Cloud like afternoon tea - Heavenly Souffle Cheesecake (updated with recipe)

Light cheesecake with green tea (in the cup not the cake)

Originally posted 6/9/2005.

It's very hard to describe the texture of this cake. I felt like I was eating cotton wool, er no, cloud more like.

I have tried so many recipes all either failed or does not come up to my taste. Finally success smiled on me when I came across this recipe from EUPHO Cafe

The top still cracks a little bit, my heart sank when I saw the crack, I thought to myself,"Oh no, another failed cake". Nevertheless, I still let the cake cooled and refrigerate overnight before eating it, forbidding Big King to touch it and warned him,"You can only eat it for breakfast the next morning." His face sank.........

I was still enjoying my sleep when Big King charged into the room the next morning and exclaimed, "The cheesecake, chin ho jia (translated: very yummy)". I was so excited and cut myself a piece for breakfast and entered cloud nine (I normally prefer hot food for breakfast). Then I have another piece for tea, another piece when Big King came back from work, yet another piece for dessert. I couldn't stop. The cake was gone in a record 2 days! Normally 1 cake will last us a week!

Recipe below:-

Souffle Cheesecake

8" round cake tin

Ingredients:
A. Plain cream cheese 250g, fresh cream 50ml, milk 100ml, butter 80g
B. Cornflour 25g, milk 50ml
C. Egg white 150g, cornflour 10g, sugar 100g
D. Egg yolks 138g, butter and plain flour (for buttering the mould)

Method:
1. Melt A. over a pan of simmering water until the mixture liquefies (stir every 3 minutes), use spatula to stir the mixture well.
2. Mix B. until cornflour dissolves and pours into 1, stir until well-combined. Add in beaten yolks and strain the mixture.
3. Preheat oven to 150°C/300°F. Line bottom of mould with baking parchment paper. Butter the sides of the mould and coat it with plain flour, remove excess flour. If using loose bottom cake tin, cover the outside of the tin with 2 layers of aluminium foil.
4. In a clean bowl (make sure oil less and waterless), beat the egg whites till foamy and add in sugar and cornflour in 3 batches and beat until soft peak.
5. Take 1/3 egg white and stir into the cream cheese mixture to loosen the batter. Pour the cheese batter into the remaining egg whites and using cut and fold method quickly fold in the egg whites, do not over fold or else the air in the egg whites will escape.
6. Pour batter into cake tin. Sit the tin in a bigger mould or baking tray. Bake in a bain-marie (water-bath). Water must be boiling hot when poured into the baking tray or bigger mould. Water level should come up to ¾ of the height of the cake tin, at least half if you cannot manage ¾.
7. Put in oven and bake for about 25 minutes or when top is brown, reduce the heat to 125°C/260°F, continue to bake for another 1 hour or until a cake skewer comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the cake tin and remove from tin when cooled and refrigerate (it’s ok to leave the cake in the tin and refrigerate).

Note:
I normally use 4 eggs (4 whites and 4 yolks) for this recipe. It’s cumbersome measuring out the whites and the yolks.
It is natural that the cake will contract when it’s cooled leaving a small gap between the cake and side of the cake tin. The top of the cake should not sink and should be smooth.
You can also omit buttering the side of the cake tin and line it with baking parchment paper instead.
If your cake came out dense or separated into layers, it could be:
a. the oven temperature is too low, use an oven thermometer, do not believe what it says on the switch dial;
b. the water bath is not hot enough, remember to pour in boiling water just before baking;
c. the egg whites have not been folded into the batter completely.
Remember to check the height of the water every now and then, add in more boiling water when necessary.