SPOTLIGHT

Get your fix of Japanese cheesecake at home.

What’s that line snaking down the street for?

Kanye tickets? New sneakers? Tickets to look at some of Kanye’s new sneakers? No, it’s all about cheesecake. Though Japanese cheesecake has been A Thing in Japan since the late 1980s, its arrival in Australia, with the chain bakery Uncle Tetsu’s, has been met with the kind of hysteria normally reserved for Black Star watermelon cake. It’s been here since 2016 and still inspires queues. Why? It’s all about that silky souff lé-like lightness. The good news? You can make it from the comfort of your very own kitchen.

Lemon Japanese cheesecake with honey cream SERVES 8-10 // PREP TIME 20 MINS // COOK 1 HR 10 MINS (PLUS COOLING)

We’ve swapped milk for buttermilk to add an extra tanginess. Mix a little matcha powder through the icing sugar before dusting, if you like, as a final flourish.

50 gm butter, melted, plus extra melted for greasing

50 gm (⅓ cup) plain flour, plus extra for dusting

250 gm cream cheese, softened 30 gm cornflour

125 ml (½ cup) buttermilk

Finely grated rind of 2 lemons, plus 11/2 tbsp lemon juice

6 eggs, separated

165 gm (¾ cup) caster sugar

¼ tsp cream of tartar

Pure icing sugar, for dusting

HONEY CREAM

1 tbsp orange blossom honey 150 ml thickened cream

1 Preheat oven to 150°C. Brush a 22cm cake tin with melted butter, line base with baking paper, then dust with flour, shaking off excess.

2 Process butter, cream cheese, flours, buttermilk, lemon rind and juice, egg yolks and half the caster sugar, in a food processor

to combine. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

3 Whisk eggwhites and cream of tartar in an electric mixer until foaming. Whisk in remaining sugar until soft peaks form. Fold a third of the meringue into the cream cheese mixture to loosen, then fold in remaining meringue. Spoon into prepared tin, and wrap base with foil to make it water-tight. Place in a roasting pan and pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of tin. Bake until golden and a skewer withdraws clean when inserted (1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes). Turn off oven and cool with door ajar (2 hours).

4 Meanwhile, for honey cream, whisk honey and cream in an electric mixer until firm peaks (2-3 minutes).

5 Turn cake out onto a wire rack. Remove baking paper, invert onto a serving platter, dust with icing sugar and serve with honey cream.