Fiesta cheesecake & strawberry shortcake

I was planning to re-create the strawberry souffle from Flor since strawberries were on sale. But alas, the Japanese cheesecake was not to be. I overbeat the egg whites to stiff peak and the cake rose spectacularly like a souffle and fell just as spectacularly too. Ha ha. But it still tasted great though! Reminded me of fiesta cheesecake which used to be quite popular.

Slight changes to the recipe: used 120g of sugar instead and omitted the lemon. Also, as the eggs were small, I used 6 egg yolks and 7 whites. That resulted in a more pronounced cheese flavor. Will probably attempt again when my poor ego recovers.

Because of this "failure", I ended up making a strawberry shortcake using the genoise. There wasn't much problems with the baking but the I tried to use the mascarpone whipped cream recipe by Tish Boyle which didn't work so well for the cake. Only thing I learned was "sweetening" the tart strawberries by mixing the sliced strawberries with 2 tbsp of sugar and letting it sit for 2hours to macerate.

Mango cream & mousse cake for my brother

My little (ok, not so little) brother is leaving for the states to do his phD. I was thinking of getting him a going away present and decided to make him his favorite mango cake. Since KK has a family gathering on sunday, it gave me the perfect excuse to bake a cake, which turned out to be his aunt's birthday cake.


Mango Cream & Mousse Cake

This cake is a combination of the two previous mango cakes I made. It turned out better than I've expected as the mangoes were ripe and sweet.

Cake base - 3 halves of classic genoise

Mango mouuse - refer to previous recipe. The key to success is 2 large ripe mangoes. The amount was more than enough for 2 9inch layers and sides of the cake.

Whipped cream cheese frosting (see below) for 1 layer and and to cover the whole cake

Cubed mangoes - 1 for filling and 2 for toppings

Mango flavored simple syrup - 120ml of Fruit Tree mango juice, 3/4 cup of mango puree and 1 tbsp orange liquer mixed well. Use 5-6tbsp per layer of sponge.

The perfect (ok, I may be exaggerating a little) whipped cream cheese frosting

170g cream cheese
3 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
240ml cream

Whip cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in stand-mixer till smooth.
Whisk cream to stiff peak.
Fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture.

Tasting notes and learning points:

The cake was soft and mango-y without being too sweet. The whipped cream cheese frosting held its shape well, likely due to the presence of icing sugar. I might have overdid it with the topping as the soft layers had difficulty supporting the heavy topping. Also, next time I'll use the leftover sponge and cream to make a triffle.

mango cream cake

I was planning to make a chocolate cake with strawberry and white chocolate ganache the whole week but alas! Cold Storage ran out of strawberries and the only ones available are like twice the price of the normal ones. I concluded that it was too expensive for my baking experiments and hence decided on a mango cream cake instead.

Now, what's a mango cream cake? Wells, I imagined one to be a wonderfully soft sponge cake filled with cream cheese frosting and fresh sweet mangoes. Mmm...


Mango Cream Cake

Start by baking 2 classic genoise (see recipe in strawberry yoghurt mousse cake)

While waiting for the cakes to cool, cube 3 large mangoes.
I had to add sugar to the mangoes as they were too sour. Thus, I tried to mitigate it by adding 2 tbsp of sugar + 1 tbsp of mango juice (Fruit Tree is way much better than Peel Fresh for the mango juice) and it sit in the fridge for 15 minutes or so.

Prepare the mango syrup

1/2 cup of chopped mangoes
1 tbsp of sugar (to taste, can omit if mangoes are sweet)
1/3 cup (80ml) of water

Put everything in the blender and blend until smooth.
Strain through a sieve.

Prepare the whipped cream cheese frosting

250ml cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp (45g) sugar
360ml heavy cream

Whip heavy cream until firm peaks. Cover and refrigerate.
Whip cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until creamy and smooth.
Fold a third of the whipped cream into cream cheese mixture.
Fold in the remaining cream
Use immediately or cover and refrigerate.

Finally, assemble the cake

Trim the top crust and slice the genoise into 2 horizontally. We will need 3 halves of the genoise.
Place one of the layers with cut side up on a cardboard cake round.
Brush mango syrup on it. (Each layer needs about 5 tbsp)
Spoon the mangoes on top of the layer.
Spread the whipped cream cheese frosting over the mangoes in an even layer.
Repeat with the middle layer.
For the top layer, brush the syrup, then frost the sides and top of the cake.
Garnish the top of the cake with mangoes and sides with toasted almond flakes.
Serve


Tasting notes & learning points:
So Rose was right after all. The genoise does taste so much better with syrup. According to The Cake Bible, the perfect amount of syrup is 3-4 tbsp for every egg used in the batter. I decided on 3 tbsp/egg since I added milk to my batter. This works out to 12 tbsp of syrup per cake and hence 6 tbsp of syrup per half. However, since the mango cubes are a little moist, I decided to use 5 tbsp of syrup per layer of genoise which worked out fine. The cake was moist and soft and not pasty.
Everyone loved the cake but I felt that it would have been much better if the mangoes were ripe. Toasting almonds can be done easily on a dry frying pan over medium heat which takes about 5 minutes.

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.