Cloud 9 Cheesecake

Cheesecake is one of my all-time favorite desserts.  In fact, I used to request cheesecake rather than traditional cake for my birthday. When I saw this recipe for cheesecake on Diana’s Desserts, I quickly bookmarked it and then forgot about it.  Somewhere in there I had a baby and baking wasn’t exactly on the priority list. 

A week or so ago, I needed cream cheese and I’m not a fan of running around to different grocery stores.  I was at Costco so I bought the 3 lb brick.  Three pounds of cream cheese!  What was I thinking?!?  It was my subconscious reminding me of this intriguing recipe.

I do love cheesecake, but sometimes I have difficulty getting through a slice because it’s so rich.  This recipe sounded right up my alley.  Cheesecake flavor with a light texture.

When I pulled this out of the oven, the cake was nice and tall with a smooth surface. After sitting on the counter to cool, it deflated an inch and ended up looking like the picture above. Maybe I removed the parchement collar too soon? Guess I was a little too eager to sample the bits that were stuck to the paper. 😛

I waited until the cake was cool to cut into it. I bit into it and was instantly in heaven. Cheesecake taste with a soft, pillowy texture. I was on cloud nine. All of you cheesecake fans- and even you non-cheesecake fans- need to try this cake. It’s soooooo yummy! My words will never do it justice.

Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake
recipe courtesy of Irene Oon via Diana’s Desserts

250 g cream cheese
50 g unsalted butter
100 ml milk
60 g cake flour– I used all-purpose, maybe the cause of my sunken cake?
20 g cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 t salt
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
140 g fine granulated sugar– I used regular sugar
1/4 t cream of tartar
1 T lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 325 (160 C). Grease an 8 inch cake pan and cover the bottom of the pan with parchment. Line the sides of the cake pan with parchment as well, making sure it sticks up above the pan (the cake will rise above the pan and this prevents it from overflowing). Lightly grease the parchment.
2. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture.
3. Meanwhile, sift the 2 flours and salt into a small bowl and whisk to mix. When the cream cheese mixture has cooled, whisk in the lemon juice and egg yolks. Fold in the flour mixture.
4. Whisk the egg whites with the cream of tartar until foamy. Add the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form. Fold a little bit of the egg whites into the cream cheese mixture. Then add the the cream cheese mixture all at once to the egg whites, folding until the batter is well mixed and there are no more streaks.
5. Pour the batter into your prepared cake pan and bake in a water bath for about 1 hour and 10 minutes or until set and the top is golden brown.

Thanks to my handy dandy kitchen scale, I made this recipe without converting the amounts into American baking measurements (is there a word for that?). The only difference between this version of the recipe and the one posted on Diana’s Desserts is I added directions. 😛 Normally, I like recipes without a lot of directions, but this is one that I thought needed a bit more. I inferred a lot of things from Irene’s directions and will admit I got a little confused. Maybe my directions confuse you. Anyway, this is just how I did it. It was also a little eggy tasting which is fine, but I might try and make this sans a couple eggs next time and see how it turns out. My heart would probably thank me. 😉