japanese strawberry shortcake 3 - strawberry souffle

Yes! I've finally succeeded. So, 4 days and 3 cakes after my first attempt, (imagine the number of strawberries and cake and cream we have to go through), I've finally managed to re-create the cake I wanted. Suffice to say, it's not as good as the one by Chef Yamashita, I think it is good enough for now.
I've used a modified version of the cotton-soft japanese cheesecake recipe seen on Little Teochew and dressed it up with some fresh strawberry and creme chantilly. Hmm... My very first 3-layered cake is so so soft and yummy. (I'm practically grinning from ear to ear now.. hee)


Cotton-soft Japanese Cheesecake (modified from Little Teochew)
100g castor sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100 ml fresh milk
1/2tbsp lemon juice
60g cake flour
20g cornflour
1/4 tsp salt

1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture to room temperature.

2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 160C with convection. Prepare 8-inch round, 3-inch deep cake pan by lining bottom with greaseproof paper and making sure the bottom and sides are well buttered with thin layer of flour.

3. Add in egg yolks and lemon juice to cream/milk/butter mixture and mix well. Fold in flour, cornflour and salt. Mix well using whisk if necessary. Make sure it is not lumpy.

4. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form. Do not whisk till stiff peaks.

5. Fold egg white to cream mixture by doing the following: add ¼ of egg white to cream mixture and stir to mix well so as to lighten the batter. Fold in the remaining egg white in thirds GENTLY. Make sure that the batter is well mixed.

6. Pour into a cake pan. Tap on bench once to release bubbles. Place in middle rack of preheated oven with a tray of water at the lower rack

7. Bake cheesecake in oven for 1 hour 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160C. Cover the top with foil in the first hour and remove in the last 10min where temperature is lowered to 140C for gentle browning. Check for done-ness by inserted skewer. If not done, cover browned top with foil and continue baking at 160C. (This can take up to 1hr 45mins). The cake will eventually rise to 1cm above cake pan and collapse to slightly below cake pan when cooled

8. Leave in oven to cool for 20mins when done. Subsequent, leave oven door slightly ajar and continue to wait for cake to cool in pan. Remove the cake from the pan when the cake has separated from the sides of the pan. Leave cake to cool on rack away from drought.

Creme Chantilly

Whip 330ml of cold whipping cream till thickened. Add 2tbsp icing sugar, 1/2 tsp of vanilla essence and prepared gelatin (sprinkle 1tsp of gelatin to 4 tsp of cold water, sit for 5mins then stir till fully dissolved at low heat). Whip till stiff peaks.

Assembling the strawberry souffle

Torte the cake when it's cooled to room temperature. This can be done by placing toothpicks at 3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock positions at same height to aid in slicing of the cake into 3 equal horizontal layers. Use a sharp long serrated knife to slice the cake and use a cake board to help remove the layers gently.

Spread a thin layer of creme chantilly followed by diced strawberry on the bottom cake layer. Repeat for the middle and top layer. Pour glazing gel (2 tbsp of gel + 2 tbsp of warm water) over strawberry on top.

Chill and serve.