Matcha Japanese Cheesecake

Finally succeeded in drawing on my cheesecake! Uber pleased with it even though my drawing could improve further hehe!

I guess I watched too much Running Man that giraffe was the first animal I wanted to draw on this cheesecake!  If you are a Running Man fan, you will know what's with the giraffe ;)

Needed practice first to be sure I could draw quite steadily before working on the 2nd one. 2nd animal drawn was a piggy, and it was meant for a girlfriend (I cannot afford to have a blotched job for this giveaway!!).  I made 2 cheesecakes :D

Made specially for a nice girlfriend.

On a Japanese cheesecake baking craze? Yup, I think I am. Western no-bake and baked cheesecakes just have to take a back seat for now.

Matcha Japanese Cheesecake
(Makes an 8" or 9" cake)
Adapted this recipe from here and added matcha powder to it.
140g/5 oz. fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
50g/2 oz. unsalted butter (I used salted butter)
250g/9 oz. cream cheese
100 ml/3 fluid oz. fresh milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
60g/2 oz. cake flour /superfine flour
20g/1 oz. cornflour (cornstarch)
2 tsp matcha powder (I will up it to 3 tsp next round as 2 tsp was too mild, not much matcha taste)1/4 teaspoon salt (I did not use this as I used salted butter)

1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the matcha powder, cake flour,  cornflour, salt, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well. (This time round, I put the mixture through a sieve to get a smooth cheese mixture, you may skip this step if you dont mind little lumpy bits at bottom of cake)

2. Make the meringue by whisking egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. You can beat with a stand mixer or handheld mixer. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

3. Take 1/3 meringue and fold into the cheese mixture, then fold in another 1/3 of meringue. After incorporated, pour the batter back to the remaining 1/3 meringue and fold. FOLD GENTLY. (I scooped out 3 tbsp of mixture and added 2 tbsp of cocoa to make some chocolate mixture and put into a piping bag to pipe the drawings on the cake batter after pouring the balance mixture into the lined pan) Pour the mixture into a 8-inch round cake pan (lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with grease-proof baking paper or parchment paper).

4. Preheat oven to 200C (I used 220C for 30min as my oven temp is slightly lower than other oven) non fan forced. Bake for 20min. Lower temperature to 160C and bake for 10min (I did mine at 180C 20min). Turn off oven, and leave cake in oven with door closed for 30min. Open oven door slightly ajar and leave cake to cool inside for 20min. Finally, take cake out of pan and cool on rack.