Elaine Bakes: Japanese Cotton Soft Cheesecake

It's Sarah's x th birthday tomorrow. So I baked her a cake and brought it to work today as a surprise. The thought of what sort of cake to bake for Sarah has been in deep discussion with colleagues at work as well as Maija at home. haha...it just seemed never ending as I was indecisive as to what cake I should be baking for Sarah. Maija then suggested that I should be baking the Japanese cheesecake because it was something different and she did liked it the last time I baked it during Christmas time last year. I took Maija's word and never looked back since! lol!

Anyway, everyone loved the cake. I got Sarah to cut the cake first thing this morning. Initially my colleagues thought that the cheesecake that I meant were those typical heavy New York cheesecake and weren't too keen to have them in the morning. The moment they saw the cake, they decided to have cheesecake for breakfast! None of them have ever tried Japanese cheesecake before. They were surprised that the cheesecake could taste both like a cheesecake and a sponge cake at the same time. Well...like what they say...everyday is a learning day! teehee...

The cheesecake has a light texture and you can never get sick of eating it. Having said that this is a difficult bake again like the Kasutera cake as the eggs whites needs to be beaten up to a right consistency. However, if you were to follow the instructions properly, this shouldn't be a barrier to a successful bake.

Japanese Cotton Soft Cheesecake
(recipe adapted from Diana's Desserts for 8 inch round cake pan)

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour 30 minutes

What you need:

(a)
250g Philadelphia cream cheese
50g Salted Butter
100ml Milk

(b)
60g Cake flour
20g Corn flour
6 Egg yolks
1 tbsp Lemon juice

(c)
6 Egg whites
1/4 tsp Cream of tartar

140 g Caster sugar

1. Pre-heat oven to 160C.
2. Melt (a) in water bath (bain-marie method) and stir till the ingredients are well blended.
3. Cool the mixture then fold in (b). Set aside.
4. Whisk (c) until foamy then add in caster sugar. Whisk until stiff peak forms.
5. Add the cheese mixture (from Step 3) to the egg white mixture (from Step 4) and mix well.
6. Pour mixture into an 8-inch lightly greased round cake pan lined with baking paper at bottom and sides of the pan.
7. Bake cheesecake in water bath at 160C for 15 minutes and reduce temperature to 140C for the next 1 hour or until golden brown. Altering the temperature will prevent the cheesecake from forming any cracks. Alternately, if you think changing the temperature is just too much for you, then bake the cheesecake at 140C for 1 hour 30 minutes all the way through.
8. To serve, use a clean sharp knife dipped in hot water and cut cake into individual slices. Enjoy!


Note: Make sure the bowl used for beating the egg whites are completely dry or the egg whites might take longer to form stiff peaks.
Do not try to act smart by increasing the temperature to get the cake browned quicker because it will just means the inside of the cake will not be fully cooked (that's what I did in one of my experiments! *embarassed*). If the cake is browned, that's an indication that the cake is fully cooked.