Taiwanese Chesecake

Do you know Japanese Cheesecake?

Well, Taiwanese is the other one. Some say it has similarity with the Japanese one, because of the cottony texture, but minus the lemon. These two cakes are definitely different with regular cheesecake like New York Cheesecake and friends, because these cheesecakes is actually like... cake.

I suppose this kind of cake is not so common in the western area, because I try searching in some popular food blog but most of them, I found only another NY cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake, etc. Maybe because of the lightness, or maybe the less density of these cake they prefer to make the classic cheesecake. Well, whatever the reason is, everybody who loves baking should try making this, and can decide afterward.

What make this cheesecake not as dense as classic cheesecake is because the little use of a cream cheese. The fluffiness comes from the whipped egg whites that folds into the cream cheese batter.


Taiwanese Cheesecake
(Source: Buku 50 Resep Cheese Cake, Sedap)

Ingredients

• 125 gr cream cheese
• 90 gr evaporated milk
  
• 65 gr unsalted butter
• 35 gr all purpose flour
  
• 30 gr cornstarch
  
• 120 gr egg yolk
  
• 150 gr egg white
• 1/2 sd salt
  
• 1/2 sdt cream of tartar
• 90 gr castor sugar
  
• 1 sdm parmigiano cheese for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Line a 22x22x4 cm pan with a parchment paper.
   
2. Warm cream cheese and milk over simmering water, stir occasionally until melted. Add butter. Stir again until well blended. Don't let the water boil. Set aside.
3. Sift in flour and cornstarch, and stir until well blended. Add egg yolk that's already lightly beaten. Mix well together. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, using clean beater, beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until they can hold soft peak. Add sugar gradually and continue beating until hard peak formed.
5. Fold in a some of the egg whites into cream cheese gently. And then pour all of the cream cheese batter into the egg whites and fold in until well blended. Pour into prepared cake pan. Sprinkle the parmigiano cheese on top. Place the pan on a bigger pan.
   
6. Place the baking sheet with the cheesecake into the oven, and pour 2-3 tbsp water. You can add more if you want to make the cake moister. Bake the cake in a 160 degrees C for 45 minutes or until it's done.
   
7. Turn off the oven. Let the cake inside the oven for about 1 hour, and let it cool before removing from the pan.
8. Run a knife around the outer edge of the cake pan (if needed), and invert onto a plate to remove the cake. Peel off the parchment paper and invert onto a serving plate so the top of the cake is on top again.

The lightness, the fluffiness... hey, how many times have I mention the word "fluffy"? Well, it's that good *nom nom nom*

Steamed Chocolate Cupcake

I gotta be honest, at first, I never interested for making cupcake. For me, cupcake and all the decoration is just a waste of time. I mean, c'mon, the cake only require eating for like a two to four bites maximum and you decorate it for maybe 15 minutes (and maybe more!) per cake? So much for the effort, eh? I always prefer cake. Big cake. Butter cake, chiffon cake, cheese cake, any kind, as long as not that cute cake.

But now, shamelessly, I retract my words :P

All because my vacation to Jakarta, and there goes my cousin, whom always making cute cookies and cupcake, insisted me to try, at least one time, for making a cupcake and decorate it. And so I lose. She did able to make me finally want to know about cupcake, and curious about what is everyone fussing about this. In my defense, she convince me for a week. So, I'm not at all weak.

She gave me one recipe that I finally fall in love with. And finally, a cake recipe that can be made without baking, but with steaming. It can be formed as a regular cake of course, but we pour the batter into a small cup, or else it won't be called cupcake, but just... cake.

Little did I know, it actually a brownies recipe. But instead of coming out fudgy and thick like the usual brownie, this one is quite light and moist. Well, whatever it is, I luvr it.

I got the recipe from the well-known cooking club in Indonesia, NCC. I make only half batch, and this it self produce about 30 cupcakes and I also not adding the chocolate sprinkle. I don't really like the taste of it.

Steamed Chocolate Cupcake (Source: Natural Cooking Club)

Ingredient A

• 6 eggs
• 225 gr caster sugar
• 10 gr emulsifier
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract/essence

Ingredient B

• 35 gr cocoa powder
• 150 gr plain flour (shifted together)

Ingredient C

• 150 gr butter/margarine
• 100 gr dark cooking chocolate, chopped or shredded
• 1/2 chocolate paste

Ingredient D

• 50 gr cooking chocolate, roughly chopped.
  

Instructions:

1. Line your cupcake pans with paper cup.
2. Melt butter and turn off the heat before it's completely melt, then dunk in the chopped chocolate and the chocolate paste. Whisk it until it's completely melt in the butter. Set aside.
3. Beat sugar, egg and salt in high speed until thick, and then beat in the emulsifier, continue beating until pale, creamy and very thick (try to make a trace with your beater. If it's disappear in quite a while, then you're done)
4. Shift ingredient B. Using the lowest speed, pour in the dry ingredient into the egg batter. Turn off the mixer.
5. Pour in the melted butter and chocolate. Fold in until it's thoroughly mixed. Be sure not to leave the butter-mix in the bottom of the bowl.
6. Stir in roughly chopped chocolate until just mix.
   
7. Preheat a steamer.
8. While waiting the steamer until it's completely boil, pour the batter into the cupcake pans.
9. Wrap the lid of your steamer with a towel or thick napkin.
10. Steamed the batter for 20-25 minutes in a medium heat.

I garnish my cupcake simply with a whipped cream and shredded dark cooking chocolate. I know it's too mundane for a cupcake. I don't care. I eat right away after I took a picture of it anyway. You might want to refrigerate it for a while to harden the chunky chocolate. It will taste more delicious.