Cheesy Cheese Cake

Few weeks ago, one of my classmate from my Japanese Language class brought some cakes to share with us as it was her birthday. I liked the taste and texture of the cake as even though she said it was a cheese cake, it was not like the normal 'cheese cake' that I have eaten or made like the 'Japanese Cotton Cheesecake', ' New York Cheese Cake' or any other baked 'cheese cake'. Instead it was sort of like a sponge cake sandwiched with cream cheese frosting.

I remembered having this type of cake recipe in one of my cookbooks so I flipped through them and found it. This recipe is taken from the book 'The Joy of Baking' published by Bake with Yen. It was not very difficult to make and my children and friends loved it. I'm definitley going to make this again.

Ingredients for the Chiffon Cake

(A) 4 egg Yolks                                                     (B) 4 egg Whites
      60 ml Corn Oil                                                      60g Castor Sugar
      120g Cake Flour                                                   1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
      1 heap tsp baking powder
      60g Castor Sugar
      4 1/2 tbsp Milk
      1/3 tsp Vanilla Powder (I used vanilla essence)

1) Sift flour with baking powder.
2) Mix the flour with egg yolks, oil, sugar, milk & vanilla. Stir until well mixed and smooth.
3) Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and sugar until stiff.
4) Fold egg yolk mixture into egg whites.
5) Bake in a 9' round tin at 180 degree C for 40-45 mins.

* You can use any of the sponge cake recipe that you normally use.


Ingredients for the frosting

227g Butter
113g Cream Cheese
60g icing Sugar
1/4 cup milk
Cheddar Cheese, grated (for sprinkling)

1) Beat Cream Cheese & butter together.
2) Add icing sugar alternating with milk.

To Assemble: - Cut the cake into 3 pieces and sandwich each layer with frosting and Cheddar Cheese. Spread frosting on top and sides of cake, sprinkle cheddar cheese all over the cake.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake for Mothers Day

Mothers day is celebrated on the 2nd Sunday of the month of May every year and this year, I baked a mini cake for my mother whereas previously I buy them from the local bakery. When I took the cake to my mother's house, she grumbled about wasting my money on buying cakes but when I told her that I baked the cake, she accepted it readily....(^.^).Mothers! They do not want to see her children wasting money unwisely....

This was the first time I baked using green tea aka matcha as an ingredient. I dare not try any recipe using green tea as I thought they might taste bitter but at first bite, it was aromatic and tasted like pandan cake....I picked Green Tea chiffon cake as my mother do not like sweet cakes and also not fond of chocolates.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake

70g Cake Flour                                          5 Egg Whites
10g Green Tea Powder                              90g Castor Sugar
5 Egg Yolks                                     
20g Castor Sugar
70g Water
60g Oil

1) Combine egg yolks & sugar. Mix well.
2) Add in water & oil. Blend together.
3) Sift the cake flour & green tea powder together and add into the egg yolk mixture. Mix well and set aside.
4) Beat egg white till frothy and gradually add in the sugar and beat until stiff peak.
5) Fold egg white into egg yolk mixture.
6) Pour into a 20cm tube pan and bake at 160 degree C for 40 - 50 mins.

* I divided into 2 small pans (a 6' round pan & 6' heart shape pan)

The original recipe actually suggested frosting with red bean cream but I frosted it with cream cheese & another one for myself (^o^) with fresh cream. I will definitely try this recipe again and this time frost it with red bean cream.

Pandan Cheesecake

Oh dear......oh dear! Been lacking in updating my blog again. Also I didnt attempt any 'new' recipes for the past few weeks. I had been trying out old recipes just to perfect them like the apple pie and the classic butter cake.

I still had some left over cream cheese in the fridge so I thought of baking a cheesecake that is lighte in texture. Something like the Japanese Cotton Cheesecake. I dug out my favourite recipe book 'Fantastic Cheesecake' by Alex Goh and found this easy recipe.

The taste of coconut and pandan is refreshing and I add just a tiny drop of colour as it was for own consumption.

Ingredients

(A) 500g Cream cheese
      100g Castor sugar
(B) 3 Egg Yolks
(C) 20g Flour
      20g Cornflour
(D) 200g/ml Coconut milk
      1 tsp pandan leaf juice
      few drops of green food colouring
(E) 3 Egg whites
      75g Castor Sugar

1. Cream (A) till light. Add (B) and cream till smooth.
2. Add (C) and mix till well combined.
3. Add (D) into the mixture from step 2. Mix well.
4. Whip (E) till soft peaks. Add it into the cheese mixture from step 3. Mix until well incorporated.
5. Grease and line bottom of a 23 cm springform pan. Pour the cheese filling onto the tin.
6. Bake in water bath at 160 degree C for 60 -70 mins.
7. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
8. Refrigerate for 5 hours or overnight.