I referred to ieatishootipost’s Japanese cheesecake recipe and tried to bake one of those jiggly things in my new anodized aluminium PushPan 7″ cake tin (with its patented seal and all) two days ago.
I removed a slice and ate it anyway
The following were all the things that went wrong with attempt #1:
The Towel and Pan Became of One Body and the Cake was Poisoned
Most sites will recommend a towel to be placed underneath the cake pan in the larger pan that was to be its water bath container, presumably as insulation for the bottom of the cake, so without thinking too much I obediently lined a pan with one of my nylon tea towels and placed it into the preheating oven, not knowing I probably had to add water first. It was a real smart move. I roasted the damn towel. It turned black and melted over over my pan and I had to discard the entire pan. My oven was filled with noxious plastic fumes, but I had no choice but to put the cake in it because the whipped egg whites were already in by the time I found out (I baked with influenza and a blocked nose and wasn’t my best self today). This means my cheesecake is now… poisonous, I think. At least, the top layer is. I bet the vaporized plastic diffused a couple of microns into the cake during the baking :S
The Meringue Was Brown
When separating the yolks and whites, I carelessly got some yolk into the whites. I also used granulated brown sugar for the meringue instead of regular white castor sugar because I didn’t have any. Needless to say, the meringue didn’t whip very well and turned brown after being whirred around a couple minutes by the emulsifying disk on a food processor. Yes, I made brown meringue.
The Cake Had a Tamagoyaki Base Layer
Next, I didn’t fold the meringue into the batter properly (I missed the step where they asked you to use the spatula to scrape the bottom of the mixing bowl) so the yellow part of the batter sank to the bottom of the pan and became a dense bottom layer in the cake.
The Cake was Under-baked
Finally, I ended up not baking cheesecake long enough so it was very soft… when I tried unmold the cake against seal force some parts of the cake collapsed all over the counter (and all the over then can I was using to push the bottom of the pan upwards, so much for the patented seal and “easy” unmolding).
Conclusion
By that time I swear I was more than ready to flip the damn cake out of the window and never bake one again. After all, I wasn’t fond of eating cake in the first place. I was only interested in the challenge of being able to bake one. However, I shall try just one last time—tonight—and the cake tin shall thereafter and forevermore be a vessel for pie and never cake.
茉莉花の独り言 