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Thursday, June 04, 2009

Honey Castella Cake

There had been alot of mention about this cake for the past few years. While it did not really caught on in Singapore, bloggers in HK and TW had been raving about this cake. There were also many recipes floating around... and a wooden baking mold is needed for this cake! However, the price of a wooden mold did not come cheap in Singapore and it's not so easily available. So I held off baking this cake. Of course there were others who tried to use metal tins for this bake. I believe most were successful. What attracted me to the cake was the texture of it. The photos posted for the cake shown somewhat a nice fine crumb, almost like a pound cake. But it's essentially a sponge cake!
So there I was doing my usual blog-hopping when I came across a recipe for this cake. It looked simpler than the others I've encountered, so I saved the recipe and decided to work on it last nite. Everything went well, till I tried to tent the cake during the last 15 mins. When the cake was finally done, I removed the tent and lo and behold! It had shrank! I guess it could be the oven temperature when I adjusted it after 20mins into baking... still I cooled the cake and resisted trying a piece till this morning.
Verdict : This cake tasted exactly like a sponge cake! except that it's very sweet and a strong honey taste to it. The crumbs are indeed fine. A good cake to go with tea. :)

Maybe I should really try one of the other more "tedious" recipe for this cake as a comparison. I had not eaten a REAL castella cake, so there's no base for comparing. Well, back to the drawing board then. *shrug*

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posted by Baking Fiend at 8:49 AM

4 Comments:

  • I have never seen a wooden baking mold - very interesting technique. Would love to try this, but will ave to use metal - perhaps if I wrap the sides with paper it will protect it from the heat?

    By Blogger Homemade Heaven, at 3:31 PM, June 04, 2009  

  • yes. you may do that. I've heard suggestion of using paper boxes too! and you line many layers of baking paper ard the container. I duno if it'll catch fire while in the oven tho. :P

    By Blogger Baking Fiend, at 3:39 PM, June 04, 2009  

  • Hi, let me wild guess, from the texture & u mentioned that it shrunk, is it a "beat the eggs till very very thick then fold in the flour type" ? I've tried castella cake that a friend got for me from Taiwan, one look at it I thought it's those cheap butter cake that we see at coffeeshops, but one bite I fell in love, so moist, so soft & so aromatic, they even have seasonal flavour like strawberry & pineapple, made with real fruit puree, no essence, perfect !! I've tried many recipes but can never get the real castella cake texture, wonder why ??

    By Blogger ganache-ganache, at 8:31 PM, June 08, 2009  

  • oh yes, ganache-ganache, u got that right! it's the beat-the-eggs-till-u-die-type and then fold in flour. LOL. but this recipe says u have to whip the eggs while over a simmering pot of water! i developed muscles overnite. :P

    wow... until i perfect this basic recipe, the additional flavours have to wait.

    By Blogger Baking Fiend, at 8:35 AM, June 09, 2009  

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