Cheesecake with Ganache

I was thinking and staring at my pantry,  I found some semi-sweet chocolate and thought that a ganache frosting would be a good beauty to cover the 'beast'.  The Ganache did save my day and the cake was received with ooos and ahhs. 

The moral of this story - never bake when you are tired and it is late in the night.

What i learned from this recipe is that it has to be baked on a low temperature as the cake will rise high with higher temperature and it will sink - the more it rises the more it will sink.  The cake does not have to sit on the hot water(bain marie) and that a tray of hot water can be put onto a lower rack.  This way to me is better as there is no need to foil the cake tin so that hot water will not seep in or splatter and might ruin the cake.

Ingredients:

A
8 ozs cream cheese
8 ozs whole milk

B
3 ozs unsalted butter

C
7 egg yolks
4 tbsp sugar

D
4 tbsp all-purpose flour
4 tbsp cornstarch

E
7 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
4 tbsp sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 300 f.

Lined the bottom of 10 inch cake pan with parchment paper.

Melt the cream cheese and milk over simmering water.

Add in butter and stir until well combined and set aside to cool.

Add in sugar and egg yolks and stir well. 

Sieve in the flour and cornstarch and mix well.

Pass batter through the sieve into a large mixing bowl.

Whisk egg whites and add in cream of tartar when the egg whites are foamy.  Continue to whisk until it has risen and turned white.  Then add in the sugar, 1 tbsp at a time and continue to whisk until it is thick and stiff (not dry).

Add 1/3 of the egg whites to the egg batter and mix in well to temper.

When well mixed and loose,  fold in the rest of the egg whites.  Fold in gently using the largest rubber spatula available - cut spatula into the middle of bowl and stroke down at 6 o'clock, right to the bottom of bowl and then lift up and fold.  Turn the bowl as you go and repeat the folding, gently until well mixed.

Pour batter into an UNGREASED 10 inch round cake pan and put to bake.

Lover the oven heat to 285f and place a tray of hot water at the lower rack.

Bake for 1 hour 15 mins until the surface of the cake is golden brown.

Check for doneness.

Remove from oven and using a spatula, loosen the sides of cake from the pan.  Allow to cool in the pan and leave in the fridge before frosting.

Chocolate Ganache:

12 ozs semi sweet chocolate
12 ozs  heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp unsalted butter

Heat the cream and butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil.

Chop the chocolate into smaller pieces and put them in to the food processor.

Chop the chocolate pieces into fine pieces  and with the motor running, pour the boiled cream and process until smooth.
 
Leave to cool before putting to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
 
Remove from fridge and whisk the ganache until light and fluffy.
 
Fill up a large piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe around the cake, starting from the center of cake making a rose pattern.
 
Leave in the fridge to set and let it out at room temperature before serving.