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Cotton soft, light, fluffy and the best Japanese cheesecake. This is a tried and tested Japanese cheesecake recipe. A must-bake for cheesecake lovers!
Japanese Cheesecake Recipe
Japanese cheesecake is very different from regular cheesecake.
It is cotton soft, light, fluffy and the one of the best cheesecakes I have ever tasted.
Japanese cotton cheesecake is also jiggly, due to the meringue egg white mixture in the recipe.
Make this and I will guarantee that you will never go back to regular cheesecake again!
Ingredients
- Cream cheese
- Butter – use a good quality butter for the best results. In the United States, I always buy Challenge butter.
- Milk
- Cake flour – this lower gluten flour is idea for the cotton soft, spongy and airy texture.
- Corn starch
- Eggs
- Sugar
- Cream of Tartar – this is the secret ingredient that stabilizes the tiny bubbles in the egg white meringue. It prevents the egg proteins from sticking together, hence holding the bubbles together for the jiggly and spongy texture of this cheesecake.
- Lemon juice
Please take note that there is no baking soda or baking powder in the ingredients list as the meringue mixture will ensure that the cake rise tall.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients.
How To Make Japanese Cheesecake
Step 1: Preheat oven to at 325°F (160°C). Prepare and measure all the ingredients and set out on your working area. I used a 9-inch springform pan. Grease the entire pan and line the bottom part with parchment paper. Please refer to notes if you use other pan.
Step 2: On a stove top, melt cream cheese, butter and full milk on low heat. Use a whisk to mix well until the cream cheese melts completely without lumps. Remove from heat.
Step 3: Sift the cake flour and corn starch.
Step 4: Add egg yolks, lemon juice and salt to the cream cheese mixture. Whisk to combine well. Add the cake flour and corn starch, whisk until a smooth batter forms and there is no lump.
Step 5: Make the meringue by whisking egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar until light, foamy and soft peaks form. You can beat with a stand mixer or electronic hand mixer. I used speed 4 and beat for 1-2 minutes or until soft peaks form. DO NOT over beat.
Step 6: Add the cream cheese mixture gently into the meringue, FOLD GENTLY until well incorporated.
Step 7: Pour the mixture into the springform pan. Tap the cake pan gently before baking.
Step 8: Bake the cake using hot water bath. Place the cake pan in a larger pan and add 1 inch (2.5cm) of hot water in the larger pan. Bake at the bottom shelf of the oven for 1 hour 10 minutes.
Step 9: Leave the Japanese cheesecake to cool down in the oven with the oven door open, about 30 minutes. This will prevent sudden change of temperature that may cause the cake to shrink. However, it’s normal that the cake will shrink about 1/2 – 1 inch (1cm-2.5cm) after cooling.
Step 10: Refrigerate the cake (with or without the cake tin) for at least 4 hours or overnight. Top the cake with powdered sugar before serving.
Baking Tips
Even though DIY and homemade Japanese cheesecake is relatively easy, there are potential troubles when the cake turns out less than perfect.
For the best, jiggly and perfect result just like Uncle Tetsu, here are the tips and tricks:
- Make sure you have a smooth cream cheese mixture that is not lumpy.
- Use room temperature eggs to ensure that the meringue has the maximum volume.
- Make sure your egg whites are beaten until soft peaks form. Dot not over beat, we don’t want stiff peaks.
- DO NOT OVER MIX the meringue with the cream cheese batter. Fold very gently, do not stir or blend as the bubbles in the meringue will disappear.
- To avoid the sudden drop in oven temperature and room temperature, leave the cake in the oven with the oven door open. This will make sure that the cake doesn’t lose volume and sink.
- To avoid cracking at the top, please make sure you use a water bath for baking. The steam from the water will circulate in the oven, hence minimizing cracking at the top.
- To avoid over browning, bake the cake at the bottom part of your oven.
- Before you start baking, make sure you have all the ingredients measured up and ready. This is very important because every step has to be very precise.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can keep it in the refrigerator for a couple of days.
You shouldn’t have to worry about the leftover because this is the best cheesecake ever, and I can assure you that you won’t have anything left to keep for more than a day!
Other than springform pan and round cake tin, you can also use a 8×8-inch or 9×9-inch square pan. You can also make them into cupcakes by using cupcake tins.
Yes, you sure can. You may add 1 – 2 tablespoons of matcha powder in the cream cheese mixture if you like.
Japanese cheesecake has the lowest calories of all cheesecake. Each slice is only 214 calories.
What To Serve With This Recipe
Japanese cheesecake is best served on its own, with your favorite cup of tea or coffee. For an afternoon tea, make the following desserts to go with it.
I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do. If you try my recipe, please leave a comment and consider giving it a 5-star rating. For more easy and delicious recipes, explore my Recipe Index, and stay updated by subscribing to my newsletter and following me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for new updates.
Other Recipes You Might Like
Japanese Cheesecake (Fail Proof Recipe)
Ingredients
- 8 oz (230g) Philadelphia cream cheese
- 2 oz (60g) unsalted butter
- 100 ml full milk
- 2 oz (60g) cake flour
- 1 oz (30g) cornstarch
- 6 egg yolks, room temperature
- 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 6 egg whites, room temperature
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 5 oz (140g) fine granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to at 325°F (160°C). Prepare and measure all the ingredients and set out on your working area. I used a 9-inch springform pan. Grease the entire pan and line the bottom part with parchment paper. Please refer to notes if you use other pan.
- On a stove top, melt cream cheese, butter and full milk on low heat. Use a whisk to mix well until the cream cheese melts completely without lumps. Remove from heat.
- Sift the cake flour and corn starch.
- Add egg yolks, lemon juice and salt to the cream cheese mixture. Whisk to combine well. Add the cake flour and corn starch, whisk until a smooth batter forms and there is no lump.
- Make the meringue by whisking egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar until light, foamy and soft peaks form. You can beat with a stand mixer or electronic hand mixer. I used speed 4 and beat for 1-2 minutes or until soft peaks form. DO NOT over beat.
- Add the cream cheese mixture gently into the meringue, FOLD GENTLY until well incorporated.
- Pour the mixture into the springform pan. Tap the cake pan gently before baking.
- Bake the cake using hot water bath. Place the cake pan in a larger pan and add 1 inch (2.5cm) of hot water in the larger pan. Bake at the bottom shelf of the oven for 1 hour 10 minutes.
- Leave the Japanese cheesecake to cool down in the oven with the oven door open, about 30 minutes. This will prevent sudden change of temperature that may cause the cake to shrink. However, it's normal that the cake will shrink about 1/2 – 1 inch (1cm-2.5cm) after cooling.
- Refrigerate the cake (with or without the cake tin) for at least 4 hours or overnight. Top the cake with powdered sugar before serving.
Video
Notes
- If you use a springform pan or loose base cake tin, make sure it’s closed tight. It’s best to wrap the base of your pan with 2 layers of aluminum foil (outside of the pan) to prevent the water bath from seeping inside the bottom part of the cake.
- If you use a 8″ round pan, it is very important to line the sides of the 8″ pan with parchment paper, make sure the parchment paper extends higher than the cake tin by about 1.5″.
- If you use a 9″ pan, you can line the bottom part and not the sides. You may line the entire pan with parchment paper, if you like.
- You can also use an 8-inch or 9-inch square pan.
- If the cake shrinks too much, the main reason is over mixing the egg white mixture with the cream cheese mixture.
- Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, FOLD VERY GENTLY using a flipping motion.
- Do not stir or blend vigorously.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hello, may I know how you decorate the top part of the cake please? Would gladly appreciate it! I just made the cake and so far it looks good, haven’t tasted it yet but i hope it’s amazing! =D
How did you get the cake out of the pan?
Surely, you can’t invert the pan
The top part of my cake seems to be burned already at 40th minute. I put it at the lowest rack and set the temp at 160. What could possibly be the reason?
In your instructions you mentioned “or until golden brown”, if mine turned golden brown at around 30 mins, should I have turnd it off already at that time?
Different oven is different. Yes you should have taken out and check if the inside is cooked. Also, you can cover the top with aluminum foil from browning too fast.
If I use cake flour is it necessary to use 20g cornstarch?
Just follow the recipe as is and don’t make any modification.
Hi Rasa, happy new year! I was wondering do you use a 9″ x 3″ pan or 9″ x 2″ pan?
Also, please advise on the easiest way to remove the cheesecake from a regular cake pan. Yours looks so beautiful and amazing!
Thanks! Dana
Hi…thanks for the lovely recipe..cant wait to try it out! but just out of curiosity, is it possible to reduce the grams of cream cheese from the recipe ? many thanks!
No, please follow the recipe precisely, it’s a very sensitive cake.
Sorry, if this is a bit off-topic, but I decided to look at the two recipes this recipe is based on. I couldn’t access Little Teochew and was directed to a Google Blogger sign-in page. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do in order to access Little Teochew. I tried using my gmail sign-in info and nothing. From what I read online a number of ppl reference Little Teochew which makes me even more interested to read Little Teochew’s post. For those who were able to access Little Teochew, can you please let me know what I need to do? I submitted what I thought was a request to Little Teochew for access, but I haven’t heard a thing. Fyi, I’m not a blogger (and have no interest in blogging) so maybe that’s the issue. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
I am not sure what happened to Little Teochew website…sorry I can’t be of much help.
Darn… I guess it’s good to know that it wasn’t me and there is something up with the Little Teochew website. I wasn’t sure since I had never been on the Little Teochew website before my attempt to view the Japanese cheesecake post.
Hopefully, Little Teochew will be restored. If anyone is somehow able to access Little Teochew, can you please reply to this? I would appreciate it. Thanks. I would very much like to read Little Teochew’s notes on this.
Just made one! Thanks for the recipe.
I always buy this cake at the Japanese store – now I can make my own.
It was all perfect and browned beautifully until it kind of wrinkled in the end. I don’t think it has to do with the meringue since I was very careful to get a soft peak and only folding it not over mixing it.
I suspect it has something to do with temperature change. But I also followed the tip and left it to cool in the oven.
What else could be the cause?
Someone asked about baking in convection oven. I used mine and just converted to convection temperature which is 25 F lower.
Oh well… It still tastes great. Didn’t wait to get cold, had a piece warm and it was delish.
Wrinkled but still great. Like so many of us! ;-)
Hi Lili, that’s great that you have success. Yeah this Japanese cheesecake is very temperamental and likes to wrinkle a lot hahaha. Good luck, and one of these days it will not be wrinkle I am sure. :)
Hi, I have two questions.
1) How important is to weigh the ingredients instead of measuring? I don’t own a scale due to lack of space.
2) Fresh milk? Can regular whole milk (UHT) from the store work?
Thanks.
You have to weight it this recipe has to be very precise. Yes on milk.
Thanks for the answers. Guess I’m going to have somehow some space in my crowded kitchen for the scale before attempting the recipe.
Hi there
Just want to ask about how long should I bake this cake if I’m using a fan forced oven? And at what degree.
Thank you
Sorry I am not sure.
If you mean convection oven when you say fan forced, just adjust 25°less so °325 regular oven would be °300 on convection oven.