Honey Kasutera (Honey Castella) is a popular Japanese dessert. It's essentially a sponge cake, raised solely by egg, with no butter or oil.
The cake is soft yet sightly spongy. Traditionally, it is baked in a bottomless wooden frame. Wood conducts heat slowly, which helps to bake the cake evenly. There is no wooden frame at local bakery store. This seems like a perfect situation for Engineers - create then solve their own problems. I specified the dimension, my coworker designed and built me a Castella cake frame.
There are many recipes online; I combined and adjusted them to fill my frame properly.
Ingredients
Large eggs - 5 (at room temperature)
Granulated sugar - 1/2cup + 1/3 cup
Bread flour - 1 and 1/3 cup
Honey - 1/4 cup + 1/2 TBSP
Warm water - 2 and 1/2 TBSP
Granulated sugar - 1/2cup + 1/3 cup
Bread flour - 1 and 1/3 cup
Honey - 1/4 cup + 1/2 TBSP
Warm water - 2 and 1/2 TBSP
For glazing:
1 TBSP honey, diluted with ½ TBSP warm water
2. Preheat oven to 320°F.
3. Sift the bread flour with the sifter or a fine meshed strainer.
4. Add warm water to honey and whisk well.
5. Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment. Crack eggs into the bowl and vigorously whisk until combined and frothy.
6. Add sugar and beat the eggs and sugar on high speed (Speed 10) for 5 minutes. The volume of the beaten eggs will increase about 4 times. 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 in ribbons.
7. Add the honey mixture into the egg mixture and whisk on low speed until combined, about 30 seconds.
8. Add the bread flour at three separate times: add 1/3 of the bread flour and whisk on low speed for 15 seconds, then add more flour and whisk for 15 seconds. Add the last remaining portion and whisk until just combined for about 1 minute. Do not overmix.
9. Pour the batter into the baking frame. Drop/bang the pan a couple of time to remove the air bubbles in the batter.
11. Mix the honey and warm water in a bowl and apply the honey mixture on top of the cake with a pastry brush.
12. Immediately wrap the cake with or without the frame with plastic wrap or bag to keep the moisture while it's hot . Store in the refrigerator overnight (at least 12 hours), keeping the top side facing down. This will help the cake have more fine and moist texture.
13. Peel parchment paper off cake. To serve, slice off the sides of the cake with a sharp bread knife and cut into thick slices.
Steps
1. Cut parchment paper to line the baking frame and put it on a baking tray.
3. Sift the bread flour with the sifter or a fine meshed strainer.
4. Add warm water to honey and whisk well.
5. Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment. Crack eggs into the bowl and vigorously whisk until combined and frothy.
6. Add sugar and beat the eggs and sugar on high speed (Speed 10) for 5 minutes. The volume of the beaten eggs will increase about 4 times. 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 in ribbons.
8. Add the bread flour at three separate times: add 1/3 of the bread flour and whisk on low speed for 15 seconds, then add more flour and whisk for 15 seconds. Add the last remaining portion and whisk until just combined for about 1 minute. Do not overmix.
10. Bake on middle rack of oven for 60-70 minutes, or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
13. Peel parchment paper off cake. To serve, slice off the sides of the cake with a sharp bread knife and cut into thick slices.
To save for later, wrap individual pieces with plastic wrap and freeze up to a month or keep in fridge up to 5 days.
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