Castella~ Japanese Sponge Cake Recipe!

Castella or Kasutera, in Japanese, is a Portuguese sponge cake which is really famous in Japan. Now, it is even considered as a Japanese sponge cake.

Personally, I think that it tastes like Filipino mamon, only chewier and more dense. Well, the recipe that I followed and modified resulted to this texture. I have not tasted Japanese castella except for the packaged ones in Seven Eleven or Seven and I Holdings which I bought for JPY100.

I only made one mistake in this recipe. I used a baking pan that was too big that resulted to a thin castella. Next time I'll use a loaf pan or double the recipe.

My recipe used Rotinrice's recipe with ToFoodWithLuv's recipe and TheFreshLoaf's recipe.

Here we go!!

Note: This recipe needs a mixer unless you have super strong arms that can whip egg whites! :)

2 room temperature eggs, separated
5 tbsp sugar
1tbsp honey -- in my case, I used 1/2 tbsp brown sugar and 1/2 tbsp water
1tbsp hot water
1/3 cup all purpose flour, sifted thrice
1 tbsp condensed milk
1 tbsp mirin

canola oil for greasing the pan


Before anything else, preheat oven at 325F

On high speed, beat egg whites until it becomes foamy. Add sugar gradually.

Continuing mixing until it forms soft peaks. Add yolks. Then continue mixing until a stiff peak forms.

Add flour into the batter.

Fold with a spatula, carefully, until everything is mixed.

Dilute honey or honey substitute with hot water. Add it in the mix, together with condensed milk and mirin. Continue folding until everything is incorporated.

Pour into a greased baking pan. I used a 5inch by 8 inch pan. This resulted to a thin cake. So please use a smaller one. Place it in the middle rack for 10 minutes. But please take note, that baking time may be different if you change the pan size.

After baking, drop the pan to the counter from a height of a foot. Rotinrice said that this will prevent shrinkage.

Additional step but is optional:

Make the honey substitute again using a different ratio: 1/2 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp hot water

Brush this on top of the castella. This will create a chewier crust.

~*~*~*~*~

Even if there seem to be a lot of sweet ingredients, the castella isn't too sweet at all!
When you try this, please comment down below about what had happened on your try. :)