Adventures in Baking #2: Japanese Cheesecake

I remember eating the yummiest cakes in Japan, and this cheesecake recipe tastes very similar to them...

Japanese Cheesecake:
(adapted from here)

Ingredients
140g superfine or granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
250g cream cheese
50g butter
100 mL milk
1/4 tsp. salt
60g cake flour
20g corn starch

1. Using a double-boiler method, boil a pot of water with a large bowl over it, making sure that the bowl doesn't actually touch the water. Put in the butter, cream cheese and milk. Stir until everything is melted. (Mine looked lumpy when melted, but ended up okay)

2. In a small bowl, sieve the cake flour and corn starch, add the salt and mix together.

3. Preheat the oven to 320 F and line a 9.5 inch spring form pan with parchment paper.

4. While waiting for the butter and cheese to cool, place the granulated sugar into a coffee grinder or blender and grind until fine and fluffy. (ignore this step if using superfine sugar) This is to ensure that the sugar dissolves and is incorporated into the cake more quickly.

4. When the butter and cheese have finally cooled, add the egg yolks and flour mixture and mix.

5. Beat the eggs whites and the cream of tartar using the whisk attachment of your mixer until the eggs get frothy. Add the sugar and whisk on high speed till soft peaks form.

6. Fold in the whites to the batter, gently but well.

7. Pour batter into lined pan. Bake in the oven for 70 minutes.

8. After the 70 minutes, turn the oven off and keep the door open just a little bit for at least 30 minutes to keep the cake from cracking.

9. Enjoy! :-)

I found this recipe kind of difficult, but it was definitely rewarding. It's a lot lighter than cheesecakes here in the USA, so if you aren't a big cheesecake person, you might still like this. The cake is good with jams or preserves, but I think I like it better alone. Have you baked anything exciting lately?