Hokkaido Melon Double Fromage Cheesecake

There’s a story behind this cake! Served this for Chinese New Year when we had some family over at our place. Was particularly excited to show my aunt Dily, who’s a makeup artist and sells Japanese skincare, makeup and even cool Japanese desserts at her shop Beauty Kitchen by Face Bistro at Holland Village (including gold flake soft serve ice cream, Hokkaido milk soft serve, Sakura Shrimp, Propolis and Honey products). This cake is a combo of Hokkaido honeydew, classic baked cheesecake base, fresh cream and Italian marscapone cheese.  Each layer is infused with fresh homemade Melon puree.
Inspired by LeTao Double Fromage Cheesecake (my first attempt here), this flavor variation is based off a version I tried at Japan Narita airport during a layover coming back from Duke University for my Plastics Surgery elective. It was incredibly fresh and perfect when cold, and I almost brought back a whole cake as well. I didn’t, but had been wanting to recreate this for months ever since. Turns out they only made a limited number of these as a summer special in Singapore…!
As a result this cake was a mishmash of different techniques here and there and adjusted accordingly from the original recipe. I made a fresh Honeymoon puree by using Cupcake Jemma’s Fruit Goo method, by boiling down fresh grated honeydew with hint of sugar for around 15-20 minutes until thickened. This goo went into all the layers in estimated amounts. For assembly and decoration, I followed the Japanese youtube video.
One more thing that I find cool about the Double Fromage cheesecake is that everyone has a different preference on which layer they enjoy more – the baked cheesecake or the softer but creamier top layer. Gives me a better idea on their taste buds hehe. Then we have those who say it must be enjoyed together otherwise it’ll be too boring and “gelat” by itself.
After this attempt, I heard there’s another Limited Edition strawberry flavor, which I may attempt next 🙂
Hokkaido Melon Double Fromage Cheesecake
makes one 8 inch cake
Ingredients

LeTAO double fromage Cheesecake Copycat adapted from LeTAOotaru  and Cookies Cake Lab

Hokkaido Melon Cake Base

4 Eggs (~60g each)
120 g Granulated sugar
120 g Cake flour
1 scoop Honeydew Puree
1 tsp Honeydew extract

Baked Melon Cheese Layer

250g Cream cheese
80g Granulated sugar
9g Cake flour
50g Whipping cream
1.78 Eggs
5g Honeydew Puree
1 tsp Honeydew extract

Melon Cheese Mousse Layer

75g Sugar
75 ml Water
3 egg yolks
12 g Gelatin (10 sheets)
180g Mascarpone cheese
520g Whipped cream
1 scoop Honeydew puree
1 tsp Honeydew extract

To make Hokkaido Melon Cake Base:

Pre-heat oven to 180 deg Celcius. Line side and bottom 8″ cake ring with parchment paper.

Place eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk over a water bath to melt the sugar, to a temperature of around 50c-60c. Place the mixture on stand mixer and whisk at high speed till pale and fluffy. Fold in the sifted flour in 3 batches gently.

Pour into the pan and bake at 25-30mins. Cool the cake and cut out 1 cm as the base of the cake. Put the cut out onto the mould and set aside. Process the remaining in a food processor till fine crumbs – we will use that later!

To make Melon Baked Cheese Layer:

Pre-heat oven at 150 deg Celcius. Mix all ingredients and sift the mixture to avoid lumps. Pour into the mould with cake base on it and bake for 20 mins until wobbly. Turn off the oven and leave to cool. Freeze for 3 hours.

To make Melon Cheese Mousse Layer:

Mix gelatine with water to soften it, set aside. Whip cream till stiff peak and set aside.

Mix sugar, water , yolk and soften gelatine over water bath to melt it. Stir in mascarpone cheese till incorporate. Sift the mixture to remove any lumps.Fold the mixture into the whipped cream and pour into the mould that have the bake cheese and cake base. Freeze overnight.

To Assemble and Decorate:

Unmould cake and crumb coat with some saved mousse layer. Coat with the Honeydew cake crumbs from step 1! Serve by bringing the cake about an hour prior to room temperature from the fridge or freezer.

 

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