Birthday Cake
July 22nd, 2006 | by Loretta |It’s my brother’s birthday today. So we had cakes. 
Since we have cake around the house pretty often, birthdays are usually the time for us to try something different. Today, mom picked out some cheesecakes at Dragon Bakery.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, because i know Chinese bakeries to really put different twists on European desserts. And usually, they’re to my disappointment more than anything else. Examples? Excess gelatin in mousse or cheesecake; hard, egg-whites (?) instead of the standard filling in pecan tarts; not enough chocolate in “chocolate” cakes. In other words, they’re usually very far from the real thing, less rich and hardly decadent, which would be suitable if you’re looking for a very, very toned down version of any European dessert.
Pictured in the upper left is “NY Cheesecake” and the lower right is Japanese cheesecake.
The good news: Japanese cheesecake was more or less what I expected it to be– a subtly denser sponge cake with a texture that’s a little bit moister than a regular cake. The composition was homogeneous and the taste was fair: not very sweet, not overpowering with anything, little to no taste of any kind of cheese.
The bad news? The NY cheesecake should not be called as such, just because it’s made in NY and is a cake with some cheese mixed in. There was a thin layer of the standard Chinese bakery sponge cake at the bottom. The upper layer was more moist and dense than a sponge cake, and there was some cheese in the taste, but it was definitely over salted. The ratio was off. It drove me crazy.
NY cheesecake on left; Japanese-style on right.
I will say that overall, both were very light for a cheesecake. I guess that’s how Chinese people like their desserts. Which is fine. But I’d rather they not name their desserts the way that they do, as it only leads to disappointment. And it leads me to wonder, did they really mean to do that or did they just fail miserably in trying to replicate the real thing? It’s an easy way to skimp on eggs, butter, cream cheese, heavy cream, etc with these versions.
Oh, and I’m pretty tired of all this sponge cake business. It’s the freaking universal batter for the entire bakery. And it is dreadfully boring. While I like what I eat to be straight-forward in general, some originals should be left unedited.
My conclusion for “cheesecakes” from Chinese bakeries would be, they’re worth trying once to better appreciate what real European or American cheesecake is, but no more than that.