Strawberry Light Cheese Cake with Lemon Mascarpone frosting

Someone asked me this once, " Why do you always change your cake recipes? It's almost like every birthday cake is different from the other?" I never really thought about it until I was asked of this. True enough, I had hardly ever repeated the same birthday cake recipe twice before. Even though I was told that was the best birthday cake I have baked so far. Why you ask? I am not too sure of it myself, perhaps I love experimenting new flavours and techniques? Or maybe I just get bored easily? But one thing's for sure, I love making my family guess the flavours of the cake! 

As you can see this is another simple bake. Something I did in 2 sessions of 2 hours (separate days). I baked the cake 1 day before. Made the frosting the following day and assemble it as well. So this is pretty much a stress free bake. It can always be the case if I plan my time properly and know how I want the cake to be. So planning ahead is essential my friends. ;)

Considering my family members are not big on sweet and creamy cakes, fruity cakes are the obvious choice. And since my SIL gave me a big bunch of really ripe and sweet Korean strawberries...I decided to go with that.

Recipe for Strawberry Light Cheese Cake (makes an 8" x 3" round cake)

100 g fresh made strawberry jam

• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice, 10-12 large strawberries, slice small and place in sauce pot with 3-4 tbsp caster sugar. Cook till the strawberries break down and thicken. Once the consistency is similar to jam, remove from fire and let cool till needed.

6 slices of cheddar cheese

6 large egg yolks

100 g unsalted butter

100 ml fresh milk

100 g cake flour

6 egg whites

100 g caster sugar

• In a heatproof saucepan, place the butter, fresh milk and tear up the cheddar cheese slices in. 
• Place saucepan over medium low heat and stir gently until all is melted and mixed in together. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool before use.
• Add in the cooled strawberry jam into the cooled cheese mixture and combine well.

• Ladle big spoonful of the strawberry cheese mixture into the egg yolks. Mix well. 

• Sift in cake flour and whisk the mixture till no visible lumps.
• Preheat the oven to 160C. Prepare a water bath and place in the oven. Grease an 8" x 3" round cake pan and line with parchment paper. 
• In another mixing bowl, beat the egg whites and caster sugar till stiff peaks. 
• Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture in 3 separate portions. Careful not to deflate the batter. 

• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and wrap the base of the cake pan with thick aluminium foil to prevent water from sipping in.
• Use a toothpick to run through the batter to remove any air pockets. Then bake the cake in the oven for 45-50 minutes till the cake tester comes out clean.

• Once baked, carefully remove from oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes before removing from pan. Note that it is normal that the cake will shrink a little when it cools down.

• At this point, you can chill the cooled cake in the fridge for a day or two before use. I did exactly that and the cake was still moist and soft.

Lemon Mascarpone Cream frosting

500 g mascarpone cheese

120 g confectioner's sugar

Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 2 tbsp)

80 ml heavy whipping cream

• Place everything into the mixing bowl and beat at high speed till it thickens. Mixture is still spreadable and creamy. At this point, you can chill the frosting till needed, at least 1 hour.

Assembling the cake:

1/2 fresh sweet mango, peeled and cubed

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

• Puree the fresh mango with 1 tbsp of lemon juice
• Slice the cake into 3 equal thickness discs. 
• Place one of the cake disc at the cake plate. Frost about 1/5 of the lemon mascarpone frosting on it. 
• Then spoon about 1/2 of the mango lemon puree over the frosting.
• Top with another cake disc and repeat with another 1/5 frosting portion and the other half of the mango lemon puree.
• Finally top with the last cake disc and frost the whole cake with the remaining mascarpone frosting. I did a "naked" frosting style which it does not require as much cream frosting as a normal cake frost. But it is really up to your personal preference.

When the cake was served, despite its simple decorations, everyone was still very eager to give it a taste (after a heavy dinner :P). There...simple enough right? But the taste is still refined enough to make your cake tasters go wow. :) I guess sometimes simple can be very attractive too! :)

Pardon the poor lighting... at the restaurant. But you get the picture. ;) But...I still manage to salvage one slice to bring back for me to take another shot teehee. :P

Ahh much better and can see the soft moist lecture of the strawberry light cheese cake, the mango puree and the creamy lemon mascarpone frosting. 

Yes yes, everyone loved it and even some asked for 2nd servings. ;) Strangely, I had this urge to bake this cake again...never happened before though. Yes, it is that good. ;)

Have a great day ahead everyone! Have fun baking!