Baked Boston Cheese Cake

I love Cheesecakes. Especially the Baked kind. I can go into an ultimate Cheesecake Craving sometimes. I remembered sometime last year, I was looking high and low for the perfect Cheesecake when my cravings trigger off.

I've not baked a Cheesecake for ages. Perhaps it's because sometimes the steps puts me off. But I was in a baking mood this morning and I also had been reading up on Cheesecake recipes after seeing one from Cooking Craven, my friend-Amy's blog. She baked one for her kids and posted it in her new food blog. It looked really good and creamy. After going through as many as 20 over recipes, I decided to try hers. After all she baked it and I trust her taste.. Thank You Amy! Do hop over to give her some support, ya.

My Afternoon Tea with
Freshly Baked Yummy-Creamy Cheesecakes!

Amy's Cheese Cake recipe is as follow ( I made some alterations on the methods for my own convenience).

You will need:
A layer of light sponge cake (for instant recipe see here.)
Start baking your sponge cake first or you can buy one from the bakery.

A springform pan is recommended for cheesecake
(this pan has a clip at the side that can be loosen to release cakes that tend to be too soft or moist and sticks to sides of pans)

Ingredients
150ml Milk
20g Sugar
3 Egg Yolks
20g Cornflour

250g Cream Cheese

130ml Whipping Cream
Zest from half Lemon

2 tbsp Flour
60g Sultanas ( I omitted this because my kids don't like Sultanas)

3 Egg Whites
60g Sugar
1 tsp Lemon Juice


Method

STEP I
To cook the custard:
Heat about 100mls of milk with sugar. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mixed the egg yolks, 50mls of milk and beat it lightly. ( I did this because like ice cream if you add the eggs into a hot mixture, it might curdle so mixing it with milk is necessary). When the milk is simmering, I poured the egg yolk-milk mixture into it (don't forget to stir) and in a very low fire, heat this mixture up. Add the cornflour and cook till it becomes thick. Set it aside to cool.

The next thing I did was to whip the egg white. Some may prefer to continue with step III then step II, depending how convenient it is for you.

STEP II
Egg Whites.
Beat the egg whites till it is frothy.
Add 60g of Sugar and 1 tsp of Lemon Juice. When the whites are stiff, transfer it to another bowl (i used stainless steel) and place it in the fridge to prevent it from 'melting' back into egg white liquid.

STEP III
The main ingredients.
Next, beat the cream cheese till it becomes smooth, creamy and light.
Add in the cooled custard mixture that is cooled and mix till well blended.
Add the whipping cream and lemon zest next and mix it well.
Add the 2 tbsps of flour and mix it well again. By this time it looks very creamy indeed.

STEP IV
Combining Main Ingredients with Egg White
Last thing is to add the egg white mixture from the fridge to the main ingredients. You will get a very light coloured creamy texture and of course, a nice volume too.

The batter is now ready. Lay your sponge cake layer below the springform pan. Pour the cheese batter on top of it. If you use a 9 inch cake pan, you should be able fill the batter up nicely. I used a smaller pan about 7 inch pan size so I made two cakes with less cheese cake layer instead. I am giving one to my neighbour in case I can't finish them.

Bake in the oven at 150 deg C for about two hours. You will need a water bath for this. Lay a pan below the rack, with water coming up to about three thirds of the shallow pan. Refill if necessary.

My Cake:
The texture was great, the cake tasted really good, as a matter of fact.

I forgot about the minimum temperature of 150 deg C... and my oven is fan forced (cannot turn off) so I think it is too hot! Halfway baking, the centre part looked like a volcano! It cracked and I was thinking of covering but didn't. Let me show you the crack so that it is more realistic. But the recipe works. It is very nice, creamy and tangy. The lemon zest in it makes the cake smell very good.

Cracked my head baking Cheesecake..