Japanese Cotton Cheesecake with Black Sesame

Just in time for Mother’s Day!

Japanese cotton cheesecakes aren’t the fanciest looking cakes around, but we love these light fluffy cakes that one can eat all day, anytime without getting sugar high and feeling calorie guilt ridden. Since it’s a special day, I did a black sesame version just to add a tiniest bit of glitz (and fancy swirls!) to that original favourite of ours.

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake with Black Sesame

Ingredients (For a 8in round pan)
Cake batter
250g cream cheese (Philadelphia’s)
75g unsalted butter
200g full cream milk
6 egg yolks (beaten)
50g cake flour, sifted
25g corn starch, sifted
1tsp vanilla extract
30g black sesame paste (Redman)
30g toasted black sesame powder (Redman)

Meringue
6 egg whites
1/4tsp cream of tartar
120g castor sugar

Directions
1. Grease the interior of the cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
2. Chop cream cheese and butter into cubes and melt over a double boiler. Use a hand whisk and mix occasionally. As the cream cheese softens, it forms a lumpy mixture with the butter. At this point, add in milk and whisk continuously till a smooth mixture forms. Set aside to cool.
3. In a large mixing bowl, add in beaten egg yolks, cake flour, and corn starch. Add in cooled cream cheese mixture and mix well to combine. In a separate bowl, pour out half of the mixture and add in sesame powder and sesame paste. Hand whisk till uniformly mixed. Set aside.
4. To prepare meringue, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar till foamy using an electric mixer on medium speed. Add in sugar in a gradual continuous motion and whisk on medium-high speed till soft peaks form. (Note: soft peaks are reached when it droops into an inverted-U shape and falls back onto itself when the whisk is inverted).
5. Divide meringue into 2 equal portions (a good estimation will suffice). Using a rubber spatula, fold in each portion into the plain batter and sesame batter. Fold gently till no white streaks remain.
6. Pour both batters, one at a time, into the greased cake pan and tap gently to release large air pockets. Take a skewer and swirl it around the mixture to create a marbled effect.
7. Bake using water-bath method on the lowest rack for 70 mins at 150C.
8. When the cake is baked, leave it in the oven to cool with door ajar for 30 mins as drastic changes in temperature may cause the cake to collapse.
9. Remove cake from oven and cake pan, and leave it to cool right-side up for an hour. Refrigerate overnight for flavor to mature before serving.