Treat yourself to this super-moist, delicate, and bouncy Japanese sponge cake with a hint of honey! Castella Cake is a very popular tea-time confection in Japan that makes the perfect holiday or hostess gift, too.
Japanese Castella Cake, or Kasutera (カステラ) in Japanese, is a popular Japanese honey sponge cake that Portuguese merchants originally introduced to the Nagasaki area in the 16th century. The name derives from the Portuguese Pão de Castela, meaning “bread from Castile”.
A dark brown top and bottom crusts with a creamy yellow center give a beautiful contrast to the sponge cake. This delicate cake is very moist, smooth, bouncy, and has just enough sweetness with a fragrance of honey.
The difference between Japanese honey sponge cake and regular western sponge cake is that Japanese Castella is more delicate and bouncy in texture. It is raised solely by egg foam. There is no butter, oil, or any leavening agent like salt or baking powder. It also uses bread flour (higher gluten content) instead of regular flour to achieve the result. The flavor is very light with mild sweetness. Therefore the cake is delightful to enjoy green tea or iced coffee during summertime.
You can tell by its popularity as Castella is being sold everywhere in Japan, from departmental stores, and specialty sweet stores to convenience stores. They often come in a slim rectangle box in simple plastic packaging for an everyday snack or fanciful packaging for gifting.
Traditionally, Japanese Castella cake is baked slowly in a wooden frame to create a soft smooth texture for the sponge. A metal baking pan would transfer the heat too fast and it would become too dry. I assume most of you would not have a wooden frame readily available, so my Castella recipe uses a standard 1-lb loaf pan.
I searched for Castella recipes in Japanese and found hundreds of recipes available online. The majority of them use just the same 4 ingredients with slightly different measurements for each recipe. I started to experiment with measurements for each ingredient for my 1-lb loaf pan. My family really loves this light and moist Japanese Castella Cake for oyatsu (snack).
Japanese Castella Cake Baking Notes:
The key to a successful Castella is in the beating of the eggs and baking time.
Before I realized that I needed to create my own recipe that works for my oven, I had tried many other Castella recipes I found online. However, I failed miserably despite the beautiful pictures shared in those recipes. Here are some of the tips I learned from my experience in achieving the perfect texture:
Failure 1: A hard and dense layer formed at the bottom of the cake although the top layer turned out beautifully.
Tips:
- There needs to be enough air beaten into the batter for the cake to rise. Make sure to beat the eggs based on the time specified. The texture will be thick and the color will be pale yellow. When you stop the mixer and lift the whisk attachment, the mixture should fall into ribbons.
Failure 2: The cake sank in the middle during the baking, or after I pulled it out from the oven.
Tips:
- Bake it longer until the cake is firm and fully cooked inside.
- Do not over-mix the batter when you add the flour mixture.
- Must use bread flour.
You may need to tweak my recipe in order to get the perfect result. I have also seen some recipes that require extra steps and ingredients, but I made this recipe as simple as possible without losing authentic flavor. I hope my recipe works for you and you will get to enjoy Castella with your family and friends.
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Japanese Castella Cake
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp water
- 3 Tbsp honey
- 1 Tbsp mizuame syrup (glutinous starch syrup) (or substitute ½ Tbsp Korean rice malt syrup, glucose syrup, or corn syrup)
- 100 g bread flour (¾ cup + 1½ Tbsp; weigh your flour or use the “fluff and sprinkle“ method and level it off)
- 3 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) (at room temperature—very important!)
- 100 g sugar (½ cup)
- ½ Tbsp white sparkling sugar (you can buy it on Amazon; use zarame coarse sugar if you can find it)
Instructions
Before You Start…
- Please note that this recipe requires a chilling time of 12 hours or overnight.I highly encourage you to weigh your ingredients using a kitchen scale. For weights, click the Metric button above. If you‘re using a cup measure, please follow the “fluff and sprinkle“ method: Fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle it into your measuring cup, and level it off. Otherwise, you may scoop more than you need.
- Gather all the ingredients. The eggs must be at room temperature. Why bread flour? Bread flour gives the cake an elastic, bouncy texture that you cannot achieve with all-purpose flour. Preheat the oven to 320ºF (160ºC). For a convection oven, reduce the oven temperature by 25ºF (15ºC) to 295ºF (145ºC). Prepare a spray bottle with water and an offset spatula to use during baking. Use a light-colored pan for the best outcome.
To Line the Baking Pan
- On your work surface, place a sheet of parchment paper that‘s 13 x 16 inches (30 x 40 cm). Set a loaf baking pan on top (I use a light-colored 1 lb loaf pan that‘s 8½ x 4½ x 2¾ inches or 22 x 11 x 7 cm). Mark the four corners of the loaf pan on the paper. Fold and crease the paper on all four sides following the corner marks.
- Unfold the paper so that the long side of the creased rectangle is in front of you. On the two crease lines pointing toward you, cut slits up to the rectangle‘s left and right corners. Rotate the paper and cut two slits on the opposite long side. You will have four slits total. Then, place the paper in the baking pan, folding and layering the flaps to fit.
- Cut a slit in each of the corner flaps down to the top edge of the pan. Then, fold down the paper over the pan‘s edges.
- Secure the folded paper onto the edges with stainless steel clips to keep the lining from moving when you mix the batter during baking.
To Prepare the Ingredients
- Combine 2 Tbsp water and 3 Tbsp honey in a small bowl. Then, add 1 Tbsp mizuame syrup (glutinous starch syrup). It‘s super sticky, so you may need a mini spatula to scrape it from the measuring spoon.
- Take your time to dissolve the mizuame. Press down and mash the mizuame with the mini spatula to facilitate dissolving. Do not microwave the mixture as we do not want to increase the temperature of the batter. Set aside.
- Sift 100 g bread flour with either a sifter or fine-meshed strainer. Hold the strainer‘s handle with one hand as you gently tap the strainer with the other, and the flour will gradually sift through.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, crack 3 large eggs (50 g each w/o shell) that are at room temperature. Add 100 g sugar.
To Mix the Batter
- Fit a stand mixer with the whisk attachment and vigorously beat the eggs and sugar on high speed (Speed 10) for 5 minutes without stopping. If you beat the eggs with a handheld mixer, it will take more time.
- The beaten eggs will quadruple in volume and have a thick texture and pale yellow color.
- When you stop the mixer and lift the whisk attachment, the mixture should fall in ribbons.
- Gradually add the honey mixture to the batter while whisking on low speed (Speed 2) until combined, about 30 seconds.
- Gradually add the bread flour while whisking on low speed (Stir) until just combined, for about 30 seconds. Do not overmix.
- When the flour is just combined, stop whisking. When you lift the whisk, the batter should fall in ribbons.
- Using a silicone spatula, scrape the batter from the bowl‘s sides and bottom and gently fold the batter a few times. Next, sprinkle ½ Tbsp white sparkling sugar on the bottom of the lined pan. This sugar will add a crunchy texture to the cake‘s bottom and help retain moisture.
- Pour the batter into the cake pan in just one spot. This helps to minimize air pockets and smooth the top of the batter. Tip: If your pan is smaller than mine, you‘ll need to add the excess batter to another smaller pan and use a shorter bake time.
- To level the batter and help remove air pockets, hold the cake pan 2 inches above the counter and drop it flat onto the counter. Then, draw a zigzag line through the batter with a bamboo skewer to further eliminate air bubbles.
To Bake
- Place the cake pan in the middle rack of the preheated oven at 320ºF (160ºC). Set a timer for 2 minutes.
- After the 2-minute timer beeps, reset the timer to 1 minute and complete the following several steps over the next minute. First, open the oven and spray twice above the cake batter with the spray bottle.
- Next, use an offset spatula to mix and circulate the batter from the left side, without touching the sparkling sugar at the bottom of the pan. This mixing, called awakiri (泡切り, “bubble cut“) in Japanese, helps to remove air pockets and even out the batter‘s temperature so the cake will rise evenly without cracking.
- Finally, mix and circulate the batter from the right side. Shake off the excess batter on the spatula back into the pan. Close the oven. Reset the timer to 2 minutes.
- Repeat this process (Step 2 to Step 4) 3 more times. To recap, when the 2-minute timer beats, mist twice with water.
- Mix the batter from the left side, then mix from the right side. Then, reset the time to 2 minutes. Repeat this process 2 more times.
- On the 4th and final time, remove the stainless steel clips. Run the bamboo skewer through the batter. If any of the clips were submerged in the batter, fill in the clip marks in the batter with the skewer.
- Spray water mist into the oven twice more, then bake at 320ºF (160ºC) for another 28–30 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven.
- Drop the baking pan twice onto the countertop to release the steam vapors from the cake. This helps prevent shrinkage. Invert the cake onto a nonstick silicone mat* (I use Silpat). Leave the parchment paper on the cake. Let cool, upside down, to room temperature for 45–60 minutes. *I found a nonstick silicone mat works perfectly here. Parchment paper may stick, so try wax paper as an alternative option.
To Chill Overnight
- Once cooled, immediately wrap the cake with its parchment paper in plastic wrap to retain moisture. Then, put the wrapped cake in the refrigerator and store overnight (or at least 12 hours). This will help the cake develop a fine and moist texture.
To Trim the Castella
- Remove the cake from the refrigerator. Discard the plastic and carefully peel off the parchment paper.
- Now, we‘ll trim the sides of the castella to expose the yellow body of the cake. First, slice off the crust from the two long sides of the cake with a sharp bread knife (I highly recommend using a Suncraft bread knife). Use a damp towel to wipe off the crumbs from the blade after every cut. Tip: These castella crusts are moist and delicious to snack on!
- Then, slice off the crust from the two short sides of the cake. Do not trim the top and bottom of the cake. Cut the cake crosswise into slices about ¾ inch (2 cm) thick. You will get 8–9 slices total.
To Serve
- Serve it with tea or coffee, if you‘d like. Enjoy!
To Store
- To save for later, wrap individual pieces with plastic wrap. Store for up to 3–4 days at room temperature, 5–7 days in the refrigerator, and 1 month in the freezer.
I already tried to create authentic Matcha Castella Cake several times. Now first time with your recipe – thank you! Worked fantastic! I felt really like eating it in Japan! Spongy, soft texture and very good taste! Best Tip is the Honey-Water after baking! But with German honey you get little bit too strong taste of honey and loose the matcha flavor. Next time I’ll try less honey in the water-mix or I’ll try Anniina’s version with the sugar syrup.
But really: Thank you! Best Castella Recipe!
Hi, Kerstin! Aww. We are delighted to hear you like the results of this recipe!
Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and providing such great reviews.
Happy baking!
I tried this with brown sugar syrup (my honey was too solid) and it worked out really well. Of course I have no comparison with honey but the cake was super soft and fluffy and a little chewy. But I do wonder; what is the purpose of greasing the cake tin even if you place the parchment paper there? Can I do one or the other?
Hi Anniina! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this cake and brown sugar syrup worked well! Thanks for trying this recipe. The greasing helps stick the parchment paper so when you pour the batter, the paper stays in place. 🙂 You can skip it if the parchment paper stays in place well. I changed the brand of parchment paper and new one works better than this one (from Costco).
Hi! My egg mixture can’t reach to pale yellow stage and doesn’t fall in ribbons. I am using a handheld mixer and had beaten it for quite a while but still didn’t managed to reach that stage. Would you know the reason why? Is it due to this stage that my cake came out quite dense too.
The flavour is there tho! Thanks 🙂
Hello, Elina. Thank you for trying Nami’s recipe.
Reaching the ribbon stage is very important for this recipe. When using the handheld mixer, draw a circle to incorporate more air into the egg. Please keep in mind that a stand mixer is more powerful than a handheld mixer, so it may take longer to obtain the same result using another approach.
We hope your next try will succeed!
I made this cake twice as the first time was overly sweet although the texture was light, fluffy and moist. The second time I made this, I halved the sugar amount of the cake but kept everything the same. However, I noticed, the cake came out more dense / solid like a bread (it wasn’t springy and soft when I pressed down on the cake) and it didn’t shrink at all.
I suspect halving the sugar amount affected the cake texture but I would like to know if there’s any other way of reducing the sweetness without compromising texture or the honey flavour? And can we use cake flour instead of bread flour so that it is more soft and less bread like?
Thanks for your help.
Hello there, Kacey. Thank you for taking the time to try Nami’s recipe.
Sugar reductions of more than 10% will change the texture. We believe that 30% is the upper limit.
Because there are only a few simple ingredients in this cake, bread flour is required, and switching to cake flour transforms the cake into a traditional Western sponge cake.
We hope this helps!
Hi Naomi, thanks for the response. When I cut 50% sugar, it was the perfect balance of sweetness just dense so wondering if you have any tips on how I can reduce the sweetness without compromising the texture? Can I perhaps reduce some of the money without compromising the honey flavour?
Hello there, Kacey! The cake will lose its moist texture if the amount of honey is reduced.
To make this cake more fluffy with your preferred amount of sugar, you may need to use a different type of flour or add baking powder. But if you do, it will be more like another type of cake. What about leaving out the honey syrup at the end of this recipe? We hope this balances out the sweetness.🙂