Santa Claus Boston Cheesecake

It seem to be quite awhile that I have not baked anything for dear husband's colleagues. Since is festive season, I decided I should bake a cake for dear husband to celebrate advanced Christmas with his colleagues since his office will be shut down from Christmas Eve until after New Year.

I gave options for dear husband, cheesecake or american carrot cake. To my surprise, his choice is cheesecake (I guess he has fell in love with cheesecake after the cheesecake I had made for dear brother's birthday recently which I have yet to post as I need to jump queue for Christmas bakes).

I wanted to have another entry to the Christmas Giveaway hosted by Swee San of The Sweet Spot to give her more support. And at the same time, I do not want the cake to look simple and plain, so I decided that I should use whipped cream to pipe out some design on the cake to have more Christmas feel :).

Ho.Ho.Ho. Have you known my identity already?

Do you think the cake look like Santa Claus face? Dear husband and dear daughter and friends asked me why the hat is pink instead of red? SK even said I "forced" the Santa Claus to change his hat to pink cos dear daughter likes pink hahaha... Not that I want it to be pink but no matter how much red coloring I added to the whipped cream, it just turned out to be dark, darker, darkest pink, I just wouldn't get red color :(. And I was so lazy to mix another color for the face, so I just use the cake as the face. So lthis cake ook more than a sun tanned girly Santa hor? heeheehee....

The sliced cake looks very messy, cos I "dig" the cake out from the mini chiffon cake pan, just want to show you the inner look.

Dear husband took photos of the cake after sliced.

I am submitting this entry to the Christmas Giveaway hosted by Swee San of The Sweet Spot.

I am also sending this to Aspiring Bakers #2 Christmas (Dec 2010) hosted by Jane of Passionate About Baking.

Recipe adapted from 愛在廚房.

Ingredients : (for 9" but I used 8" round cake pan and a mini chiffon cake pan)
Sponge Cake Base :
2 eggs
60g castor sugar
48g (4.5 tbsp) cake flour
32g butter, melted (I burnt the melted butter so I replaced with canola oil)

Cheese Layer :
150ml milk
20g castor sugar
3 eggs
20g constarch
250g cream cheese, room temperature (I increased to 300g)
1/2 lemon zest
130ml whipping cream
2 tbsp cake flour
60g raisins (I increased to 80g)
60g sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

Method :
For Sponge Cake :1. Line and grease 9" cake pan, pre-heat oven to 180C.
2. Whisk eggs in the mixing bowl, mix sugar in a few additions.
3. Whisk till ribbon stage - when you lift up the whisk, the marks will disappear in about 3 counts or you are able to write the number "8" on the batter using the dripping batter and the "8" will only disappear in 3 counts.
4. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 20 mins or until skewer come out clean.
5. Remove the cake from the cake pan immediately and set the cake a side till cool.

For Cheese Layer :
1. Pre-heat the oven to 150C.
2. Seperate egg yolks and whites.
3. Pour 100ml milk and 20g sugar into a small pot, heat up and stir until the sugar has dissolved, turn off the fire.
4. Add in the balance 50ml milk and stir well, add in egg yolks and mix well, add in cornstarch and stir till well mixed.
5. Turn on small fire and cook till the egg & milk mixture become slightly thicken (just for a while if not the mixture will turn to custard).
6. Off the fire, sift the egg & milk mixture and set a side to cool.
7. In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until fluffy, pour in the egg & milk mixture in a few additions, mix well.
8. Add in the lemon zest, whipping cream and mix well.
9. Sift in the cake flour, mix well and add in raisins.

10. Whisk the egg whites and lemon juice till foamy, add 60g sugar in 3 additions and whisk till soft peak.
11. Add in 1/3 of whites to the yolk mixture and mix well.
12. Pour in the yolk mixture into the remaining whites and fold gentle till well combine.
13. Place the sponge cake on the cake pan and pour in the cheese mixture.
14. Bang the pan on a flat surface to get rid of those big bubbles trapped in the batter.
15. Bake the cake in water bath method for 2 hours.
16. Cool the cake in the wire rack and chill the cake for 1 day or at least 6 hours, unmould cake and serve.

Verdict?
The amount of cream cheese used in this recipe is more towards light cheesecake. However this cake is special, the texture is between light and heavy cheesecake. It tasted rich, creamy with light texture but not as heavy and solid as amercia cheesecake. The lemon zest and raisins have definitely make the cheesecake more flavourful. This is my review based on the cheesecake baked in mini chiffon cake pan without sponge cake base that I kept for myself. As for the comment from dear husband based on the 8" cake, he said the sponge cake layer is dried (not sure why cos this is the 1st time I used sponge cake as cheesecake base, mostly I used cookies base. And the sponge cake looked soft and moist and spongy before I sent in for baking with cheese layer), cheesecake layer has hint of cheese taste, not thick but still delicious.