The ability to quickly prepare a dessert is always appreciated by the hostesses. This is usually about cookies or muffins. However, there is a Japanese cake that will require you to have only three ingredients. You can cook it very quickly. This cake is very tasty, and it blends perfectly with tea or fruit juice.
What kind of cake is this?
This Japanese cake became widely known after it appeared on the screen in the movie Chihiro's Journey. In it, the characters take part in a tea party with this dessert.
To make such a dessert, you only need one thing: to follow the recommendations below exactly, without missing anything, and in the same order in which they are indicated. In addition, you do not need to add any other ingredients as you wish. If you do not, then the result will not be very good.
Before you start learning about a Japanese cake recipe, you should know that such a dessert can be made in different ways. This means that you can add more ingredients, but the result is the same. The inclusion of some additional components in the test can make the cake more spongy, but this effect can be achieved with a basic recipe.
What do you need?
Even if you do not like Asian cinema and did not know about this fact, it is still worth trying to make this Japanese cake. The recipe with a photo of this dessert is presented below. This is done very easily and simply, and only three products are required:
- 120 grams of white chocolate;
- 120 grams of soft cheese such as Philadelphia;
- 3 eggs.
How to cook it?
A step-by-step recipe for a Japanese cake is as follows. Take 120 grams of white chocolate and place it on a stove to melt in a water bath.
The essence of this procedure is to put a pot of water on a fire and inside it set another container in which you place the ingredients that you need to melt.
Be careful when doing this. Water is the worst enemy of chocolate, so be very careful and make sure that not a single drop falls into a pan filled with chocolate. Otherwise, it will collapse and ruin all the results.
When you fill the first pot with water, do not fill it to the top. Pour it a little more than half or three quarters, and when you put the second pan inside, the water should cover its outside without overflowing.
Please note that when the water begins to boil, it may be in the second container. Therefore, constantly monitor the cooking process. When you begin to observe bubbles on the surface, pour some of the water so that it does not mix with chocolate.
How to make chocolate
Break the bar of chocolate and put it in the second pan, and as soon as it melts, stir it with a spatula or spoon.
If creating a water bath seems too complicated for you, or if you do not have enough pans or pans of different sizes to do this, there is another way to melt the chocolate. This is a microwave application. How to do this?
Break the chocolate into pieces, put in a deep plate or bowl and put it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds. Every 15-20 seconds, open the microwave and check its condition. In doing so, you should use a spoon to stir the melted wedges. It may be such that even after two to three heat the chocolate may not seem to have changed shape, but with stirring it will be soft.
How to mix with other components
After the chocolate has melted, add softened cheese (Philadelphia or the like) to it and mix well. You should have a completely uniform mass of one color.
Set the mixture aside so that it can cool slightly. Take three eggs at this time. Separate the yolks from the proteins and place them in different cups. Put in the refrigerator so that they do not heat up.
You should separate the proteins from the yolks so that the latter do not burst and that the ingredients cannot mix in any way. This is done as follows. Knock on the shell with a knife approximately in the middle, make a break and divide the egg into two halves. In this case, part of the protein will fall into your hand. Hold your hand like a spoon over a bowl, fingers slightly apart, and then transfer the egg from one hand to the other. Do this without sudden movements so that the yolk is not damaged. Repeat this action until the protein has completely drained. As a result, you will have a soft and perfectly round yolk between your fingers. Continue this process with the other eggs and remember to put the proteins in the refrigerator.
Add the yolks to the chocolate and cheese mix you prepared earlier. Mix well to get all the ingredients together. Do not beat the mass too much, otherwise you will create a foam that will disrupt the cooking process.
After completely mixing the components, heat the oven to 170 ºC. Now leave the mixture aside and take the detachable mold. Lubricate it with butter or sunflower oil from the inside, or put baking paper inside. Do not use margarine, with it the Japanese cake will not turn out so delicious. Do not add flour or starch to the mold; this is not necessary.
How to add proteins?
Then remove the squirrels from the refrigerator and beat them to hard peaks. You can do this with an electric or portable whist. You can use a pocket whisk, but it will be too difficult. Be prepared for the fact that your hand may get sick from tension. You need to whisk it quickly and vigorously. You can pause this process to restore strength and relax a bit, but then continue cooking at the same pace to form hard peaks.
How do you know that you have reached this consistency? If you turn the bowl of squirrels upside down, they will not leak.
Once the whites are whipped, add a quarter of the whipped in a mixture of yolks, chocolate and cheese and mix thoroughly in eight movements so that the whites do not fall. Then add the remaining three quarters and continue mixing with slow and steady movements.
How to bake it
Once the entire preparatory process is over, the time has come for the most important. Pour warm water into the baking sheet on which you put the mold in the oven. The fluid level should be two fingers.
This is really very important. If you do not prepare a water bath for the dough, the Japanese cake will not work. Cooked cake will fall and crack, and, in addition, will become too dense and hard.
When you pour water into a baking sheet, put the mold with the dough on it and place in the oven.
Correctly calculating the cooking time is also very important. If you bake it too long, your dessert will be solid and dense as a stone. If the cooking time is short, the cake will remain raw inside. That is why it is important to pay attention to this aspect.
So, how to bake a three-ingredient Japanese cake?
- First bake it at 170 ºC for 15 minutes.
- Then reduce the temperature to 160 ºC and let cook for another 15 minutes.
- After that, turn off the oven and leave the cake in it for an additional 15 minutes.
Finally, when the extra time with the oven turned off expires, take out the dessert and let it cool. Do not attempt to remove the cake from the mold before it cools. Otherwise, it will break, and you will get separate pieces glued to the base and edges. You should wait at least 40 minutes. In this case, a completely cooled dessert can easily be taken on a plate or on a serving dish. Now cut the cake into portions and serve.
What else do you need to keep in mind?
According to reviews of a Japanese cake with three ingredients, the following rules should be followed when preparing it:
- Try using medium sized eggs, not small or large ones. If you take too small, the mixture will be very thick, and if you use large, it will become liquid, and the cake will not work.
- The best cheese is Philadelphia, because the product of this brand has a specific pleasant taste. But if you can’t purchase it, you can use any brand. In any case, you will still get the same result, and the dessert will be very tasty.
- In no case do not forget to pour water on a baking sheet before placing in the oven. This is the most important aspect in the cooking process, so that the cake becomes magnificent. As for the form - do not use containers in which water can leak.
How to make a dessert?
If desired, you can sprinkle dessert with large confectionery sugar or powdered sugar and spread slices of berries and fruits on the entire surface. The Japanese cake with strawberries looks especially good.