like a transition day, a day for me to do more research on Basque cheesecake and to take a break from the cream cheese.

Zong - SrProject D3 - Matcha

   Senior Project D3

Yiling Zong

Location: Houston

Wed May 10th, 2023 5:46 pm

Today's Hour: 8 hrs

Total Hour: 20 hrs

Blog Link: https://youtu.be/o8b60XR9OqM

Zong - SrProject D2 - First Try

  Senior Project D2

Yiling Zong

Location: Houston

Tue May 9th, 2023 4:23 pm

Today's Hour: 7 hrs

Total Hour: 12 hrs

    My Blog Link: https://youtu.be/644BKCea6Pg

Zong - SrProject D1 - Where my dreamlife starts

 Senior Project D1

Yiling Zong

Location: Houston

Mon May 8th, 2023 6:38 pm

Today's Hour: 5 hrs

Total Hour: 5 hrs

    The first day of my Senior Project was more like a preparation day since I spent most of my time researching and shopping for ingredients. After spending two hours researching the recipes and creating my own special Asian ones, I successfully decided what flavors of the Basque Cheesecake I'm going to create in the following two weeks.

    I listed all the ingredients and the baking ware I need on a sheet and shopped on Instacart, for my Costco part (because I don't have a Costco membership), and on Weee, for the Asian ingredients part, which took me about 45 minutes to an hour.

    Last but not least, for sugar, Oreos, and other random groceries, Ingrid Wu and I went to stores in the afternoon to actually go shopping in person. We spent about two hours there because I was "blind" and couldn't find the corn starch that is right in front of me.

    In a word, the first day of my senior project went perfectly as my expectation, and I hope that I can start my real journey on baking tomorrow!!!

part of my ingredients need