Japanese Soufflé Cheesecake Cupcakes ☁️🧁
Super jiggly, cotton-soft, melt-in-mouth. Light as air, not dense like NY cheesecake
12 cupcakes or 4 ramekins | Prep 20 min | Bake 25–30 min
Ingredients
Cream cheese: 200g / 7oz, full-fat, room temp
Unsalted butter: 50g / 3.5 tbsp
Milk: ½ cup / 120ml, whole milk best
Eggs: 4 large, separated, room temp
Cake flour: ⅓ cup / 45g — or 3 tbsp all-purpose + 1 tbsp cornstarch
Cornstarch: 2 tbsp
Sugar: ½ cup / 100g, divided — Low-carb? Use ⅓ cup powdered erythritol
Lemon juice: 1 tsp
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
Cream of tartar: ¼ tsp — or ½ tsp lemon juice
Powdered sugar: For dusting
Method
Prep — 10 min
Heat oven to 320°F / 160°C. Boil kettle for water bath.
Line muffin tin with paper liners OR grease 4 ramekins + line bottom with parchment.
Make cheese base — 5 min
Small pot on low heat: cream cheese + butter + milk. Whisk until smooth, no lumps. Don’t boil.
Remove from heat. Cool 5 min. Whisk in egg yolks one at a time, then vanilla + lemon juice.
Sift in cake flour + cornstarch. Whisk until smooth. Strain if lumpy.
Make meringue — 5 min
Clean bowl: Beat egg whites + cream of tartar on medium until foamy.
Add sugar gradually — 1 tbsp at a time. Beat to soft peaks. Peaks should droop slightly when you lift the beater.
Fold — 3 min
Add ⅓ meringue to yolk batter. Fold gently with spatula to lighten.
Pour that back into meringue bowl. Fold carefully until just combined. No white streaks. Batter should be thick and ribbon-like.
Bake with water bath — 2 min
Fill liners/ramekins 80% full. Tap tin to release big bubbles.
Place tin in larger baking pan. Pour hot water into outer pan until it reaches halfway up the cups.
Bake — 25–30 min
Bake 320°F for 20 min. Drop temp to 300°F / 150°C. Bake 5–10 min more.
Tops should be golden and set but still jiggly.
Turn oven off, crack door open 10 min. Then cool on rack. They’ll deflate about 20% — that’s normal.
Serve
Chill 2+ hours for cheesecake texture. Or eat warm for soufflé texture.
Dust heavily with powdered sugar before serving.