After our trip to Tokyo in December 2019, pre-pandemic – when you could still travel freely around the world – I fell madly in love with Japan and if the pandemic hadn’t happened, I probably would have replicated the trip with a New Year’s Eve in Osaka…
During the week spent in Tokyo, we tried many Japanese specialties, recipes later included in the blog “Japanese version“, but among these, only a few desserts, tasted later during our subsequent trip to Okinawa in March 2025.
It is a particular Japanese dessert, although not traditional…
the Japanese cotton cheesecake.
Literally, the Japanese “cotton” cheesecake, born in 2013 when a Japanese girl published the video (with more than 10 million views) in which she prepares it with only 3 ingredients.
For this reason, it is also called the 3-ingredient Japanese cake or 3 ingredients soufflé cheesecake: cream cheese, white chocolate, and eggs.
Actually, it is a recipe consolidated since the ’70s, the Japanese call it fuwa-fuwa (an onomatopoeic word meaning “light, cute”) a sort of “Japanization” of the English word “fluffy”, which makes this dessert associated with another “American-derived” recipe: the fluffy Japanese pancake.
The peculiarity of the Japanese Cotton Cheesecake lies in its texture, very soft (similar to cotton, or a cloud).
However, one must pay attention to some fundamental steps for the successful outcome of the recipe:
– when melting the chocolate in a bain-marie, do not neglect to crush every lump of the melted chocolate until you obtain a perfectly smooth and silky fluid;
– do not whip the egg whites too stiff because instead of blending with the rest of the mixture, they will separate into many lumps;
– prepare your 7-inch (maximum 8-inch) pan NOT SPRINGFORM, one that has perfectly vertical sides, so that the parchment paper can stick to its sides.
This is the one from Caffè.Kanasa in Nakijin Village (Okinawa) and then I made a version with blueberries (see video), but you can also leave it “natural”.
- Difficulty: Difficult
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 15 Minutes
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 6 people
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients for cotton cheesecake:
- 3 eggs
- 4.2 oz white chocolate
- 4.2 oz spreadable cheese
- to taste powdered sugar
- to taste blueberries or other fruit (optional)
Preparation
Turn on the oven to 338°F, static mode.
Heat some water for the final bain-marie cooking in the oven.
Separate the yolks from the whites into two different bowls. Cover the egg whites with cling film and keep them in the refrigerator.
Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie (or in the microwave, or in a thick-bottomed steel pan over low heat), and in the meantime, whip the egg whites to firm peaks.
Mix the melted chocolate with the cheese, add the 3 yolks, mix well, and finally the whipped egg whites a little at a time, stirring gently from the bottom up.
Line a round-shaped mold with buttered parchment paper and pour the mixture into it, gently tap it on the table to let any air bubbles rise.
Place the pan inside a larger pan, pour the hot water around it, and bake.
Bake in a preheated oven at 338°F for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 320°F and bake for another 15 minutes, and leave it for another 15 minutes inside the turned-off oven.
Remove the cake from the oven and place it (still in the pan) on a rack to cool.
To unmold the cotton cake, place a plate on top, flip it over, remove the pan, take off the parchment paper, place the serving plate on top, and flip again.
Serve with the decoration you prefer (I used blueberries, a mint leaf, and powdered sugar as seen in the video), but you can also leave it “natural”.
VIDEO RECIPE:
Affiliate link #adv
Cast Iron Japanese Teapot, Black, perfect for accompanying the cake.
