Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

I can't believe that this blog has really been abandoned for more than a week! It'll be real hard for me to update it every so often from now on. Everyday, I go out at 8-ish in the morning and am only back home by 8-ish to 9-ish at night! Have been very worn out. LOL! As you can see here, it's already past midnight and I'm still here blogging. Sigh ...

For sure though, I've been enjoying every moment back home in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia! Because of their distance from my home, I've been stopping by these two KL landmarks a lot. Woot! I can say that I'm now back to my old routines when I'm not home--window shopping and shopping ... for baking and cooking ingredients, utensils, relevant books and kitchenware! As for now, I'll show you one of the landmarks first:

The third tallest and the tallest twin towers in the world--Petronas Twin Towers. Nonetheless, they're affectionately and aptly known to the locals as KLCC, i.e. Kuala Lumpur City Center due to their location ... They're at the heart of this beautiful city.

 

The KLCC Park is just right by the Towers. It's very fun to watch the water fountain there!  

At the base of the Towers is the popular shopping mall Suria KLCC.  

And within the shopping mall, there's my favorite spot to hang out at--Kinokuniya! :D  

Hehehe ... In fact, I just spent about two hours at the bookstore Kinokuniya again this evening and got myself two culinary magazines! (The best bookstore in town! You rock Kinokuniya!!!) What to do! My hands were itching for cookbooks and recipes.

Anyhow, I'll keep this short as I need to go to bed as soon as possible to recharge as much energy as I can for tomorrow. To wrap things up for the day, I'm now presenting you with my family's favorite: chocolate swirl cheesecake! We've been using this recipe for marbled cheesecake for several years since my mom first found it. And, it has never failed us.

This cheesecake is not the type of cheesecake you'd usually associate with. In other words, it has no crust and filling that's dense and extremely rich, smooth and creamy. It's baked; it's REALLY a cake per se. It can be considered a marbled cake. And yet, it's remarkably different than ordinary marbled cakes, which are oftentimes plain (vanilla) butter cakes with chocolate swirl. This cake tasted darn good! My father kept praising it especially.

 

I actually revisited this recipe because we discovered a cream cheese way back at one corner of our fridge that was threatening us of rotting real soon. So with the remainder, I made half the recipe. And, the batter fit just right onto our 15x7.5cm tin.
 

The sweetness of this cake was just right for us. And of course, the idea of pairing the tangy, creamy cream cheese and intensely bittersweet dark chocolate together is just yummily DIVINE! As you bite into the cake, all your brain can only think of is the extra fine and tight crumbs of the cake. And as you keep chewing, you'll experience the unexpected--your taste buds will be spinning around between the creamy, tangy "cheesiness" and the smooth, intense "chocolatey-ness." Leaving you begging for more! It's the BEST marbled cheesecake in town--period.

Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake (Adapted from Yummy Cheesecakes by Kelly Tang) Makes a 20x20cm square baking tin

(A)
250g unsalted butter, softened
160g castor sugar
1/8 tsp salt

2 eggs, at room temperature
1 egg yolk, at room temperature

(B)

120g plain flour

20g unsweetened baking cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

(C)

250g cream cheese, softened

80g castor sugar

1 tsp lemon juice (I used lime juice instead because all I needed was 1/2 tsp. The flavor wasn't affected.)
1 egg, at room temperature

1. Grease and line the baking tin with parchment paper, then set aside for use later
2. Combine (B) together and sift once, set aside; cream (C) together till incorporated, set aside for use later as the cream cheese batter
3. Cream (A) together till creamy, then mix in the eggs gradually till well-mixed. Next, fold in the dry ingredients till just blended--this is the chocolate batter
4. Spoon both the batters alternately onto the lined tin till the batters are used up, then swirl around the batter with a knife for the best result--not a chopstick--to create an amazing marbling effect. Of course, don't swirl it too much; otherwise, it'll be overdone
   Also, make sure that the surface of the batter is even
5. Bake it at 180C for 45 minutes or till cooked through
6. Remove the cake from the oven and let it sit on the tin for 10 minutes before unmolding the cake and let it cool on the cooling rack completely
7. Slice to serve or store in airtight containers once it's cooled. You can also serve it chilled like how my dad did to his!