Lemony cheesecake ( Japanese style )

Oops! A manhandled cheesecake ! The brown streaks are due to the watery patterns

I first saw the recipe here but tweaked it down ( factor of 2 ) because the 2 of us at home will never undo the full portion. That said, it looks so good when it was done that I was a bit regretful of not ‘seizing the day’.

Since this cake is quite a bit of work, I made one with the full recipe before this shown on the post. Unfortunately, my eyes failed me and I ended up baking the cake at 160C which resulted in a cake with pockmarks and a dense structure. The low temperature caused the meringue to be ‘unstable’ .  I realized my mistake too late and completed the baking process with the ‘damaged’ cake for another   18 minutes at 200C. Yup! It was all upside down topsy turvy wrong. The result was unflattering.

All in all, listen to the OP ! Clearly, a high temperature cooks the batter and seals the shape and surface of the cake while a second lower baking temperature supports and firms up the cake structure so that it does not collapse.

This is the peril of baking with ‘compromised’ eyesight even when there was a lot of care given. But it was a very good learning moment.

Credits : adapted from ieatishootipost

Ingredients :

Logistics : 7 inch square cake pan, removable bottom

Foil the pan for baking in a water bath later

Pot of steaming water to seat the mixing bowl ( 1 inch high )

Main batter

A)

125g cream cheese

3 yolks

30g caster sugar

B)

30g butter, softened

50ml milk, warm

C)

1/8 tsp salt

½  Tbsp vanilla extract

½ tsp lime juice

½ tsp lime zest

D)

30g cake flour

10g corn flour

White batter –

3 whites

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

35g caster sugar

Method :

Hardware

Place a low baking rack in the oven. Preheat oven to 200C.

Add warm water to a water bath that is big enough to accommodate the baking pan later.

               

Main batter

Place the pot over the steaming pot of water , whisk the cream cheese, yolks and sugar in this order until well combined.

Combine milk and butter. Warm the contents for 20 sec in a microwave.

Whisk in the milk-butter.

Combine the salt, vanilla extract, lime juice and zest.

Add into the main batter and whisk.

Sift the flours into the mixing bowl. Fold first and whisk to combine. Set aside.

Meringue

Whisk whites until coarse bubbles form.

Whisk in cream of tartar ane sugar in this order.

Stop when the meringue form soft peaks.

Combining

In 3 portions, fold the meringue to the main batter.

Reserve 1 – 2 Tbsp of batter. This is for piping patterns.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Add a tiny amount of cocoa to the reserved batter. ( do not use liquid color as much as possible as viscosity difference caused the pattern to sink into the cake )

Pipe patterns on the batter in the pan.

Put the pan on the water bath.

Baking

Bake in the preheated oven at 200C for 15 minutes.

Reduce the temperature to 160C.

Bake for another 10 minutes.

Cake is ready when skewer poked into the cake center comes out clean.

Leave the cake to rest in the closed oven for 15-20 minutes.

Open the oven ajar and leave the cake in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Finally , cool the cake on a rack for 30 minutes or when cake is not hot to handle.

Remove the mould or pan and leave to cool completely.

Chill before eating.