Doesn't this Japanese cheesecake look really cool? I think so. I love the zebra stripes! What makes Japanese style cheesecake different from your usual American version is its light and airy texture and subtle sweetness.
I do enjoy a slice of New York style cheesecake every now and then, but even the thinnest slice can feel like a ton of bricks because it's so darn dense. The Japanese interpretation uses a lot less cream cheese and relies on French meringue (egg whites and sugar whipped to soft peaks) to give it the signature souffle-like fluffiness.
I'd been yearning to make a Japanese cheesecake for quite some time and my sister found this recipe for me on
Not Quite Nigella. It's actually a combination of two recipes: Japanese cheesecake and Zebra Cake, a popular dessert in Eastern Europe.
The stripe effect is easier to achieve than you might think. You basically drop spoonfuls of chocolate and vanilla batter alternately in the center of the cake pan, one right after the other. The batter spreads out by itself and creates the stripe pattern.
My only disappointment was that the cheesecake deflated once it cooled. Will have to figure out what happened, but as I always say, "still tastes good!"