Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake

The title itself makes you drool doesn't it?hehhe! Since I was a young girl, I have always loved eating this particular soft and delicious cake that can be found at those neighbourhood bakeries. Then, I didn't know that I was eating Japanese cheesecake until lately when I picked up baking. Have always wanted to try this out but didn't have the time 'coz it involves lots of steps (to me!); so when the opportunity came last night I didn't waste a second to go on a little Japanese "baking adventure"!

The recipe that I had used is from:
http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/2312/Recipe.cfm
I had snapped pics of the process and verdict is right at the end! Enjoy!;p

First, melt the cream cheese, butter and milk. I had cut up the butter and cream cheese into smaller cubes so that it will melt easier.

Cream cheese, butter and milk; melted and well-combined



Added in the flour, cornflour, egg yolks and lemon mixture. I whisked everything till smooth.

Egg whites before beaten. Do ensure that there are no traces of egg yolks at all.

Do Not stop when the egg whites are of this texture or your cake won't be light at all! I had taken this pic as a Warning..hehehehe..

Egg whites beaten till soft peaks.

After adding sugar, I beat the egg whites till stiff peaks. I think I can see a heart shape. Can you?ehehehe..;p

After adding the sugar, mixture will turn shiny and glossy. It is called 'meringue'. (At this juncture, you can add in cornflakes, mix well, put them into tiny cups and bake at 180 Degrees Celcius and you'll get Cornflakes Meringue but that's another recipe..*winks*)

Stiff peaks

This is a mistake that I had done. I had actually taken 1/4 of the egg whites and whisk it into the mixture first before folding in the rest of the egg whites. OMIT this step! Egg whites should just be folded in, not whisked into the batter!

 

Step one of folding the egg whites into the batter. Scrape from the sides and to the centre.

Repeat the process quickly and evenly. Do Not stir.

Final batter should look something this. It's ok if there are lots of air bubbles. This is normal considering that we have just folded in the beaten egg whites. To make the air bubbles rise to the top, tap the pan on your table counter twice before placing it in the oven.

Slightly burnt as I was watching TV!-_- Cake will pull from its sides but this is normal too. Ensure that you have greased your pan well so that it will pull from the sides instead of shrinking.

Warm from the oven. There are no 2 different textures as mentioned in the website by some who had tried th recipe.

It was still very hot but I couldn't resist tasting just a bit from the cake!heheheh!;p

My very first Japanese cheesecake! WeeeeHooo!!!;p

Ok, here's my verdict. I think it was a successful first attempt. The cheesecake tasted good, the texture was soft and apart from the slightly burnt top, I think I did quite alright. However, I didn't manage to get the cotton soft texture and I think that was caused by me overbeating the batter at one of the steps mentioned above. Here are the correct steps (adapted from baking911.com):

1. Beat the yolks till pale

2. Fold in the flour + cornflour alternately with the lemon juice, ending with the flour mixture

3. Fold in the beaten egg whites

DO NOT overstir, overbeat or pat down the egg whites when mixing as this will result in a very dense cake

Other than that, this recipe has been a delight to bake and I will definitely try it again! Do try this recipe too and let me know how you did! Good luck and happy baking! ^_^