Monday 13 August 2012

Cottony-Soft Japanese Cheesecake


Today was a complete disaster! Just when I thought the day started off beautiful where I managed to come across fresh punnets of strawberries on sale in the supermarket and shopping for ingredients with a good mood to bake...I ended up scratching my car :( I don't want to go through the details of how everything that lead to that but it really affected my mood for most of the day, but more importantly dreading the moment when I have to face my parents about it. I knew some scolding was coming along, it was just a matter of sooner or later. So then I thought just to ease off everyone's pain by a little bit, I thought I'd bake a Japanese cheesecake to atone for my mistakes.

I love the Japanese cheesecake as its texture is so different to the classical cheesecake. It's like a combination of a cheesecake and sponge cake giving it a cottony-soft texture that melts in your mouth straight away. It won't even feel like you've had a slice because it is so light compared to the regular cheesecake where the richness of the cream cheese will make you feel bloated.

This cake always tends to sink when I leave the oven door ajar for an hour before bringing it out. Well, well what can I say. A sad mood broods an ugly cake. I know it looks no where near as good as Ju's but then if it's cooked and it tastes delicious, what more can you ask for?

Japanese Cheesecake

(adapted from The Little Teochew)

140g caster sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100ml fresh milk
60g cake flour (I use plain flour)
20g corn flour
1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch round springform cake tin with baking paper. Wrap the bottom of the cake tin with aluminium foil to prevent the cake mixture from seeping out!

2. In a heatproof bowl, melt the cream cheese, butter and milk over a stove of hot boiling water. Cool the mixture. Fold in flour, cornflour, salt and egg yolks and mix well.

3. Whisk the egg whites with cream of tartar until it's foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form. Beat at high speed for approx. 1min and then change to low speed for the last 3-4mins.

4. Add the egg whites to the cream cheese mixture and fold well. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake in a water bath (tray of water on the rack below the cake tin) for 1hr 10mins or until set golden brown. Leave the oven door ajar for an hour before bringing the cake out of the oven.

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