Kasutera カステラ / Castella (Japanese Honey Cake)

A popular Japanese sponge cake made of sugar, flour, eggs, and starch syrup.

Kasutera カステラ / Castella (Japanese Honey Cake)

Ingredients:
3 eggs
90g sugar
45g cake flour
45g bread flour
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp. honey
butter

Honey Glaze:
1 Tbsp. honey
1/2 Tbsp. warm water

Instructions:
Cut parchment paper to fit the (22 x 11 x 7 cm) loaf pan.
Preheat oven to 170°C.

Warm the milk in a saucepan. Add honey and mix well. Set aside.
Crack eggs into a large bowl and vigorously whisk until combined and frothy. 
Add-in the sugar. Beat them with an electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes, until white and fluffy. Add-in the milk-honey mixture.
Place the bowl over a pan of hot water. Mix until the batter continuously drips back into the bowl like a ribbon when you scoop it up.
Sift-in flour, about one-third at a time and gently cut through the mixture with a spatula until combined.

Butter the loaf pan. Put the parchment paper in the pan and make sure the paper sticks to sides of the the pan.
Pour-in the batter (about 80% full).
Using a skewer, daw a zigzag line to remove the air bubbles in the batter.
Drop the pan lightly flat on the counter to raise the air bubbles out of the batter. Do this several times to release air bubbles.

Bake on middle rack of oven at 170ºC for 10 minutes. Then turn down to 140ºC and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. When done, cake sides will pull away from pan slightly; top will be flat and feel spongy when pressed with finger.

To make he honey glaze:
Mix the honey and warm water in a bowl.

Apply the honey glaze mixture on top of the cake with a pastry brush.

Place a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter top. Take the cake out from the pan to the plastic wrap, top facing down. Gently peel off parchment paper.

Immediately wrap the cake with plastic wrap to keep the moisture. Store overnight (at least 12 hours) in the refrigerator, keeping the top side facing down. This will help the cake have more fine and moist texture.

To serve, slice off the sides of the cake with a sharp bread knife and cut into 3/4 to 1 inch thick slices.

Happy Eating!!