Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake with Fresh Whipped Cream and Strawberry Filling

Swiss roll cake is always one of our family favorites. I usually try, if I have enough time to prepare, to make cake for a birthday celebration in our house. This year, my youngest requested for a Swiss roll cake for his birthday. He requested for a coffee roll cake and other variant of roll cake. However, since his birthday this year fell on the busy period of Easter celebration, and also an appointment with family friends, I negotiated with him to make 2 chocolate Swiss roll cake filled with fresh whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

At the beginning, he was dissapointed. However, when the cake was being made, he started to get enthusiastic and started to help around with the cake. And when we could cut and try the cake, he was completely happy. I was also happy with the results. 

Let's get directly to the recipe of the cake, so you can try to make it at home. 

Ingredients

(A)

4 egg yolks
20 gr fine sugar
25 gr vegetable oil
50 gr milk
50 gr cake flour

(B)

4 egg whites
0.5 teaspoon cream of tartar
45 gr fine sugar

Ingredients of the Filling

300 ml cream (minimum 35%, the one we use for making whipped cream)

20 gram powder sugar

Fresh strawberry - washed and dried with paper napkin

How to make the cake:

1. Preparation: Line the pan with baking sheet. Make sure the baking sheet is bigger than the baking pan/tray, so that we can take out the cake easier. This time, I used a rectangular tray from IKEA. 

2. Mix all (A) ingredients except the flour. Sift the cake flour in, and mix it until it reaches smooth consistency. Put aside.

3. In another bowl, mix the egg whites until it is frothy. Add the cream of tartar and sugar, mix until it becomes soft peak.

4. In the mean time, preheat the oven, upper-and-lower heat at 160 degree Celcius.

5. Mix briefly the egg-flour mixture (A) to make sure that it is still smooth. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites mixture (B) into the egg-flour mixture (A). After it is well incoporated, add every time 1/3 of the egg whites mixture (A) into the mixture gradually and fold it in well. Make sure that the (A) and (B) are fully incorporated.

6. Pour the mixture into the cake pan lined with baking paper and use the spatula to spread the mixture evenly. Note that the mixture is not really flowing, so you have to help the mixture to spread itself evenly.

7. Bake the cake at 160 degree Celcius, for around 20 minutes or until the tooth pick test comes out clean.

8. Let it cool in the oven with the oven door a little bit open for around 5 minutes.

9. Take the cake out of the pan and let it cool further on the cake rack. When it is still warm but cool enough to touch, roll the cake and let it sit in a roll shape. 

10. When the cake is already cool, unroll it, spread the cream filling (see below on how to make it) and then add 1 line of strawberries. 

11. Roll the cake and wrap it with the baking paper. Store it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving it, to make sure that the shape will hold.

How to make the filling:

Beat the fresh whipped cream and powder sugar until they are incorporated and forming a smooth whipped cream consistency.

Enjoy the cake!

Durian Mille Crepe

During my husband's birthday gathering last year, my youngest son and I planned a different "cake". We usually baked either Lapis Surabaya cake (spiku) or Japanese cheese cake. But this time, inspired by the Durian Mille crepe that our aunt bought for us during our visit to her warm home in LA, USA, we exchanged our usual cakes with this one. 

My sons love durian. While some hate the taste or sometimes even only the smell of durian, my children love durian. When they were younger, they also hated it. It smells, mommy. However, after a visit to Medan (a city in Indonesia), where they got their share of tasty local durian, they started to love it. My youngest favorite is when the durian is processed into other delicious food, such as, mille crepe or just a simple durian ice dessert (Ice durian with crushed ice and flavored condensed milk).

This time, I made two durian crepe using the below recipe. I made it into two smaller size because it is easier to handle than bigger diameter crepe. Also, with the heavy durian filling, I think smaller size crepe is already filling enough for a portion of dessert.

For the durian, I used durian Palu. Frozen of course, because I could not find a cheaper fresh one here with guaranteed quality. But durian Palu is delicious and in this case, I would mix it with fresh whipped cream.

We have had quite a feast with this durian dessert during the gathering and I was happy with the happy faces after they ate the dessert.   

Ingredients of the Crepe
75 gr butter (melted)
200 gr all-purpose flour
6 eggs
800 ml warm milk (I used pasteurized full milk - be careful not to use hot milk since it will cook the eggs)
80 grams of sugar (around 6 tbsp sugar - for less sweet crepe)
1 pinch of salt

Method (Crepe)

1. Mix the flour, eggs, sugar and the salt in a bowl.
2. Warm the butter and milk. Put aside when it starts steaming.

3. Slowly add the milk mixture into the egg mixture while keep mixing the batter.

4. Keep the mixture in the refrigerator for a few hours. (I left it overnight, to divide my work load.)
5. Prepare 2 non-stick frying pans (I used two small non-stick pans, one is a bit bigger than the other). Heat the smaller pan and add a bit of butter. Melt the butter and spread the butter evenly.
6. Using a soup ladle pour 1 portion of the mixture to the pan and swirl the pan a few times to ensure that the mixture is spread evenly. Cook until the upper side of the crepe is not wet anymore and the colour change to light brown.

7. Slowly flip the crepe into the other (bigger) pan. This is the trick I used, so I do not have to flip it using spatula. Cook the other side for around 10 seconds, than flip it again to a tray lined with baking paper for cooling.

8. repeat steps 5-7 until all mixture is finished. I made around 40-50 crepes from the batter.

11. Let all crepes cool before arranging the crepes.

Ingredients of the Cream
900 ml fresh whipped cream + 3 tbsp sugar
300-500 grams durian without seed

Method (Cream)

1. Beat the durian until it becomes soft, put aside.
2. Beat the fresh whipped cream and sugar until it becomes fluffy. Tips: Remember the whipped cream has to be cold and also the mixer should not be warm.
3. Add the durian into the whipped cream and fold it.

How to arrange: 
Additional ingredient: Ready to use Azuki bean paste (red bean paste)

1. Prepare a big plate covered by baking paper.
2. Put 1 crepe on the plate.

3. Spread a part of durian whipped cream sporadically.

4. Cover with 1 crepe.

5. Read steps 3 and 4 until the last crepe.

Enjoy the durian mille crepe!

Pandan Chiffon Cake

One of our favorite cake is pandan chiffon cake. I have difficulty to make a good pandan chiffon cake. Despites my effort to do some trial and error or trying out several recipes, it seems that my pandan chiffon cake was always somehow shrink or not big enough for my cake form.

Some time ago, I posted about how I tried to modify the recipe using design of experiment (DOE) principles by changing 2 different variables. After some trials, I seems to get the correct amount to fill in my cake form. So this time, I got a big enough cake compared to my cake form. 

For the cooling of the cake, I made use of a bottle and a couple of mugs. The bottle was used to hang the cake form upside down, while the mugs were used to hold the sides of the cake form, just as an extra support. After the cake was cool enough, I turned the cake form back.

Luckily this time, the cake turned out quite nice. The texture was soft, airy and the shrinkage was also minimal. I was quite happy with the results. I  used no fan-forced method when I put the cake batter in the oven. 

As usual, despites the imperfectness, we still enjoyed this cake.

Ingredients:

A

9 egg yolks

25 grams fine granulated sugar

180 grams cake flour

1/2 tsp salt

100 ml vegetable oil

150 ml coconut milk

a few drops of pandan paste (you can also use fresh pandan leaves - obtain first the juice to use)

B

9 egg whites

100 grams fine granulated sugar

1 tsp cream of tartar or 1 tbsp lemon juice

How to make:

1. Shift the flour. Put aside.
2. Mix the ingredients (A) except the dry ingredients and pandan paste until it mixed well.
3. Add the dry ingredients step-by-step while mixing the ingredients. After all the dry ingredients are mixed add the pandan paste, mix everything until it reaches smooth consistency. Put aside the egg-flour mixture.
4. In another bowl, mix (ingredients B) the egg whites until it is frothy. Add the cream of tartar and sugar until it becomes medium peak (peaks hold their shape pretty well, except that the tip of the peak curls over on itself when the beaters are lifted).
5. Mix briefly the egg-flour mixture (A) to make sure that it is still smooth. Fold in the egg-flour mixture into the egg whites mixture (B) in three batches. Make sure that the (A) and (B) are fully incorporated.
6. Preheat the oven (160 degree Celcius). I used fan forced to preheat the oven but switch to lower heat only when baking the cake.
7. Pour the mixture into a chiffon cake pan (I used 25 cm cake pan). Baked the cake using lower heat (160 degree Celcius) for around 30 minutes and then switch to upper and lower heat for the last 20 minutes to get a nice brown surface. 
8. Do a prick test, by pricking a satay stick into the middle of the cake. If it is still wet, bake it a bit longer.
9. When it is done, turn off the oven. Let it cool down in the oven for around 5 minutes. 
10. Remove the cake pan from the oven, invert it upside down using bottle to hold the center of the cake pan. Or you can also use mugs to support the sides of the cake pan, while inverting it and during the cooling down.
11. After the cake is cooled, remove the cake from the cake pan. Serve the cake. 

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

One of our favorite cake is pandan chiffon cake. I have difficulty to make a good pandan chiffon cake. Despites my effort to do some trial and error or trying out several recipes, it seems that my pandan chiffon cake was always somehow shrink. 

A few weeks ago, I discussed this with an old school friend. She gave me idea to let the cake cool in the oven instead of letting it cool outside the oven. 

So, this time I tried a modified recipe while also cooling the cake in the oven. I know, I know. According to design of experiment (DOE) principles, it was a wrong thing to do: Changing 2 different variables at a time without making the DOE table first. I am lazy, hahaha.... Anyway, I did modify the recipe because my cake pan was actually bigger than the recipes I had. 

The chiffon cake I made this time is not our usual pandan chiffon cake but chocolate chiffon cake. I seldom made chocolate cake since I found that chocolate cake, in general, is difficult to handle. It tends to be wetter (literally) than vanilla or pandan cake. And usually it is quite sticky, difficult to roll (in the case of roll cake). This time I encouraged myself to make the chocolate variant because my husband asked for chocolate instead of pandan.

Luckily this time, the cake turned out quite nice. The texture was soft and the shrinkage was also minimal. I was quite happy with the results. What I think I need to improve next is minimizing the crack at the surface of the cake. I have decreased the oven temperature and also used no fan-forced method, but the cake still had cracks at the surface. 

Despites the imperfectness, we still enjoyed this cake.

Ingredients:

A

8 egg yolks

20 grams fine granulated sugar

40 grams chocolate powder (without sugar)

150 grams cake flour

1/2 tsp salt

100 ml vegetable oil

150 ml milk

B

8 egg whites

100 grams fine granulated sugar

1 tsp cream of tartar or 1 tbsp lemon juice

How to make:

1. Shift the flour and chocolate powder. Put aside.
2. Mix the ingredients (A) except the dry ingredients until it mixed well.
3. Add the dry ingredients step-by-step while mixing the ingredients. After all the dry ingredients are mixed, mix everything until it reaches smooth consistency. Put aside the egg-flour mixture.
4. In another bowl, mix (ingredients B) the egg whites until it is frothy. Add the cream of tartar and sugar until it becomes medium peak (peaks hold their shape pretty well, except that the tip of the peak curls over on itself when the beaters are lifted).
5. Mix briefly the egg-flour mixture (A) to make sure that it is still smooth. Fold in the egg-flour mixture into the egg whites mixture (B) in three batches. Make sure that the (A) and (B) are fully incorporated.
6. Preheat the oven (150/160 degree Celcius). I used fan forced to preheat the oven but switch to lower heat when baking the cake.
7. Pour the mixture into a chiffon cake pan (I used 25 cm cake pan). Baked the cake using lower heat (150 degree Celcius) for around 30 minutes and then switch to upper and lower heat for the last 20 minutes. 
8. Do a prick test, by pricking a satay stick into the middle of the cake. If it is still wet, bake it a bit longer.
9. When it is done, turn off the oven. Invert the cake pan inside the oven. Let it cool down in the oven. 
10. Remove the cake from the oven and from the cake pan. Serve the cake.

Chocolate chiffon cake - just out from the oven

Chocolate chiffon cake - ready to serve

Cheesecake Brownies

Chocolate cake is one of everybody's fave. OK, almost everybody.

I usually bought either supermarket or bakery brownies since it is convenient. But, having 2 young boys who start to appreciate the difference of ingredients' quality, I looked to some alternatives. I was actually quite amazed, how they could detect which brand of ingredients I used for some cases. So, for certain ingredients, when possible, I bought the higher quality ones to avoid arguments with these young boys at home.

Not long ago, I saw a cheesecake brownies recipe from Sara (www.dinneratthezoo.com) and thought that it looked good. Accidentally, a few days after that, a friend of mine made her cheesecake brownies using Sara's recipe. Based on my friend's comment, I was motivated to find a time to try the recipe out. Especially since I needed to provide more snacks for the boys during that (Covid-19) lockdown period. 

Since I used different size of baking pan than Sara's and some of the ingredients were not quite easy to find here, I modified her recipe a bit to cater to our situation. The recipe is easy to follow and the result is also delicious. It was quite a heavy cake, so I cut the cake into 16 squares. The baking pan I used was the baking pan for the Lapis Surabaya cake 22 x 22 x 4 cm. 

Ingredients:

Brownies layer 

170 gr butter

125 gr dark cooking chocolate (I used 74% choc content)

150 gr fine sugar

3 eggs (medium size)

2 tsp vanilla

125 gr all-purpose flour

4 tbs cocoa powder 

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbs of hot water

Cheesecake layer

300 gr cream cheese

50 gr fine sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

How to make:

Brownies batter

1. Melt the butter and the dark cooking chocolate. It can be microwaved at 800 Watt for 30 sec (you may sometimes need longer) and stir the mixture until smooth. Or alternatively melt it using double boiler. Let it cool.
2. After the chocolate mixture is cool enough, add sugar, eggs, and vanilla, mix until the ingredients are incorporated.
3. Add the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and mix until it is well combined.
4. Put aside 1/4 of the brownies batter (for the decoration).

Cheesecake batter

1. In a bowl, mix the cream cheese and sugar. Beat it for a couple of minutes before adding the egg and vanilla. Mix again until it is well combined and smooth.

Baking the cake:

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C using upper and bottom heat.
2. Prepare the cake pan, line the bottom and sides with baking paper. 
3. Pour 3/4 of the brownies batter into the baking pan, level the batter.
4. Pour the cheesecake batter on top of the brownies batter.
5. Mix the brownies batter (1/4 of the batter) that we put aside with 1 tbs of hot water, mix to get a smooth mixture. Spoon this on top of the cheesecake layer.
6. Using skewer or a knife or fork (whatever you can find), make a pattern for a decoration purpose.
7. Baked the cake for around 30-35 minute or until the do the prick test, by pricking a skewer into the middle of the cake. If it is still wet, bake it a bit longer.
8. Let it cool before cutting the cake.

If you do not want to finish everything at once, you can freeze the cut cakes. Leave it in room temperature for a few hours before serving it or alternatively you can microwave it if you prefer a warm cake.
Enjoy the cake!

Marble Cake

Marble cake is a classic cake. It is easy to find in local supermarkets and bakery. The advantage of this cake is that it is easy to make and does not need special skills to make.

Since we have been staying at home for almost 2 months now because of the Covid-19 limitation of movement, I thought that it may be a good idea to let my children learn to make a cake. This cake is good choice to start learning to bake.

My youngest boy was interested to make something. Since it is his first time making cake by himself, I helped him a bit with preparing the ingredients and when he needs extra help in handling the tools and mixing the ingredients.

In this recipe, I used cream fraiche. The addition of cream fraiche will make the cake moist.

Ingredients:
200 gram all-purpose-flour
200 gram butter (room temperature)
150 gram sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp cream fraiche
3 tbsp chocolate powder (if you do not like stronger chocolate taste, you can reduce it to two tbsp)

How to make:

1. Preheat the oven at 180 Celcius,
2. Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla until we have an almost white mixture,
3. While waiting for the mixing of the butter and sugar, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder. Put aside,
4. Add the eggs one by one to the butter and sugar mixture, and mix until it is fully incorporated. Scrape the side and bottom of the bowl regularly,
5. Add the cream fraiche and mix until it is fully incorporated,
6. Divide the batter into two portion. Add the chocolate powder into one of the portion and mix it using spoon until it has a smooth texture and the chocolate is fully incorporated into the batter,
7. Prepare the cake form. Pour the white batter first. Then, pour the chocolate batter in the middle of the white batter. Using a knife or spoon or fork, make a zigzag movement a few times,
8. Bake the cake for around 30-40 minutes or until it is golden brown. Do a prick test, by pricking a satay stick into the middle of the cake. If it is still wet, bake it a bit longer,
9. Remove from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack before serving.

My children found the cake delicious, but still thinks that the chocolate was not strong enough. They are pure chocolate lovers. That is why, if your taste is in the sweeter side, you can also increase the sugar content to around 175-200 grams. 

Let me know if you also love classic cakes and if you have other ideas of baking to fill in this stay-at-home period with family.

Lapis Surabaya (with (Hybrid) Swiss Meringue Butter Cream)

I usually bake cake for special occasion. Hm, correction, also for my boys hungry stomach.

Lapis Surabaya is one of our favorite cake. The last time I baked it was my first son's birthday during Christmas holidays. This time, we had our second's son birthday just before Easter. Since we were going to celebrate Easter together with some friends and their family, I decided to order a cake for his birthday. Why? I have to admit that cake decorating is not my thing. I have no clue and no art sense.

The cake we ordered from a good friend, who is a professional baker, is vanilla cake with strawberry and vanilla filling. That was a good and delicious combination. The decoration was also perfect, just as he wished: Olaf and Sven on the beach in summer. My little boy was very happy that day. All the joy in one day: Easter celebration, eggs hunting with other children, and singing happy birthday in front of the birthday cake. 

However, since I usually baked for my family, it felt strange for me if I did not bake for his birthday. I felt that it was a bit unfair for him. That is why, I prepared the Lapis Surabaya cake two days ahead. The cake consists of 3 layers: 2 yellow and 1 chocolate. I used my grandmother passed down to my mother passed down to me recipe.

The butter cream is a bit tricky. I wanted to try another way to make Swiss Meringue Butter Cream (SMBC). I sometimes managed to make it, but many times also failed. With the easy foolproof SMBC was posted by Summer in her blog. Using her tips and method, I managed to make my SMBC. 

Below you can find the recipe of the Lapis Surabaya. I will post the SMBC method from Summer in my next posting.

*I am using 22 x 22 x 7 cm Lapis Surabaya pan/square pan*

Ingredient A - For 1 layer of yellow

12 egg yolks

2 egg whites

150 gr butter (melted and cooled)

100 gr fine sugar + 1 tsp vanilla 

60 gr cake flour (shifted)

Ingredient B - For 1 layer of chocolate

14 egg yolks

2 egg whites

150 gr butter (melted and cooled)

100 gr fine sugar

40 gr cake flour + 20 gr chocolate powder (shifted together)

Method 

The method is the same for both layers, only the cake flour in the yellow layer is subtituted with cake flour+chocolate powder

1. Prepare the cake tin, line the tin with margarine/butter and baking paper.

2. Preheat the oven at 200Celcius.

3. Melt the butter and let it cool

4. Whisk the egg yolks, egg whites and sugar until thick and leave ribbon traces.

5. Add the cake flour slowly. Remember the speed is at the LOWEST speed, or fold the flour until it mixes well.

6. Add the cooled melted butter, fold it using spatula in one direction. Do not over fold/mix it. But remember the butter should be mixed well. If you do not mix it well, the cake will not be fluffy.

7. Pour the mixture into the pan/tin and bake it at 200 Celcius for around 20 minutes using lower heat source. Around 5 minutes before it is fully baked, turn the upper heat to brown the surface of the cake if necessary.

8. When it is done, wait until it cool down in the oven with the door slightly open for around 5-10 minutes before taking the cake out of the oven. 

9. Arrange the cake and use the filling you like: either jam or butter cream.

I managed to take a shot of the cut cake this time. My boys love it, but they sometimes put the butter cream away and do not eat it.

Happy Easter!

Japanese Cotton Cheese Cake - Encore

My family really loves this cake. It is soft, just like sponge cake, but it has a soft cream cheese taste. A perfect combination.

I have not made this cake for at least 1 year, since I am now in love with bread making and I do not have enough energy to play around with cake making. Although, there are many recipes, that I want to try or to repeat.

Last weekend, we got dinner invitation from our friend. We used this occasion, for our children play date. I did not have an idea what to bring there. However, when I checked my refrigerator, I immediately saw that I just bought two packages of cream cheese, just more than enough to make this cake.

So, I tested my hand if I still could remember how to make this cake. It was not easy for me to make the cake perfect. Before I could ever get it right, I did produced at least 4 failed cake.

The recipe of this cake, can be found in this page.
I have added some notes there.

It turned out, that I still can make this cake right. The cake was almost finished that day. My youngest boy even ate 2 slices. He climbed on to my lap and sheepishly said that he was still  hungry. He just wanted one more slice of cake.

Potato Cake

Everybody was sick these last two weeks. In the beginning, it was only Timothy. As usual, kids going to the day care at their early age will be prone to virus and bacteria. And they get sick easily and also the whole house is usually infected.

So the first week, we took turn to stay at home with him. After that, Patrick was sick also. So, there was a day when the kids stayed at home with me. Since Timothy and Patrick had almost no appetite, and we still had a lot of potatos, I decided to ask Patrick to make potato cake together. It was quite interesting for him to help me with the measuring. However, he got bored quickly and I ended up finishing the cake myself.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
5 eggs
180 gr sugar
1/2 tsp vanille
135 gr all-purpose flour
500 gr potato (boil the potato, drain the water and mash the potato)
2 tbsp margarine (melted)
100 gr grated cheese (I used more than 100 gram, around 175 gram in total)
25 gr raisin
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Method
1. Mix te eggs, sugar, and vanille until the mixture is smooth.
2. Add the flour, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Mix well the mixture.
3. Add a part of the egg-flour mixture and mix that into the mashed potato to get a good consistency of the potato mixture.
4. Add the potato mixture back to the egg-flour mixture and  mix it well.
5. Add 3/4 of the grated cheese and all the raisin.
6. Pour the mixture to the bread pan and put in the pre-heated oven at 180 degree Celcius for 45 minute.

This potato cake is easy to make and you do not need any expensive tool to make. That is why, I do not afraid to let Patrick involved in making this cake. As long as you mix it well, the cake will turn out good. Not like making Lapis Surabaya cake or Japanese Cheesecake. Those cakes need to be made with care.

We love to eat the cake warm. I let Patrick brought it to school as a snack. Timothy can finish a big portion, although he will do his ritual first: picking the raisins before eating the rest of the cake.

Enjoy the cake!

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

I really wanted to try to make this one. Japanese cotton cheese cake. A cake you can simply buy anywhere in Singapore. You can find some stores selling it in malls. However, it is not easy to find here, in the Netherlands.

To be honest, I really miss the cake shops back home, in Asia.

So, I tried to make this one a few months ago. I just have had the chance to post it.
The first effort was a total loss case. I did not mix the egg whites correctly. The cake separated. The second one was better, but can be better. The key is not to overmix it but you have to mix it correctly. So, no overmix but also no undermix.

The recipe below was taken and quoted from Little Teochew's blog. She makes very beautiful Japanese Cotton Cheesecake and she gives very good tips. Follow her tips for a good and delicious cotton cheese cake.

Here are the ingredients:
1. 140g fine granulated sugar
2. 6 egg whites
3. 6 egg yolks
4. 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
5. 50g butter
6. 250g cream cheese
7. 100ml fresh milk
8. 60g cake flour (it is not easy to find cake flour in the supermarket here. My tip is: go to Asian shop, you will find the cake flour on one of the racks)
9. 20g corn flour
10. 1/4 tsp salt

Steps

1. Preheat the oven at 160°C. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, salt, egg yolks and mix well.

Tips: sieve the flour-cheese mixture before continuing to the next step to ensure a good and smooth cake result.



2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

3. Add the egg whites to the cheese mixture to and fold well. Pour into a 8-inch round springform cake pan or removable-bottom cake pan (lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper. The side lining baking paper should be 3-4 cm higher than the pan because the cake will rise during baking before settling to its final height). Wrap the base of your cake tin with aluminium foil, to prevent seepage.


Tips: Make sure that the cheese mixture and the egg whites are folded well. If the two do not form a well-mixed mixture, your cake will be separated to an upper sponge-cake like layer and an under pudding like layer.


4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hour 10 mins or until set and golden brown at 160°C.


Tips: Instead of baking the cake in water bath, I put 2-3 water containers under the cake in the oven. This will give the same effect, but more practical.

During the first 60 minutes, cover the cake with aluminium foil. Remove the aluminium foil around 10 minutes to the end of the baking time to make the cake top brown and "dryer".


5. Leave to cool in oven with door ajar, about 30mins to 1 hour. Sudden changes in temperature may cause the cake to cool too quickly and collapse.

And here is how my cake looks like. Fresh from the oven.