Treat yourself to this moist and bouncy Japanese honey sponge cake called Castella. Prized for its delicate crumb and lightly sweet flavor, it’s a beloved tea snack and a great hostess gift, too. Bake a perfect Castella Cake at home with my techniques and tips!
One of my favorite sweets of all time is Japanese Castella Cake (カステラ). It’s a moist and bouncy sponge cake with a light honey sweetness. My family enjoys this refined confectionery with green tea or a cup of coffee for our three o’clock oyatsu (snack) time.
It’s one of the most popular cakes in Japan, too. You‘ll find it sold just about anywhere—at department stores, specialty sweet shops, kissaten (coffee shops), and even convenience stores. Don’t worry if you’re not in Japan to buy this delicious treat, though. Today, I’ll share my recipe with special tips and techniques so you can make this exquisite Castella Cake at home!
Table of Contents
What is Castella?
Castella, or Kasutera (カステラ), is a beloved Japanese honey sponge cake known for its sweet, light taste and airy texture. More delicate and bouncy than a regular sponge cake, castella is famous for its fine and moist crumb. It’s cherished nationwide as a tea snack, souvenir, and gift, making it one of Japan’s most popular confections.
This famous cake originated in 1543 in the port town of Nagasaki on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. That’s when Portuguese merchants and missionaries arrived with a firm and simple bread called pão de Castela (“bread of Castile” referring to Spain’s Kingdom of Castile).
Since the 16th century, Japanese artisan bakers have transformed the recipe into a sweet cake thanks to Nagasaki’s abundance of imported sugar. They have also incorporated eggs, honey, and sugar to give it a more delicate and sponge-like texture. It’s a Western-style confectionery that is uniquely Japanese!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
You’ll be amazed that you can make this Nagasaki specialty in your own kitchen!
- Uses a standard loaf pan – Castella is traditionally baked over low heat in a wooden frame because metal pans transfer heat faster and can result in a dry cake. However, you can use a regular loaf pan with excellent results if you apply the techniques that I share here.
- Makes a very moist cake – I use a Japanese sweetener that helps yield a perfectly moist texture.
- Takes just 1 hour of active baking and prep time – Prep and bake this castella in just an hour. Relax while it chills overnight. The wait is worth it!
Ingredients for Castella Cake
Here’s what you’ll need to make Japanese castella:
- Bread flour – Adds an elastic, bouncy texture
- Large eggs – Use at room temperature so your ingredients blend more evenly and cohesively
- Water
- Sugar – Binds with the water to keep the crumb soft and tender
- Honey – Provides castella’s signature flavor; adds moisture and a rich color
- Mizuame (水飴, glutinous starch syrup) – Keeps the cake more moist (see below)
- White sparkling sugar (or zarame ザラメ, Japanese coarse sugar) – Adds a golden brown crunch to the bottom crust
Substitution Tips and Variations
- While my recipe calls for white sparkling sugar, authentic Japanese castella commonly uses zarame (ざらめ, ザラメ), a coarse sugar. Since it’s not easy to find outside of Japan, I decided to use sparkling sugar that you can find on Amazon. However, please use zarame if you can find it.
- Mizuame (literally “water candy” and also called millet jelly) is a traditional Japanese sweetener made of starch. It’s a clear, thick, and sticky syrup used to make wagashi. It may be hard to find outside of Japan, though. If you can’t find it, you can substitute ½ Tbsp Korean rice malt syrup, glucose syrup, or corn syrup.
How to Make the Best Castella
Follow my precise instructions and techniques and you’ll be rewarded with the most delicious homemade castella cake!
- Line the baking pan with parchment paper.
- Beat the sugar and eggs together in a mixer on high speed.
- Fold in the honey and mizuame, then add the flour.
- Pour the batter into the pan; remove the air bubbles.
- Place in a preheated oven. Mix the batter 4 times during the first 12 minutes of baking.
- Then, bake for another 28–30 minutes.
- It’s done baking when a toothpick pulls out moist crumbs (not wet batter) when inserted near the center of the cake.
- Invert the cake onto a nonstick mat and let it cool.
- Wrap in plastic and chill overnight.
- Trim the side crusts with a sharp bread knife. Slice and serve!
Recipe Tips and Techniques
- Bring the eggs to room temperature. This is very important. I leave them on the counter for several hours. You can also fill a bowl with very warm (but not hot) tap water and submerge the cold eggs until they reach room temperature, for about 10 minutes.
- Weigh your ingredients. Precision is important in baking, and weighing your ingredients with a digital kitchen scale is the most accurate way to measure. I highly encourage you to weigh your flour and sugar instead of using measuring cups, as you may scoop more than you need.
- Use a light-colored pan. I recommend a light-colored loaf pan for this recipe. A dark-colored pan may have hot spots, overbake on the sides and bottom, and bake the cake too fast.
- Use stainless steel clips to hold the parchment paper. I’ve tried different ways to attach the paper to the cake pan, but nothing worked until I used the clips.
- Don’t microwave the honey mixture. I know it’s tempting to heat the mixture to facilitate dissolving, but we don’t want to increase the batter temperature with a warm honey mixture. Press down and mash the mizuame with the mini spatula to facilitate dissolving.
- Whisk the eggs and sugar for 5 minutes on Speed 10 (for this KitchenAid). This setting worked perfectly. The batter should quadruple in volume and fall in ribbons. If you double the recipe, you can still whisk for 5 minutes on Speed 10.
- Don’t overmix the batter after adding the honey mixture and flour. Just 30 seconds after each addition is enough. Overmixing could deflate the egg mixture and overdevelop the gluten in the flour.
- Mix the batter during baking with an offset spatula. The Japanese mixing technique called awakiri (泡切り, “bubble cut“) helps to even out the batter‘s temperature so the cake will rise without cracking.
- Use a serrated knife with small teeth. I’ve tried all kinds of knives to cut castella. The only one that worked well was the SUNCRAFT CUT brand bread knife, as per JOC baking assistant Haruka’s advice.
How to Store
To save for later, wrap the 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.
FAQs
Can I use all-purpose flour or cake flour?
For authentic Japanese castella, you need bread flour. It gives the cake an elastic, bouncy texture. All-purpose flour just cannot produce this texture. The high protein in bread flour also helps the castella achieve a chewier and denser crumb than a regular sponge cake made with cake flour, which has less gluten.
Why are there wrinkles on the top of my cake?
If your cake top starts to wrinkle, you may have overbaked it. If so, your cake will be drier inside and have hard, dry edges. Next time, start checking 10 minutes sooner to see if the cake is done. Also, I encourage you to check your oven’s temperature with an oven thermometer, as the actual temperature inside may differ from the display setting. Every oven is different; please adjust your setting to achieve the correct actual temperature.
What is the difference between Japanese castella cake and Taiwanese castella cake?
Taiwanese castella cake (or Taiwanese soufflé castella) is an adaptation of Japanese castella cake. It’s jiggly, eggy, and pillowy soft while the Japanese version is denser. Taiwanese castella is similar to a soufflé, where you separate the egg yolks and whites, then whip the egg whites to medium peaks. You fold this meringue into the egg yolk mixture, pour the batter into a cake pan, and bake it in a water bath inside a baking tray. Taiwanese castella also uses different ingredients like cake flour, oil or unsalted butter, vanilla extract, milk, and lemon juice or vinegar.
What to Serve with Castella
- Green Tea
- Japanese Iced Coffee
- Iced Matcha Latte
- Hojicha Latte
- In a Japanese Fruit Parfait
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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 on the middle rack of the preheated oven at 320ºF (160ºC). Close the oven door and 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 15–20 times from the left side, without touching the sparkling sugar at the bottom of the pan. This mixing technique, called awakiri (泡切り, “bubble cut“) in Japanese, helps to remove air pockets and even out the batter‘s temperature so the cake rises evenly without cracking.
- Finally, mix and circulate the batter 15–20 times from the right side. Shake off the excess batter from the spatula and close the oven door. 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. 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 into the oven, then bake at 320ºF (160ºC) for another 28–30 minutes.
- It‘s done baking when a toothpick pulls out moist crumbs (not wet batter) when inserted near the center of the cake. Tip: If your cake top looks wrinkled, you may have overbaked it. Next time, check earlier to see if it‘s done. I highly encourage you to check your actual oven temperature with an oven thermometer to see if it‘s running hotter than the display setting and adjust accordingly.
- Remove the castella from the oven. Drop the pan twice onto the countertop to release the steam vapors from the cake. This helps prevent shrinkage. Invert the cake from the pan 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. Note: I found that a nonstick silicone mat works perfectly here, as parchment paper may stick to the top of the cake.
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.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on September 14, 2013. It was updated with a slightly revised recipe, more helpful tips and techniques, and new images on May 2, 2024.
Hi Nami,
May i know how many gram equal to 1 cup of bread flour?
thank you
Hi Chris!
A properly measured cup of all purpose flour weighs 4.25 oz (120 g). The weight for 1 cup of all-purpose flour varies depends on how you measure it. When you measure flour by volume, please follow the methods below. I’ve tested this method many times, and if you do it properly, 1 cup is VERY close to 120 g each time.
1) Fluff up the flour several times with a spoon.
2) Using the spoon, sprinkle the flour into your dry-cup measure (the one that measures exactly a cup at the top).
3) Scrape off the excess with a knife.
Hi Nami san,
Thank you very much for the recipe. The Kasutera cake and Japanese cotton cheesecake actually are my fav cakes! Religiously following your steps, I have successfully made the cake twice, well , sort of. Because there was always a crack on the top. Any tips for that? Thanks!
Hi Joy! You’re very welcome! I’m happy to hear your cakes came out well. Which one gets crack? Cheesecake, it’s most likely the meringue (over /under beaten… both could be reason). For Castella, I’m still working to improve that recipe… I’m not 100% happy with my result (the wrinkle top).
Hi Nami!
So, this has officially become the one dessert everyone asks for during birthday prep! What I end up doing is baking the cake in a circular pan, and putting strawberries or other fruits in the middle, with some hand whipped cream. Then, I frost it with the same fresh made whipped topping: there is never any left for later!
Thank you for this amazing recipe: as with all your other ones, they always come out perfectly! :3
Hello Genesis! Wow, that is so cool! I’m so happy to hear your friends enjoy your dessert! It’s such a great idea to put fruit filling! It sounds so delicious! I’m so happy to hear you like my recipes. Thank you!!
I made castella for Girl’s Day, in addition to Sakura Mochi and a hishi mochi (chichi dango). My husband had castella once, years ago when he was in college. His memory of it was a fond one, so I decided to try make it. It was great! A slice of castella is just perfect to have with tea after dinner after the dishes are done. It’s just the right sweetness and just the right size. Mahalo for a great recipe.
Hi Debbie! So happy to hear that your husband enjoyed the castella recipe! I love this cake, simple to make… but I hope I can improve it a little bit more. 🙂 Your Girl’s Day must have been filled with deliciousness!
Hi Nami!
Love your website! Just a quick question about applying the honey mixture on top of the castella before wrapping it up. Is it to stop the top from being overly sticky from the sugar content in the cake?
The last few times I made this, I skipped the honey on top, and when I take off the Saran Wrap the next day, it usually sticks and peels the whole top away if I’m not careful.
Let me know 🙂
Thank you
Hi Oliver! It’s for flavor, and not to prevent from sticking. The store-bought castella also has similar issue that the paper on top can easily peel off the “delicious part” if you are not careful peeling it. 🙂
Nami, do you think I would need to make any adjustments for this recipe to work at high altitude (roughly 6,000 feet)? If so, do you have any suggestions?
As always, thank you for the recipe and your beautiful site!
P.S. I watched the kitchen tour video last night-it’s beautiful!!
Hi Madeline! I’m not familiar with high altitude baking… So sorry! Is it hard to bake? I heard about it, but don’t know how it works… 🙁 Sorry I can’t help Madeline…
Thanks so much for watching my video! 🙂
Yeah, the a altitude affects how things rise and such. Baking can be fickle, especially with cakes. Yeasted doughs I’ve figured out, but cakes continue to vex me. I may try it anyway and see how it goes. I’ll let you know..
I see. Seems like high altitude Japanese baking recipes might be a good niche for food blog. 😀 It’s too bad I can’t really “test” the recipes without being there… Yeah let me know! I’m sure there will be other people in the same situation reading your comment too. 🙂
This recipe was PERFECT! I followed it to the letter, except that I also sifted in 2Tb of matcha with the flour. The results were better than I could have hoped for, and the two cakes disappeared within a day or two (my teenagers helped). Can’t wait to make it again.
After looking around the internet at other (far more complicated) recipes, I realized what a beautifully simplified and perfected recipe this is, in terms of ingredients and technique (for instance, not separating the eggs, but whipping them whole for 5 minutes, is a brilliant move).
I feel so lucky to have landed first on this recipe than one of the others. THANK YOU, NAMI. I will never have to buy commercial kasutera again.
Hi Chris! Thank you!!!! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it, and yeah Matcha version sounds amazing! I still try to make this recipe better and hope I can update the recipe (for better texture). 🙂
Yeah there are different recipes out there and I’ve tried many different ones, but it doesn’t always work for me, so it’s more fun to experiment on my own. I’m glad yours come out well too!
Thank you for your kind feedback, Chris (and sorry for my late response). 🙂
I stumbled upon your website and I can’t tell you enough how much I love it. I’m Asian and I dearly missed the Asian bakeries I use to go to and there were so many but due to a recent move unfortunately there aren’t any around here. I made this castella yesterday and I tried it today. It tastes so… amazing. Thank you so much. I won’t ever have to go to bakeries here where they had such fatty butter and oils on their breads.
Hi Kris! Thank you for your kind comment and feedback! I’m so glad to hear you enjoy my recipes/blog! I’m hoping to start making bread recipes once my kitchen remodel is over. Yes, homemade bread is better as you can control ingredients etc. 🙂 And freshly baked bread is amazing… Welcome to my blog!
Thanks for the great recipe and instructions!
I’ve been itching to make castella cake, and have amassed a number of recipes for this. I’m glad I chose yours, because they came out perfect. 🙂
Arigatou gozaimasu.
Hi Eric! You’re welcome! I’m so happy to hear yours came out perfect. Thank you very much for your kind feedback. Arigato!
Greetings, Ms. Nami.
First, I would like to offer my deepest thanks for “Just One Cookbook”. The site has become my go-to place for whenever I would want to try out new Japanese recipes. Also, best wishes for you and your family this year!
Some months ago, our university had a fair and me and my friend managed to reserve a stall. My friend sold cupcakes and brownies while I sold four flavors of Castella – original, matcha, chocolate (which took three to four attempts to finally perfect) and coffee (a first attempt). All of them were sold in individually wrapped slices which was no easy task as the cakes had to be handled carefully. To make the story short, I sold all of my slices within the week that the fair was happening. Though the free samples may have had a hand to that success. For that, I would like to also say thanks as without me learning the recipe, I may not have gotten that far.
For the chocolate Castella, I used the original recipe with 1 tbsp of bread flour omitted because of the additional cocoa. For the cocoa, I mixed 2 tbsp of it in the flour before sifting. Natural or Dutch cocoa will work fine, though the one made with Dutch cocoa might rise more than usual during baking. In both cases though, the cake needs a bit of extra watching to make sure it bakes well. When mixing the flour into the whipped eggs for this, it should only be mixed just until everything’s incorporated, the batter appears brown with some darker chocolate streaks (best to mix with a whisk by hand). Mixing until the color’s even will result in a thin batter and a really dense cake with very little rise, which I learned the hard way.
As for the Matcha Castella, originally I used 4 1/2 tsp (now 2 tbsp along with the 1 tbsp flour omission) but the case was that the brand I bought wasn’t too strong. When I used a new brand that was stronger, the scent of matcha became a tad bit too powerful, though it still tasted good. I guess the strength of the matcha needs to be known first to best estimate how much to put in the cake.
All in all, my experience with Castella the past year and a half has been a mix of rough and smooth, but it was worth it. To end, again I say my thanks.
Hi TJ! I’m sorry for my late response. Thank you very much for your kind feedback, and I totally wished that I lived near you so I could eat all the castella you’ve made in the past year! Thank you for your detailed feedback and I’m sure my readers will appreciate your feedback and tips. Thank you once again!! 🙂
Hi 😀 glad that i finally found Castella recipe!!! I found it yesterday, and gave it a try with all purpose flour, as i cant wait for tomorrow to go to supermarket >.<
It's heaven!! even though texture can't be firm as when using bread flour..but the taste is great!! and we couldn't even wait for 12 hours.. 3 hours later, i had to cut a big chunk as my husband was bothering me because he got hungry from the smell.. beautiful!! and sadly i didn't manage to take picture as everything's gone 🙁 friends are coming over for meeting and they spotted Castella on the table..and that's it 😀 but i'm going to do it again soon as tomorrow i can get bread flour 😀 Thank you sooo much xxxx
Hi Aurelia! Ahahaha! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Yeah, the all purpose flour would work, but it’s a bit different texture. I hope you tried making with bread flour AND waited till next day this time. 😉 Hee hee.
Greetings again, Ms. Nami. I made another batch of Castella this time with some modifications:
-added 4 1/2 tsp of matcha powder to bread flour
-instead of 5 tbsp honey, I used 3 tbsp honey and 2 tbsp mizuame
Result: The flavor of the matcha took center stage while the flavor of the honey stayed on the side. It was sweet, but not too sweet.
Hi TJ! Thank you so much for your feedback! I appreciate the detail measurement so other readers can enjoy this modification! Thank you!!! 🙂
Greetings, Ms. Nami. Been using your Castella recipe for almost a year now and I gotta say, aside from the times I’ve undercooked it, the cakes were excellent, though I use an extra tablespoon of honey in the batter as my family prefers it sweeter. The only thing that needs to be perfected now is getting that dark brown bottom (which is a hassle in my little electric oven). The first time I made this I had to beat the sugar and egg mixture using only a hand whisk for 30 minutes since we had no hand mixer yet. When we finally had a mixer, making the cake became an easier task
There was this one time I tried making a chocolate marble Castella using the same recipe with a separated portion for the marble batter. Sad to say, the marble part sank to the bottom because of improper proportions of cocoa (it was too much).
One question though (If this was already asked, I apologize). If instead of honey you use mizuame, are the proportions (instead of 5tbsp honey, it’s 5tbsp mizuame) still the same?
That’s all. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe and hope you have a good day.
Hi TJ! Thank you so much for trying my Castella recipe so many times! Yeah each oven is different and once I get a new oven (after kitchen remodel), I have to re-test again to see how my oven will behave… :/ I’ve been meaning to make marbled Castella but haven’t had a chance yet. I need to study how much is proper amount. Recipe developing is fun, BUT it’s hard to resist not to eat… 🙂
You can use mizuame too. But honey is the main flavor so the cake will be sweet and texture is more moist, BUT not much flavor. I’ve never tested with mizuame before, so I don’t know exact amount…but 5 Tbsp. seems too much (too sweet). You definitely need to test it out. Since you like sweeter side, maybe you can just try the same portion and see how it goes. 🙂
Thank you so much for your kind feedback!
I was wondering if this recipe is possible without an electric mixer. Is there any way to hand mix it?
If you don’t have a mixer, you will need:
– A hand whisk
– Arm strength
– Lots of time for constant whipping (Around 30 minutes or more if you take long breaks)
– Patience (because of the above)
Wow! I just made this last night, and served one of the loaves to my family this morning. My dad couldn’t believe it was homemade (he usually doesn’t eat anything I make), and my very picky yet Castella-loving little brother enjoyed dunking the cake (and the cut-off sides!) into milk. I’ve been baking twice a day for a couple of weeks, and not one recipe has been this well-received by my family. It’s a cake they want to keep at home rather than give away to other people, and my mom wants to learn how to make it, since everyone loves it.
The only thing was that I couldn’t get the parchment paper to stick on the sides, so the cake ended up wrinkling inward in a sort of hyperbolic shape. It didn’t affect the taste, of course, but I will experiment with getting the parchment paper to stick better in the future. I also believe I used a bigger loaf pan (I didn’t really check the size), because my batter didn’t fill the pans anywhere near 80%, and the cake was quite short. Again, no effect on the taste, but I will try it in smaller pans next time.
Thank you so much for all the work you put into testing this recipe and sharing it with us! I’m never going to buy Castella again! Haha.
Hi Gloria! Thank you SO much for your kind feedback. I’m so glad all of your family enjoyed this recipe and your message meant a lot to me! I do have similar problem too and I hope to solve the issue next time I work on this recipe again. I might need a narrower pan as well since mine is wider on top than the bottom. I haven’t bought Castella since I started to make my own too. I like that I know what’s inside the cake. 🙂 Thank you once again!