We love everything Japanese here at A Spoonful of Sugar, and Sarah is always keen to try out recipes for Japanese sweet treats. This week she treated us to a Honey Castella Cake which is a traditional Japanese sponge cake – made without any oils or rising agents. It uses bread flour which gives it a chewy texture, and honey adds sweetness to the cake. It is a really moist, light cake, and is best eaten plain with a cup of tea.
Honey Castella Cake
- 5 Egg Yolks (room temperature)
- 4 Egg Whites (room temperature)
- 125g (1/2 cup) Sugar
- 100g (0.8 cup) Bread Flour (sifted)
- 50g (2 1/2 tablespoons) Honey (diluted with 2–3 tbsp. hot water)
- Line base and sides of a 7 inch square pan with baking paper. Preheat oven to 160 C (325 deg F)
- Place egg whites in the bowl of your electric mixer and whisk on high speed for about 30 seconds, then add sugar a tablespoon at a time. Beat until firm peaks are formed.
- Add egg yolks one at a time, and mix on low speed until well combined.
- Add sifted bread flour and mix on low speed until just combined.
- Add honey and hot water mixture and mix on low speed until combined.
- Pour batter through a sieve into cake pan, use a spatula or whisk to help the thick batter go through the sieve.
- Tap pan on the counter to remove any large bubbles in the batter.
- Bake in preheated oven for about 60 minutes or until golden brown on top — check with a skewer to see if cake is ready.
- If ready, take out of oven (with oven mitts) and drop the pan on the counter from about a foot in height to prevent shrinkage.
- Cool cake. Place cake onto a piece of baking paper and wrap in plastic wrap, and leave in the fridge until ready to serve (at least overnight) to preserve moisture in cake.
Sarah was inspired by the recipe she found at Yummy Workshop. It reminds us of the cake we have eaten from bakeries in Japan.
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Delicious! Perfect timing for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) too! We eat honey cake to symbolize our desire to have a new year filled with sweetness.
This looks and sounds great. I love the idea of using bread flour!
It looks so yummy and wonderful…I can’t wait to try it…Happy Thursday..with love Janice
Hello Lisa and Sarah
I just wanted to let you know that I made this castella on the weekend to take to my son’s graduation party at Japanese school and it was wonderful. It tasted just like the real thing. I only managed to get a taste of it before I took it to the party and it was all gone before I had a chance to have any more. My son said he did get a slice, though, and told his friends that I made it, so he must have approved. Thanks for the great recipe. I’ll definitely be making it again.