Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

Every evening, on the way home from office, I will think and ponder what cakes or pastries that I will bake after my dinner. Then I'll try to recall what else is left in the fridge or the cabinet that might expire soon. My list of to-bake are just endless! There are so many items I want to try, but just didn't have the time to do it. Yesterday evening, I decided to use my cream cheese. Even deciding on the recipe for cream cheese was difficult. Cannot be too difficult to bake, cannot take up too much as I only have an evening of time...blah blah...

Finally, I settled on Alex Goh's Japanese Cotton Cheesecake. The result was just perfect! Too good to be true! My family just love it! I shall try different flavours in the next few days! :)


Look who is hiding behind??


Ah-ha! It's Rayquaza! He came to see if my Japanese Cotton Cheesecake is good enough to be considered "Japanese"!


Post Mortem: For the benefits of those who are interested to know what is water-bake, here is a picture for sharing. I hope this is clearer now.


As promised, here is the recipe from Alex Goh's "Fantastic Cheesecake".
Ingredients:
(A) 160g Cream Cheese, 25g Butter, 120g Milk
(B) 40g Flour, 30g Cornflour
(C) 4 Egg yolks
(D) 4 Egg whites, 1/8tsp Cream of Tartar, 100g Sugar, pinch of Salt

Method:
1. Grease and line the bottom of two 20-cm oval pans. Wrap outside of the pans in foil.
2. Place (A) in mixing bowl and stir over double-boiler until thick. Remove it from double-boiler.
3. Add (B) and mix until well combined. Add (C) and mix until well blended.
4. Whip the egg whites in (D) until foamy. Then add the remaining (D). Continue whipping until soft peaks. Add it into the cheese mixture from step (3).
5. Pour the cheese filling onto the prepared oval pans. Bake in water bath at 160C for 40-45 minutes or until well incorporated.
6. Remove cake from the oven. Remove the cake from the mould immediately. Set aside to cool.


My notes: I used a 8" round pan. I should have used a 9" round pan instead. Then it will be flatter and bigger, rather than higher and smaller.

89 comments:

Kitchen Corner said...
November 5, 2008 at 1:24 PM

Wooooohhhh! Jane, this is beautifully baked. The cheesecake rise up so nicely. I believe it's very soft and tasty too! Any tricks on how to prevent cracking? I baked this kind of cotton cheesecake before but I've difficulty un-mold the cake. Can you please tell me how did you un-mold it so nicely?

Yuri said...
November 5, 2008 at 5:09 PM

Hi j, steam baked? haven't been baking at all lately... :(

Art of Eating said...
November 5, 2008 at 5:26 PM

you use the water bath ? Actually I don't really how to do it yet, Can teach / brief me ?

Passionate About Baking said...
November 6, 2008 at 8:49 AM

Hi Grace,
I think usually cheesecakes are water bake. You need to place a tray of water below your cake pan and then put it in the oven to bake. Temperature usually about 160C and not more. I use the 3rd layer from the top, and fan oven at 160C. You can try.
As for unmoulding the cake, upon taking out the cake from the oven, the cake somehow started to leave the sides a little. So I just use my knife to separate it further and take it out. This recipe from Alex Goh is quite good. I will post up the recipe soon so that you can try it.

Hi Yuri,
Ya, I've not seen your post for a long long time. :( No recipe good enough currently for you to bake now? Yes, I water baked it.

Hi Art of Eating,
Yes, water bake for my cheesecake. Like I explain to Grace, with your filled cake pan, wrapped it up in the aluminium foil, then place it in a pan filled with water and put the whole tray into the oven. I shall post up a picture to show you. I hope this helps.

Rei said...
November 6, 2008 at 6:22 PM

Lovely cake! I like your Pokemon touch. Ahahah~~

Passionate About Baking said...
November 6, 2008 at 8:37 PM

Hi Rei,
Thanks for the compliments! I learnt that from HHB. ;)

Kitchen Corner said...
November 7, 2008 at 2:25 PM

Hi Jane,
Thank you so much for posting the recipe. I shall try again and hopefully the cake turn out nicely. Cheers!

Passionate About Baking said...
November 7, 2008 at 3:01 PM

Hi Grace,
You're most welcome. Do try it. It's quite foolproof if everything is followed accordingly. Good luck! :)

Art of Eating said...
November 7, 2008 at 9:31 PM

Thanks for your sharing, your picture on water bake & clear explaination on it, is really helpful :p

Passionate About Baking said...
November 7, 2008 at 10:18 PM

Hi art of eating,
I'm glad I'm of help to you. I hope you will try baking cheesecakes. All the best! :)

Anonymous said...
December 7, 2008 at 7:55 PM

Hi

Wad do u mean by stir over double-boiler?

Passionate About Baking said...
December 9, 2008 at 9:23 AM

Hi Suling,
"Stir over double-boiler" means you have a saucepan with water on the stove. Then you place your ingredients A on another stainless bowl and place it on the saucepan, with the bottom touching the water on the saucepan. It is not direct heat. You heat the ingredients A based on the heated water in the saucepan. It's like double boiling. I hope it's clear to you now.

Anonymous said...
March 6, 2009 at 10:27 PM

Hi,
The cotton cheesecake really look very soft.
I would to have a try to bake this cake too but not sure the flour that mentioned on this recipe is the all-purpose flour or cake flour?
Do you set aside the mixture to cool after removed it from double boiler (step2) before continue step3?

Passionate About Baking said...
March 7, 2009 at 2:32 PM

Hi Anonymous,
You can use the all-purpose flour (plain flour). With the addition of the cornflour, it will make the cake soft, so cake flour is not necessary. Once you remove the mixture in step 2 from the double boiler, you don't have to wait for it to completely cool down. In the double boiler, it doesn't really boil, so you can immediately proceed to step 3. I hope this helps.

Angel @ Cook.Bake.Love said...
April 14, 2009 at 11:09 AM

Hi,

This is the first time I visit your site and I fall in love with it. Great blog you have!!!

I own this Alex Goh's book as well and I tried to bake this cake, it failed. Ur version is definitely gorgeous. May I know what milk u used?

I will try to bake this cake again. Never give up.

Passionate About Baking said...
April 14, 2009 at 2:21 PM

Hi Cook.Bake.Love,
Thank you for your compliments. It's just a normal blog with inspirations from other better bakers and blogs! ;)
I used the normal UHT milk. Like those Magnolia or Marigold UHT 1 litre milk you buy from supermarket? It's not from the fridge, but once you opened it, you'll have to keep them in the fridge. Lately, I found another creamier milk (as told by my son) from PH, and Fairprice is selling it also. It's called Meadow Fields or something like that. It cost only $1.55 in PH where Fairprice is selling it at $2.20. Don't buy low fat or skim milks, it's never good for baking this cake. Use the full cream milk, it's much lovelier!
That's the spirit! Don't give up, try again ya? Let me know the wonderful outcome yah? ;)

Anonymous said...
April 14, 2009 at 4:57 PM

Hi,
Could I use square pan instead of roudnd pan? What will happen if I bake the cotton cheesecake by the normaly way (not water bake)?

Passionate About Baking said...
April 14, 2009 at 7:38 PM

Hi Anonymous,
Yes, you can use a square pan, but the size has to be smaller than an 8" round pan as square pan is bigger than a round pan if you use the same inch. So if using square pan, max size will be 6½"x6½" pan.
If you don't water bake, then the cake might crack in the centre. But actually, even if you water bake, sometimes it also cracked in the centre due to the temperature of the oven. Hope this helps.

Anonymous said...
April 15, 2009 at 10:07 AM

Thanks for the info. I baked the cake yesterday by water bake at 150C for 55min and I felt the inner part of the cake still moist when I used cake tested to test it. May i why?

Angel @ Cook.Bake.Love said...
April 15, 2009 at 11:12 AM

Hi Passinate about Baking,

Thanks for your reply.

The milk sold in PH is a good steal, thanks for your recommendation.

I usually use UHT full cream milk for my baking (longer shelf life coz I don't drink milk :P) but I remember I used evaporated milk for this cake as I tot I wanted to give it a richer and creamer taste.

Passionate About Baking said...
April 16, 2009 at 1:32 PM

Hi Anonymous,
I suspect the temperature as too low for cheesecake. Cheesecakes are usually baked at about 160 for 50-60mins usually. I think it wasn't cooked enuf, even though it was baked for 55mins. You might want to try again at 160C, and baked it for 45mins? A slight temperature sometimes does make a difference.

Hi Cook.Bake.Love,
You're most welcome. I hope you like the milk from PH. How was the taste with evaporated milk? I would think evaporated milk's taste might be too over-powering. I prefer to stick to UHT full cream milk for this cheesecake though. ;)

Anonymous said...
April 16, 2009 at 5:53 PM

Thanks again for the info. Will try tonight.

Angiekyl said...
April 18, 2009 at 3:33 PM

Hi,
I notice that this recipe don't use any baking powder. Will it rise ?

Passionate About Baking said...
April 18, 2009 at 9:43 PM

Hi Angiekyl,
Yes, it will rise. There is the beating of egg whites with cream of tartar. But of course, it will not rise too much as it's not meant to rise too much. It'll only rise a bit to make the cheesecake light.

Keen in baking said...
May 21, 2009 at 3:47 PM

Hi passion baker,
I tried baking this cake for the 2nd time, but still unsuccessful. The cake strink upon removed from the oven. It doesn't look like yours. Could you pls enlighten me. I used Ariston oven , baking mode which comes with fan, put batter on rack 3 and temp @ 160 for 45 mins. Do you think i shld use only the top & bottom heating elements ? if yes shld the temp & timing remains unchange ? looking fwd for your reply. Thks.

Passionate About Baking said...
May 21, 2009 at 4:21 PM

Hi Keen in baking,
Did you follow the instructions on the mixing method? Did you put in water bake like what was shown in the picture? If you are using a fan oven, then please reduce the temp by 20C. In this case, use 140C, and bake for 45mins. I suspect the temp was too hot, which was why it cracked on the top. Ariston oven is supposed to be very good. If you switch to top and bottom heat only, keep the 160C. Remember this, if you use the fan oven, always reduce the temp by 20C regardless of what you are baking. Otherwise, the temp may be way too hot for your bakes.
Even when the top cracks, I supposed the cake also tasted very nice right? Try again using I said above. Let me know the outcome again. Feel free to email me if you need help: aloyallyanders@gmail.com. All the best!

Keen in Baking said...
May 22, 2009 at 11:05 AM

Hi passion baker
Thks 4 ur prompt reply. Yes I followed the instruction closely and i water baked it too. Yes the cake tasted very nice though it shrinked. Hubby n kids support and encouragement makes me wanna try again. I will use what u said in the next baking, won't give up. Sorry wish to ask u another qns, u were saying that temp to reduce by 20C irregardless of what I bakes, so I suppose it apply to sponge cake too ? I oso failed many times in baking sponge cake. It shrinked and some how certain part of the cake was moist, damn and compact. I used separate eggs beating method. Do you think a beginner, like me, should do the all-in method (beating egg yolk n white together) ? Thks 4 ur time. Rgds.

Passionate About Baking said...
May 22, 2009 at 3:35 PM

Hi Keen in Baking,
Yes. Apply to any kind of bakes, be it pies, tarts or sponge cakes. Fan oven makes the temperature in the oven more uniform. Therefore, you need to reduce it by 20C. The parts of the cake that was moist was not heated enuf. Usually the centre part right? The sides are all baked, but the centre part not baked. Also, it might also be that the cakes were not well folded, or the egg whites have burst, causing the cake to be dense.
Separating eggs is rather difficult as you have to ensure that you beat the egg whites well till stiff peak, and fold in the whites into the batter well without breaking the whites.
The all-in-method might not be as ez as you think. I've tried it last time and failed many times because folding in the flour into the beaten eggs needs skills. Another way is to add emulsifier, as it stablised the bubbles better and makes the cake softer. But emulsifier is afterall, a chemical.
You may want to try one of my cake recipe from Alex Goh using emulsifier. I think you will like it. Good luck, and remember to reduce oven temperature when you use fan. For me, I usually bake with my oven thermometer! :)

Keen in Baking said...
May 22, 2009 at 4:07 PM

Hi Passion baker,

Wow!! thks 4 ur detailed and valued explaination.

Last but not least, do u beat eggs at high speed then at low speed, or vise versa ? and for how long at each speed ? Really feel paisei asking so many qns. Hope u dun mind.

Yes, wish me luck in my next baking.

Will let u know if i succeed. :)

Passionate About Baking said...
May 22, 2009 at 4:47 PM

Hi Keen in Baking,
No worries. I'm just sharing what I have learnt and experience. I've been through failures many times, and I really can empathise.
If you refer to egg whites, I will start low, only after adding sugar then I will go med-high. For whole eggs, I usually go to high, then slowly down to medium after it has increased in size. For emulsified eggs, I'll do the same for whole eggs. I can't really tell you how long, for this, it's really personal experience. Sometimes can be 10mins, sometimes lesser or more time required. It depends on what kind of mixer you are using. I'm using a Kenwood chef. So it's considered pretty fast and good.
Don't feel paiseh to ask questions. We are all learning. I also get to understand my oven through "Kitchen Corner".
Yes, please inform me that your bakes are nicely done! :)

Keen in Baking said...
May 26, 2009 at 3:08 PM

Hi Passion baker
Yippeeeee...I succeed.
Just couldn't wait to share with u. It doesn't crack or shrink this time round , the only imperfect was it did not rise as high as yours. Could it due to the size of the cake tin i used ? I used a 9" cake tin. Anyway it doesn't matter. Really wants to thank you for your patience,guidance and the luck you have prayed for me ...haha. U r my shifu !! and I think i will have more confidence in other baking.

Passionate About Baking said...
May 28, 2009 at 8:38 AM

Hi Keen in Baking,
Congrats! You finally did it. I'm so glad you did. I was really hoping and waiting for your reply. Yes, using 9" won't rise as high. Read under "My notes". If you want to get a higher cake, use 8". So what was different compared to your last bake that makes it successful? Is it the oven temperature? Now that you know, once the cake top cracked, it's very likely the temp is too hot. So for other bakes, if you use the fan oven mode, remember to reduce the temperature by 20C okay? Email me your successful bakes at aloyallyanders@gmail.com. I can't wait to share your joy too! :)

Yummy-Mummy said...
October 1, 2009 at 1:12 AM

Hi!!

I have been looking for a recipe for a Japanese Cheesecake forever... I even tried baking one earlier this year, but the recipe called for lemon juice (the only Japanese cheesecake I've eaten was mildly sweet, and did not have a lemon flavor)... Anyway, I decided to give it a try, 'coz I thought the lemon would help with the egg smell... The cake while it was soft and spongy, tasted so lemon-y, it was awful... Anyway, your recipe sounds perfect for me... The only question I have is, does it smell too egg-y??? I was thinking of adding vanilla essence, but wanted to pick your brain as whether you've tried adding vanilla as a variation to your cheesecake... And, if so, how much did you add to your recipe???

Thanks a ton...

Anonymous said...
January 18, 2010 at 11:01 PM

Hihi,

May I know what is brand of oven do u use for yr baking? All your cake looks so awesome and perfect. I would like to get one oven as my current portable oven is giving me headaches...Hope you can share..
Many thanks...
JC

Passionate About Baking said...
January 18, 2010 at 11:16 PM

Hi JC,
Currently, I'm using Delonghi for my bakes. It happens to be the biggest kitchen top oven I can find. You can find it in most electrical stores including Tangs. I got mine from Tangs. You can check them out. Hope this helps. Thanks for your compliments. Hope you can find an oven that is suitable for you.

Anonymous said...
January 19, 2010 at 11:28 PM

Hihi,
Thanks for replying. I tried baking this cheesecake today and I tried whisking the egg white and unfortunately it doesnt form soft peak. The mixture is watery even i added cream of tartar and sugar. Could you kindly enlighten what went wrong...However, I still continue to fold cheese mixture to watery egg white mixture.
Hope you can share some tips of egg white whisking..
Many thanks..
JC

Passionate About Baking said...
January 20, 2010 at 2:09 PM

Hi JC,
I suspect you didn't whip up the egg whites enough. If you had whipped up enough, then it shouldn't be watery at all. You should whip up the egg whites till frothy, until you don't see the liquid at all. Alternatively, you can add in the cream of tartar into the egg whites to whip. Make sure it's frothy and the bubbles in the egg whites are very very fine before you add in the sugar gradually.
Remember, when whipping egg whites, make sure your mixer and bowl is clean and free from oil. Start with a consistent medium speed. I hope this helps. Hope you can try again.

Anonymous said...
January 21, 2010 at 10:49 AM

Hihi,

Thanks for your advise. I am not good in separating the egg white and egg yolk. I recalled and probably the egg white mixture consisted of slight egg yolk. Does this affect when whipping the egg white?
Thanks again.
JC

Passionate About Baking said...
January 21, 2010 at 4:26 PM

Hi JC,
I'm glad you found the root cause! Yes, egg yolk is an enemy of egg whites. Always remember, when you want to whip egg whites, never to have a drop of egg yolks as it will affect the whipping of the whites. How I separate my yolk and white is, crack the egg into a bowl, then scoop up the yolk with my hand to separate it. If the yolk happen to break, I'll pour it into another container, wash my bowl clean again, and crack another egg. Try again and see how. I'm sure it was due to the yolk! Good luck!

Crystal said...
March 14, 2010 at 12:34 AM

HI Jane

I am new in baking, bought Alex book a year ago, start 2 make now since my bb turn to 1 year old :> I was so excited to see your blog here, n read thr your kind comment. Unfortunately, my poor cheesecake didn;t rise. I afraid I put too much flour as I suspect my scale is inaccurate already. I also wonder if I use 1 round pan in foil instead of 2 pans (btw, what is the purpose of using 2 pans?), or may be I put too little cream of tartar? how do u measure 1/8 tsp? Please help. Thanks

Passionate About Baking said...
March 14, 2010 at 4:22 PM

Hi co,
Thanks.
In Alex's recipe, he used two small oval pans, whereas I use one round pan. Therefore, it's dependant on whether you prefer two smaller loaves or one bigger loaf.
I suspect your cake didn't rise has nothing to do with your flour. It's mainly due to the way you beat your egg whites and how you fold the meringue into the cheese mixture. 1/8tsp cream of tartar can be measured using 1/4tsp and halved it. You need to buy a set of measuring spoons if you already don't have one. I hope this helps. Drop me an email at aloyallyanders@gmail.com if you have more queries. Thank you.

Anonymous said...
May 23, 2010 at 9:45 AM

AHHH!! this cheesecake tasted so good!! thanks for the posting the recipe. it didn't turn out as cottony but i'll try it again another time. the batter only made one 8 in pan for me, not two. where do you find a alex goh book? he has such great recipes.

Passionate About Baking said...
May 23, 2010 at 9:57 AM

Anonymous,
Glad you like the cake. This recipe is enough for a 8" round cake pan, not two though. You can purchase Alex Goh's books from local bookstores, if you live in Singapore. Malaysia also sells his book as he is a Malaysian.

Anonymous said...
September 26, 2010 at 6:56 PM

hi, i baked this cake today but not so successful. read thru your answers to others. i think most likely my oven temp is too high (top cracked). the cake rise beautifully in oven, but srink and sink after take out from oven. will high temp cause shrink? thanks for advise.

byw, I didn't use cream of tartar. the egg white whipped to soft peak. did it matter?

Niuniu

Passionate About Baking said...
September 27, 2010 at 4:40 PM

Hi Niuniu,
Yes, it was due to the oven temperature. Bubbles in the cakes are very sensitive. When the cake rise too early and too fast, the chances is, it will collapse. Try reducing the temperature of your oven, or place your cake in the lowest rack in the oven.
The usage of cream of tartar is to stabilise the egg whites. If you can whipped it well, and you are fast enough in all those folding and baking, then it's okay to omit the cream of tartar. Otherwise, the egg whites might get inflated during the folding stage.
I hope this clarifies.

Anonymous said...
September 28, 2010 at 9:26 PM

Hi Jane

thank you vm for your advice.

i will try again in this week. I can always whip the egg white well without cream of tartar. I notice the cake bubble is flat but not round. is it means the bubble deflated during baking process? will cream of tartar help during baking process or just during whipping process?

Thanks again.

Niuniu

Passionate About Baking said...
September 28, 2010 at 9:55 PM

Hi Niuniu,
If you can whip the egg white well without cream of tartar, then omit it. From my understanding, it helps the stabilising of the egg whites during folding and baking process too. Without cream of tartar to stabilise the bubbles, your action from folding to pouring the batter into the pan and putting in the oven needs to be very fast as bubbles deflate very fast.
I hope this answers your query. Thanks.

Anonymous said...
October 2, 2010 at 2:29 PM

Hi Jane

you are right.

this cake is too light for me but I also don't like NY cheese cake, which is too thick. haha, i am in between. i also baked japanese cake use cheese up to 8oz, but still haven't find my best recipe. i like the type of Don Pie at china square.

do you know any recipe which is sweet type cheese cake but stronger than Jap cheese cake? Thank you!!!

Anonymous said...
October 24, 2010 at 7:19 PM

Hi there,

i need your help, as i am learning how to bake...I followed your recipe very closely, but fail..

I used full cream milk instead of UHT. does this mater?

I am not sure whether over whip (using handle mixer) will bother the baking? There is still bubble tho but i dont know how it should look like..

And i used double boiled method, and baked for 45 mins but the cake wont raise and still wet inside (using a stick to poke) can you advise?

I will appreciate you can email me at diser16@yahoo.com.sg for your advise.

thank you

Anonymous said...
October 24, 2010 at 7:44 PM

hi it me again, from the previous post...
after testing the cake... it is still very wet... no idea where went wrong...

diser16@yahoo.com.sg

yin said...
May 15, 2011 at 3:46 PM

hi,is it a must to wrap the baking pan with the aluminium foil?
why my cake drop after cooling down and it is wet inside?

Passionate About Baking said...
May 17, 2011 at 10:26 AM

Hi yin,
It's not necessary to wrap the pan with foil. Wrapping it with foil is to delay the heat to the batter.
The reason why your cake dropped and is still wet is because your oven is too hot and it was not fully cooked when you removed it. You need to understand how your oven works and what is the actual temperature of the oven when baking.

yin said...
May 17, 2011 at 8:10 PM

oh okay, thanks so much!
is it i need to change to top and bottom heat? cause im using top heat and fan.

yin said...
May 19, 2011 at 5:52 PM

oh okay, thanks so much!
is it i need to change to top and bottom heat? cause im using top heat and fan.

yin said...
May 19, 2011 at 5:52 PM

hi,is it a must to wrap the baking pan with the aluminium foil?
why my cake drop after cooling down and it is wet inside?

Anonymous said...
May 19, 2011 at 5:52 PM

hi, i baked this cake today but not so successful. read thru your answers to others. i think most likely my oven temp is too high (top cracked). the cake rise beautifully in oven, but srink and sink after take out from oven. will high temp cause shrink? thanks for advise.

byw, I didn't use cream of tartar. the egg white whipped to soft peak. did it matter?

Niuniu

Keen in baking said...
May 19, 2011 at 5:52 PM

Hi passion baker,
I tried baking this cake for the 2nd time, but still unsuccessful. The cake strink upon removed from the oven. It doesn't look like yours. Could you pls enlighten me. I used Ariston oven , baking mode which comes with fan, put batter on rack 3 and temp @ 160 for 45 mins. Do you think i shld use only the top & bottom heating elements ? if yes shld the temp & timing remains unchange ? looking fwd for your reply. Thks.

Passionate About Baking said...
May 19, 2011 at 5:52 PM

Hi Keen in Baking,
No worries. I'm just sharing what I have learnt and experience. I've been through failures many times, and I really can empathise.
If you refer to egg whites, I will start low, only after adding sugar then I will go med-high. For whole eggs, I usually go to high, then slowly down to medium after it has increased in size. For emulsified eggs, I'll do the same for whole eggs. I can't really tell you how long, for this, it's really personal experience. Sometimes can be 10mins, sometimes lesser or more time required. It depends on what kind of mixer you are using. I'm using a Kenwood chef. So it's considered pretty fast and good.
Don't feel paiseh to ask questions. We are all learning. I also get to understand my oven through "Kitchen Corner".
Yes, please inform me that your bakes are nicely done! :)

Passionate About Baking said...
May 19, 2011 at 5:52 PM

Hi Keen in baking,
Did you follow the instructions on the mixing method? Did you put in water bake like what was shown in the picture? If you are using a fan oven, then please reduce the temp by 20C. In this case, use 140C, and bake for 45mins. I suspect the temp was too hot, which was why it cracked on the top. Ariston oven is supposed to be very good. If you switch to top and bottom heat only, keep the 160C. Remember this, if you use the fan oven, always reduce the temp by 20C regardless of what you are baking. Otherwise, the temp may be way too hot for your bakes.
Even when the top cracks, I supposed the cake also tasted very nice right? Try again using I said above. Let me know the outcome again. Feel free to email me if you need help: aloyallyanders@gmail.com. All the best!

Rei said...
May 19, 2011 at 5:52 PM

Lovely cake! I like your Pokemon touch. Ahahah~~

passionbaker said...
May 20, 2011 at 11:29 AM

Hi yin,
Yes, you need to use the top and bottom heat, with fan. Reduce the temperature by 20C whenever you use fan as the heat is more uniform. Hope this helps.
Good luck!

Bakerintrainning said...
May 22, 2011 at 2:22 PM

I tried your recipe twice with no success. Both times the cake went flat when taken out of the oven to cool. I think I need more practice with folding the batter into the egg white mixture and know when to stop beating when the egg white is in soft peak stage. Can you describe the appearance of the soft peak stage ? Thank you.

passionbaker said...
May 22, 2011 at 3:53 PM

Hi Bakerintraining,
I can understand. Beating egg whites and folding them is no easy feat. It needs practice. When the cake went flat, there's probably two main reasons - either the egg whites were not beaten properly or the oven is too hot.
Soft peak stage is when you hold up your beaten egg whites, the egg whites fold back and form sort of like a bird's peak.
Here is a few samples to show you what is soft peak:
http://kitchentreats.wordpress.com/page/3/
http://bakingsheet.blogspot.com/2005/06/cooking-school-how-to-beat-egg-whites.html
I hope this helps. Good luck in your baking!

yin said...
May 23, 2011 at 9:15 PM

thank you so much for the advice.

Bakerintrainning said...
May 27, 2011 at 1:33 PM

Thank you so much for your help ! I will try again !:)

Phuong said...
August 19, 2011 at 10:41 PM

I have tried this recipe many and many times. It looks beautiful with the even brown top but it's only fluffy half top. I do not understand why my cake always has dense bottom even though I go through many tips from the internet. Do you think too much water in the water bath causes the problem? Can I over beat the whites to make it firmly stiff instead of soft peaks? Thanks.

passionbaker said...
August 21, 2011 at 3:40 PM

Hi Phuong,
I'm happy to know that you like it.
Yes, I suspect the dense bottom could be due to water sipping through to the base, which made it moist and dense. Another reason could be due your folding. You did not fold the egg white batter thoroughly, resulting in the heavier cheese batter to sink to the bottom.
It's better to beat the egg whites to soft peak so that it's more stable and easier to fold. When the egg whites are beaten to stiff peak, it's more difficult to incorporate, and become more unstable when you try to fold them, and might cause the bubbles to break instead.
Hope this helps, and I hope you'll be successful the next time. Good luck!

Serene said...
September 1, 2011 at 1:34 PM

Hi there! I tried this recipe today. First time baking cotton cheesecake actually. The texture is soft but the cake itself shrink after it cools down and the top become wrinkled. No crack though. Any advise on how to avoid the shrinkage and wrinkles? :( Apart from that, the cake is really soft.

Thanks a lot

passionbaker said...
September 2, 2011 at 4:29 PM

Hi Serene,
Glad that you like the recipe.
I believe when the cake shrink after cooling means the oven is too hot. When the oven is too hot, the cake rises very fast. Therefore, when cooled, it will shrink. Try reducing the temp of the oven by 20C to see if it works. Hope this helps.

amanda said...
December 13, 2012 at 11:55 PM

Hi, can i ask what flour are you using for the 40g flour, can i use low protein flour?

passionbaker said...
December 16, 2012 at 8:12 AM

Hi amanda,
I used plain flour. You can use any flour, except for bread flour. Hope this helps.

Unknown said...
August 27, 2013 at 12:45 AM

Hi, you said to line a two 20 cm pans, have you prepared two cakes out of the mixture above? Or just one pan is enough?

Passionate About Baking said...
August 27, 2013 at 8:14 PM

Hi P Cruz,
Original recipe used two 20cm OVAL pan, I used one 8" ROUND pan. Hope this clarifies.

Anonymous said...
April 15, 2014 at 2:45 PM

Hi Jane, your cake looks beautiful and I tried to bake it by following your recipe. However, I do not know why my cheesecake has two layers in it. The top part looks exactly the same as yours but the bottom part is custard look alike. Do you have any idea on what problem is this? I have followed all the step by step method in the recipe.

Another question is do you think using a non-stick pan can affect the baking of cheesecake? Appreciate for your advice and help please. Tqvm

Anne

Passionate About Baking said...
April 19, 2014 at 10:29 AM

Hi Anne,
I believe the custard look alike could either due to:
(1) batter was not thoroughly mixed;
(2) temperature was too low, resulting in the batter settling below; or
(3) the batter took a long time before it went to the oven for baking.
These could be the possibilities. You have to evaluate the steps which you have taken to cause this problem.
As for non-stick pan, I don't think it will affect the baking. As long as you don't grease it, it will still rise further. Hope this helps. Give it a try again, I'm sure it'll be good this time. Good luck!

Anonymous said...
April 20, 2014 at 12:13 PM

Thx Jane...I will give it a try again :D

Anne

Anonymous said...
August 9, 2014 at 2:45 AM

Hey, I used this recipe, but when I took it out, I let it cool and realized that the cake was under baked. How long did it take for yours to bake? (I know you included baking time in the recipe, but how was it for you exactly?)

Passionate About Baking said...
August 10, 2014 at 4:08 PM

Hi,
I cannot remember exactly how long. If you had underbaked, it's likely your temperature was too low. Mine was set at 160C fan oven, means 180C normal bake function. Hope this helps.

Allan Lee said...
February 24, 2015 at 4:21 PM

Hi, can I use 8 inch black colour non stick pan for this recipe?

Passionate About Baking said...
February 24, 2015 at 4:28 PM

Hi Allan,
My advise is no non-stick pan. You need to use aluminium pan in order to allow the egg whites to expand and "climb" up. With non-stick, it will not be able to stick and expand upwards too much. Hope this clarifies.

Allan Lee said...
February 24, 2015 at 5:20 PM

Thanks for your advise. But I only have 9 × 5 inch rectangular aluminum pan, can I use it?

Passionate About Baking said...
February 25, 2015 at 7:47 AM

Hi Allan,
The pan may be too small for the batter. You can consider to halve the recipe or 3/4 of the recipe. Alternatively, you may pour the remaining batter into those tall muffin cups? And yes, you can use that 9x5 aluminium pan.

Unknown said...
April 17, 2015 at 8:32 AM

Hi. Great blog here! :) would like to know if youve tried this recipe without thw eggyolks... i have extra eggwhites and would like to try this recipe. What do you think will be the outcome if i will omit the eggyolks?

Passionate About Baking said...
April 17, 2015 at 8:47 AM

Hi maila,
I've not tried without egg yolks, and might not be an expert. However, egg yolks helped to set the cake structure. Try increasing the cream cheese by the weight of the egg yolks, which is approximately 16g for one egg yolks and see if it helps. I'm not sure if this works though. But if you don't try, you won't know. :p

Teresa said...
May 2, 2015 at 8:35 PM

Hi! May I know did you use the lowest rack in your oven to bake this cake? I'm using Rowenta oven OC7868 can I bake at 140C with fan? Thanks 😊

Passionate About Baking said...
May 3, 2015 at 10:23 AM

Hi Teresa,
If your oven is a table top like mine, I placed on the 2nd last rack. Yes, you can bake at 140C fan forced.

Teresa said...
May 19, 2015 at 2:08 PM

Thank you for your reply. If I bake at 140C fan forced, how long should I bake it for?

Passionate About Baking said...
May 31, 2015 at 9:35 AM

Hi,
You have to bake for at least 50-60mins at 140C. Don't overbake.

jade said...
March 19, 2016 at 5:50 PM

There are so many items I want to try, but just didn't have the time to do it. japanese magic method article

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