When I was younger, more often than not, I was given a Honey castella cake to take to school for lunch. Yeah, I know, not the most nutritious lunch in the world for an elementary schooler but it was delicious so I wasn’t complaining! It’s been a while since I’ve had the delicious cake so I decided to try to make it myself! I decided to be adventurous and make both a honey version and a matcha version of the cakes and well…for a first timer, I think they turned out pretty decent don’t cha think?
Attempt number one
Ingredients (makes 2):
1. Line 2 loaf pans with foil and parchment paper
2. Beat egg whites in a large bowl with electric mixers until foamy. Then add in the sugar 1/3 at a time and beat until stiff peaks form.
3. Add in the egg yolks one at a time and mix until incorporated. Then add in the flour 1/2 at a time and mix everything on medium speed for 1 minute.
4. Complete the batter by beating in the honey water mixture
5. Pour the batter into the loaf pans through a strainer to insure that there are no lumps. Add 1 tablespoon of matcha powder to half the batter to try making a matcha version. Tape the sides of the loaf pan a few times before putting them into the oven to remove air bubbles.
6. Bake at 325F for 30 minutes until golden. Remove the cakes from the oven. Drop the cake 1 feet from the kitchen counter to remove any excess air. This helps to prevent any further collapsing. Turn the cakes inside out and unwrap them when they are cool enough to touch.
7. Slice the edges off the castella cake so it is uniform
As amazingly light and sponge-y as the castella cake turned out, they were not pure perfection. Mother deer thought that they were a little too sweet. I really could have done a better job at lining the loaf pan to insure that they turn out perfectly loaf shaped.
I think I could have taken them out earlier because the bottoms were a little over done. These cakes were ever so delicious and they disappeared in literally no time!
Attempt number two
This time I used coconut sugar INSTEAD of white sugar and I also reduced the amount of sugar I used in it since mother deer said it was a little too sweet last time. I also convinced lil bun to line the pan for me and she did it ever so beautifully so it didn’t end up caving in as much as last time either….read on to see if the changes were yay or nay!
I wasn’t too careful about separating the egg yolks from the whites and got some of the yolk into the whites. Even though I tried to rescue it and scoop out as much as I could, some ended up staying and well…this is what happens when you get egg yolk in your egg white mixture…it WILL NOT fluff up!
New ingredient measurements (makes 2):
4 eggs separated
2 tablespoon honey + 2 tablespoon water
1/3 cup coconut sugar
2/3 cup bread flour
See how perfectly lil’ bun ended up wrapping the loaf pan this time?
Another thing I ended up doing differently was how I baked the cake itself. Even though it was lined the same way, I ended up putting a lined baking sheet over the top of the loaf pan before putting it in the oven so that when the cake rose in the oven, it ended up producing a flat top instead of a rounded one.
Now do I think that this turned out better than the first time? You betcha! Although the crumb was a little bigger in this version, the cake did not feel any softer than it was the first time. Not to mention how both the tops and bottoms ended up being perfectly golden brown this time too!
Plus since we reduced the amount of sugar in it, the top of the cake did not feel sticky at all. However, I must say the the inside of the cake ended up feeling a little more sticky but that COULD be due to the fact that we used coconut sugar instead of white sugar this time. I will probably have to remake it again to be certain and well, it never hurts to remake something as delicious as this! (:
