Castella Sponge Cake
A nostalgic treat: this castella is soft and fluffy and melts in your mouth when eaten with a glass of milk. Makes one 23×13×8 cm loaf pan.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- Eggs5
- Sugar110 g
- Cooking oil15 g
- Milk15 g
- Corn syrup15 g
- Cake flour100 g
Directions
- 1
Cut parchment paper to fit your castella pan and line the pan with it.
- 2
Put the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl.
- 3
Set the bowl over warm water (a bain-marie) and stir until the mixture is lukewarm.
- 4
Whip with a hand mixer until the mixture turns pale ivory.
- 5
Add the cake flour and fold gently so the air bubbles don't deflate.
- 6
In a separate bowl, mix the milk, corn syrup, and cooking oil.
- 7
Take a little batter and mix it into the milk mixture first, then pour it back into the egg-flour batter; fold until the batter reaches a consistency where a figure-8 drawn on the surface slowly disappears.
- 8
Pour the batter into the pan from a moderate height, then draw an S shape through it with a skewer to remove large air bubbles.
- 9
Bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 10 minutes, then lower to 150°C and bake for 50 minutes.
- 10
Take it out of the oven, let it cool, and it's done.
Tips
Swap the milk for sake and the corn syrup for honey to make Nagasaki castella. It tastes best the next day, once the flavor settles and any eggy smell fades.