Butterfly Pea Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

I thought it'd be fun to work with some beautiful butterfly pea flower since we had some at home. That natural blue colouring is irreplaceable and a very fun way to amp up your regular baked goods. I saw a post on my Instagram a while back from a chef who made a Japanese cotton cheesecake, but layered it by colouring half of the batter with butterfly pea, so I decided to try it out! Because I only had butterfly pea flowers, I had to crush them myself in a mortar to get a powder.

Butterfly Pea Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

Yield: 8" round cake pan

Ingredients

Cream cheese 200g

Mascarpone 50g

Milk 220g

Butter, room temperature 60g

Cake flour 55g

Cornstarch 20g

Egg yolks 100g

Egg whites 150g

Sugar 113g

Butterfly pea powder 3g

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F.

2. Lightly oil an 8 inch cake pan and line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper.

3. Over a double boiler, melt the cream cheese, mascarpone and milk. Whisk lightly to make sure there are no lumps and everything is combined. *Make sure not to over heat the mixture*

4. Add in butter and whisk into cheese mixture. Remove bowl from the double boiler.

5. Sift the cake flour and cornstarch into mixture. Whisk to combine.

6. Add in the egg yolks and mix well to combine everything.

7. Strain the batter over a scale and evenly split it into 2 bowls. Add the butterfly pea powder into 1 of the bowls and mix. Set aside.

8. In another bowl, make the meringue by whipping up the egg whites. Once it begins to foam, slowly add in the sugar, bit by bit. Keep whipping until firm peaks form.

9. Evenly split the meringue in half and fold it into the separate yolk/cheese mixtures.

10. Pour the butterfly pea batter into the cake pan first, and top it off with the plain mixture.

12. Place into a water bath and into the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Turn the oven temperature down to 150C/300F and continue to bake for another 70 minutes.

13. Remove the water bath and allow the cake to cool in the oven.

Recipe adapted from: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxwRXpYnFaC/

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