Castella Cake (カステラ Kasutera)

Oh what a lovely honey sponge cake! I actually prefer this to the traditional 鸡蛋糕 hehehe....The texture is almost similar to the chinese steamed sponge cake, but this Castella Cake is more bouncy and moist with touch of honey flavour :D :D Though my cake is uncomparable to the traditional Castellla Cake, I'm glad that on my both attempts the cakes did not collapse and texture did not fare too badly.

Browning turned out different from both pans. 2nd cake was actually less brown though baking time was slightly longer! From the look at the picture, 2nd cake texture looks more finer :D Arrrgghhh but the surface still not as dry, I will try without bain-marie method next round :)

1st attempt                           2nd attempt 

160 deg cel 40mins                160 deg cel 45mins

Simple 4 ingredients : bread flour, sugar, eggs & honey

Various stages of beating the whole eggs & sugar together. It took approx. 5 mins using my handheld mixer to reach the thick ribbon stage.

Recipe ref : Just One Cookbook
Ingredient (two 9" x 5 " loaf pan)

• 6 large eggs, room temperature
• 160gm sugar
• 200gm bread flour, sifted twice
• 5 tbsp honey
• 2.5 tbsp warm water

Method

1. Grease and line the loaf pan.
2. Combine honey and warm water and whisk well.
3. Place eggs in a large mixing bowl. Using a electric whisk, beat the egg till frothy.
4. Add in sugar and beat on high speed till thick and ribbon stage formed.
5. Turn down speed to low and whisk in honey.
6. Add in bread flour in 3 additions, beating on low speed until just combined. 
7. Pour batter into pan until 80% full. Using a skewer draw a zigzag line to remove air bubbles in the batter. Tap the pan on the counter several times to release air bubble.
8. Bake in preheated oven at 160 deg cel for 40-45 min until golden brown.
9. Place a sheet of cling wrap on the counter top. Unmould the cake from the pan onto the plastic wrap, top facing down. Gently peel off parchment paper.
10. Immediately wrap the cake with cling wrap to keep the moisture and chill in fridge overnight (at least 12 hours) keeping the top side facing down.
11. To serve, slice off the sides of the cake with a sharp knife and cut into thick slices. 

I am submitting this post to Asian Food Fest #1 Oct 2013 : Japan, hosted by Alan from travelling-foodie