The Best and Fail Proof Japanese Castella Cake / Kasutera

If you asked me which is my favourite cake, I really can't tell you .... I love butter cake, marble cake, sponge cake, pound cake, pandan layer cake, and mixed fruit cake too. They are all my favourites. But there is one cake no matter how many times failure I've encountered, I'm still very adamant trying to succeed and I'm countless how many times I've tried; and that cake is castella cake. 

Two years ago I have succeeded baked my first Castella Cake eventhough I don't have that wooden mould at that time.  After my success in this cake, I even have modified the cake into a Coffee Castella  flavour and I really love it!! 

When Zoe of Bake For Happy Kids posted her Castella Cake recently, the word "Best & Fail Proof" just caught my eyes and I would love to try this out as this recipe has an added ingredient of oil inside.  Im sure with the added oil would moisten the texture of the cake more and sure enough!

When I bite my first bite of the cake, I was like in cake heaven.... OMG... it was so so so so delicious!!!

The Best Japanese Castella Cake 
Recipe sourced from Bake For Happy Kids

Ingredients

Egg yolk mixture

115g bread flour
45g egg yolks (about 3 medium size egg yolks) at room temperature
60g caster sugar
50g milk
40g honey (or 2 tbsp) honey
30g vegetable oil

Egg white mixture
105g egg whites (about 3 medium size egg whites), at room temperature
60g caster sugar

Method
Place a baking rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F with NO fan forced.

Line the internal sides of your castella wooden mould with grease proof paper and wrap around the bottom of the mould to just above 1” height.

(If you are using a metal loaf pan, fully lined the inside of the loaf pan with aluminium foil then line again another layer with greaseproof paper.)

Preparing for the egg yolk mixture:
Place the milk, honey and oil in a small saucepan or heat proof bowl. Heat the  mixture in the saucepan with low heat under the stove  or microwave mixture in the heat proof bowl with short pulses of low power until the honey dissolves into the mixture. Do not let the mixture boils because the mixture will cause to curd.  Set aside for the mixture to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.

Place egg yolks and sugar in a large mixing bowl and using your hand whisk, whisk the mixture turns pale in colour.  Whisk in the honey mixture.  Sift the bread flour into egg yolk mixture and whisk until everything is combined.  Set aside.

And for the egg white mixture:
Using your stand mixer or hand held mixer with a whisk attachment, beat egg whites in medium low speed until foamy. Increase beating speed to medium and while beating, add in sugar gradually and continue to beat until stiff peaks form and the meringue look glossy. Do not over beat the mixture.

Using a hand whisk or a spatula, fold in 1/3 of the egg whites to the egg yolks mixture. You can vigorously mixture the batter together in this stage but after the rest of the egg whites, please fold in with your spatula gently till no egg white lumps are visible.

Slowly pour batter into the prepared pan at about 1 feet high.   Smoothen the surface and ently drop the pan onto the kitchen bench from a height of 10 cm to remove any large air bubbles and do this just once. If you are afraid of doing this, you can use a skewer to draw a zigzag to remove air bubbles in the batter. You can choose to do either one of these steps or both but do not over-do these steps.

Place pan in the middle rack and bake for 10 mins. Decrease temperature to 140°C / 285°F and bake for another 60 mins, or until the cake is thoroughly cooked and must has a nice golden brown top. 

NOTE:  As all oven temperature differs, please adjust the temperature and timing accordingly.

Remove the cake out from oven and invert the cake to a chopping board for 5 minutes.  Remove the wooden mould out and invert back the cake to another plate or a wooden board. Once the cake slightly cool to touch, peel off the baking paper and wrap the cake in plastic wrap. Place cake in an airtight container or a zip lock bag and allow it to rest in room temperature to let the cake moisten for at least one day.  (The cake taste best after it aged a day).

I think I have done good this time and will stick this recipe for life ..... hahaha!  Look how good the texture of this cake.... it is not crumbly at all  ...  very spongy absolutely loving it!

This is how I lined my wooden mould.
Alternatively, if you do not have the wooden mould, you may use the normal pan and lined the pan like the below two pictures.

Wrap the pan with aluminium foil in 2 layers and lined another layer with grease proof paper.

Using two square pans of 8" and 9", cut out some cardboards and wrap with aluminium foil and slot in between the two pans.  The inner small pan, please lined the bottom with grease proof paper (as I have forgotten to cut out the paper to place in to take photo).

* If you are using the above two method of pans to bake the castella cake the timing should be shorter about 45 to 50 minutes.  Like I said earlier, different oven temperature would result to different timing too.

So what are you waiting for? Try it ...

Espresso Almond Butter Cake

When you see someone posting their recipe post and indicated "Highly Recommended", would it motivate you to try it out?  Well, I do.   

 Victoria Bakes has somewhat been so diligently baking her cakes away and it seem that most of her posting she has this "Highly Recommended" recipe post ~ oh dear ... I can't seem to catch up trying out her "HR" recipes if she keeps going with her "HR" post! And if you have been following her post.... all her cakes seems to be so captivating with the print on the cakes...so lovely and cute.

Back to my post today, I have bookmarked this Espresso Almond Butter Cake when Gert of Kitchen Snippets posted hers, I thought I could bake it at my soonest, so went seaching for sour cream but can't seem to find any at the supermarket shelves.  Wanted to substitute for yogurt instead but.....aigh....  And so, until Victoria Bakes posted hers last month that really get me going to make mine yesterday.

ESPRESSO ALMOND BUTTER CAKE
Recipe adapted from My Kitchen Snippets

Ingredients
227 gram butter (at room temperature)
3 tbsp sour cream
250g caster sugar
240g plain  flour
1/4 tsp salt
120g ground almond
1 tsp baking powder
4 medium eggs
120ml warm milk
2 tbsp instant espresso coffee powder 

Method 
Line and greased an 8” x 8” square baking pan or round baking pan.

Dissolve the espresso powder to the warm milk.  Set  aside to cool down.

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Sift the plain flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. 
Add in the ground almond and give it a good mix together. Set aside.

In your mixer with medium speed,  cream the butter, caster sugar and sour cream till  light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Scrapping the side of the bowl occasionally.   Add in the eggs, one at a time until well combined.

Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add in the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk espresso mixture in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until well combined.

Pour batter into the baking pan, smooth out the top and bake until the top of the cake springs back when gently pressed with your fingers and a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. It will take about 50-60 minutes.

Cool the cake on the wire rack for 10 minutes, invert and unmold the cake and let it cool completely before cutting into it.

If you love butter cake, and if you love coffee, and....if you love having ground almonds in your bakes..... this is the cake for you.  And yes, I highly recommend you to try this out too.

I'm linking this post to :

     Cook & Celebrate Christmas 2014 hosted by Bake For Happy Kids, Eat Your Heart Out  

and Domestic Goddess Wannabe.

Palm Sugar Chiffon Cake

It has been quite awhile I have not bake a chiffon cake already.  If you search in the internet for chiffon cakes, there are tons of flavours to choose from.  We usually would chose those flavours we like to enjoy.

I remember the very first time I baked a chiffon cake which is a flopped is the Matcha (Green Tea) flavour and didn't post it up.  And after I have mastered baking this chiffon cake, the flavours so far I have baked are the Orange Poppy Seeds, Passion Fruits, Hazelnut Coffee.  Today I try out this Palm Sugar instead.

Palm Sugar Chiffon Cake 

Ingredients

(A)

6 egg yolks

150g palm sugar or gula Melaka

100ml coconut milk  (do not use the thick coconut cream)

4 tbsp vegetable cooking oil (corn oil/canola/sunflower)

140g plain flour
¼ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

(B)

6 egg whites

40g caster sugar

¼ tsp cream of tartar (I didnt add)

Method

In a small saucepan, melt the palm sugar together with coconut milk over low heat till the sugar dissolves.  Remove and pour into a bowl, leave to cool.  

Sift the plain flour and baking powder together.  Set aside.

In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks, then add in the vegetable cooking oil and salt and whisk till all well combined.  Add the palm sugar coconut milk mixture into the yolks/oil mixture.  Mix till all well blended.

With hand whisk, add in the flour and mix till all combined well.  Set aside.

Meanwhile, in another bowl, beat egg whites with medium speed till frothy, add in cream of tartar. Continue to beat until the bubbles become fine soft peak, gradually add in caster sugar and continue to beat until stiff peak.

Gently fold 1／3 of beaten egg white into egg yolk batter, use cut and fold method until well blended. Then pour the batter back to the rest of the egg white and fold until mixture is well blended.

Bake in pre-heated oven on lower rack，150c for 35mins.

Remove from oven, immediately invert cake until completely cooled.

Recipe extracted from Chiffon Cake Is Done by Kevin Chai with changes.

                       Do try to use good quality palm sugar.  How to choose good quality one?
                       Well, when you lightly pinch the palm sugar and the texture breaks off, means
                        it is of good quality.

                             The cake texture is so soft..... like eating cotton cake.  



                           

I am linking this post to

 Cook Your Books #16 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours

Cherry Friands

When I woke up this morning, cooling air was blowing into the window and dark cloud was blanketing the sky. I was so happy and hoping that it will give a good downpour later.  But it didn't and the sun coming out and the dark cloud slowly disappeared.  OH NOOOOOOO..... another hot day coming!  The temperature for the past weeks already shooting up to 36C-37C!

I wasn't really in the mood to bake and cook nowadays when the weather is scorching hot.  But since this morning the cooling breeze blowing in, so thinking of making a small batch of cakes to indulge in.

Cherry Friands

Recipe adapted from  Cath of Confessions Of A Glutton with changes from raspberry to cherry

Original Recipe from What Katie Ate

Ingredients

5 egg-whites (abt 150g or slightly more)

150g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

90g ground almond meal

185g icing sugar, sifted, plus extra for dusting (do adjust to your sweetness taste)

50g plain flour, sifted

12 cherries, pitted and sliced

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Lightly grease the holes of a non-stick friand pan.

Whisk the egg whites for a few seconds just to lightly combine until frothy. There’s no need to whip them into peaks.

Add the butter, ground almonds, icing sugar and flour and beat lightly to combine well.

Pour into the prepared pan, filling each hole two-thirds full. Don’t worry too much about smoothing the tops.

Place the sliced cherries on top of each friand and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of one comes out clean.

Cool and dust the friands with icing sugar and serve warm.

If you have egg whites still storing in your freezer, do give this a try.  It is sooooooo delicious!
I have used the muffin pan instead of friands pan; not going to invest another mould as it is more or less the same.

You can always substitute it with raspberries which the original recipe used, or with strawberries or blueberries.

Blueberries Almond Muffin

When Jessie of Jessie-CookingMoments posted her Raspberries Blueberries Muffins weeks ago, not only the ingredients that captivated me but after reading her opening 1st paragraph, I just had a laugh and I know this muffin must be real good that the Hippomama's grandma keep coming back asking more for this muffins.

I always love blueberries and almond meal in my bakes and if I have all the ingredients in my fridge, I will not hesitate to bake this immediately.

And guess what, at this post, this is already my 2nd bake for this delicious muffins;  only thing is I only have blueberries in my fridge, so no raspberries in it.  As I have baked Blueberries Muffin before, and I do not want to confused with the same title of Blueberries Muffin, so I named this as Blueberries Almond Muffin instead.

Blueberry Almond Muffins 
Recipe Source & text copy from Jessie-CookingMoments with changes 

Ingredients 
150g Low Gluten Flour, sifted

140g Unsalted Butter, room temperature
120g Caster Sugar
60g Cream (35% Fat)
40g Almond Meal
4g Baking Powder
1g Salt

2 Eggs (about 60g each)
2tbsp Fresh Milk
120g Frozen Blueberries, lightly thawed
Fine Zest of 1 Lemon 

Method:
1. Mix flour, almond meal, baking powder & salt in a clean bowl.

2. Preheat oven to 160C. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
3. Beat butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add cream & lemon zest. 

    Mix well.
4. Add flour mixture & milk. Mix well on each addition.
5. Fold in the blueberries.
6. Spoon the muffin mixture into the cupcake liners until 80% full.
7. Bake for about 30 minutes.

Well, needless for me to say, as this is my 2nd baked in a row, these muffins are really yummy and delicious.  But if you are not into cakes that are creamy and buttery in texture, I don't know if you will like it ...  well, I really do absolutely crazily LOVE IT!!  Because the texture is something like my top favourite cake ~ Tish Boyle's Plainly Perfect Pound Cake

Thank you Jessie.

Coffee Castella Cake

While I'm still in obsessed and getting good at it, the guts get bolder now.  I have been thinking should I bake the green tea or the chocolate flavour the next?  Well, since I am a coffee person, so I head on to make this Coffee Castella Cake.

COFFEE CASTELLA CAKE 

Ingredients
4 egg whites at room temperature

4 egg yolks at room temperature

130g sugar

100g bread flour, sifted  

2 tbsp honey

1 1/2 tsp instant coffee, dilute in 2 tbsp water.

Method

Using two square cake pan measuring 8" and 7"; and cut out some cardboard to fit and slot in between the two pans on all four sides.  Wrapped the cut out cardboards with aluminium foils. Preheat oven to (165°C).

In a small bowl, dilute the instant coffee with 2 tbsp water.  Set aside.

Place egg whites in mixing bowl and beat at high speed  for 30 sec until slightly foamy. Add sugar in 2 to 3 batches until firm peaks form, about 4 min.

Add yolks one at a time at medium low speed until well combined, about 1 min. 

Add in the honey. Whisk till combined.  
Add sifted bread flour and beat until just combined.

Drizzle the coffee around and lightly using a spatula to mix in till combined. 

Pour the batter into the 7" cake pan. Give the pan lightly tap on the counter to release air out. Using a spatula, smoothen the top of batter to remove any remaining bubbles. Put the 7" pan into the 8" pan and slot in all four corners with the wrapped aluminium cardboard.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 min or until top is evenly browned. Toothpick inserted into cake should come out clean. Remove pan from oven and carefully take out the 7" square pan  and drop it from a one foot height onto the counter 2-3 times to prevent shrinkage.  Invert the cake pan onto metal cooling tray for 5-10 minutes. 

When cake is cool enough to handle, remove from pan. Peel off parchment paper and turn it upside down onto a fresh piece of parchment paper. Wrap with plastic wrap and leave overnight at room temperature to preserve moisture in the cake and for flavor to develop.

To serve, cut off edges on three sides except the browned top with a very sharp knife. Cut into thick slices using a sawing motion.

                                 It is indeed so good with the coffee flavour!  

Happy Mother's Day!!

Castella Cake

Castella Cake ~ have you bake this cake before?  I have been trying and trying and trying and really, I have even lost count how many times I have tried.  All those failure has really disappoint me.  Was it just because I do not have that special wooden mould?  No, some even have successfully baked it without that wooden mould.  Probably I am really no good at baking this cake and moreover my oven is the "hot tempered" type!  

But this castella cake is too delicious for me to give up just like that, this is why I have not given up hope.

HONEY CASTELLA CAKE

Ingredients
4 egg whites (medium size),  at room temperature

4 egg yolks (medium size),  at room temperature

130g sugar 

100g bread flour, sifted  

40g honey 
20g milk    (You can use 2 tbsp water or mirin & mix dilute with honey)

Method

Using two square cake pan measuring 8" and 7"; and cut out some cardboards to be slotted and fitted in between the two pans on all the four sides.  Wrapped the cut out cardboards with aluminium foils.  Cut out and place a parchment paper to the bottom of your 7" square pan.

Preheat oven to (165°C).

Place egg whites in mixing bowl and beat at high speed  until slightly foamy. Add sugar in 2 to 3 batches until firm peaks form

Add egg yolks one at a time at medium low speed until well combined. 

Add in the honey. Whisk till combined.  
Add sifted bread flour and beat until just combined.

Drizzle the milk around and lightly using a spatula to mix in till combined.

Pour the batter into the 7" cake pan. Give the pan lightly tap on the counter to release air out. Using a spatula, smoothen the top of batter to remove any remaining bubbles. Put the 7" pan into the 8" pan and slot in all four corners with the wrapped aluminium cardboard.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 min or until top is evenly browned. Remove pan from oven and carefully take out the 7" square pan  and drop it from a one foot height onto the counter 2-3 times to prevent shrinkage.  Invert the cake pan onto metal cooling tray for 5-10 minutes. 

When cake is cool enough to handle, remove from pan. Peel off the bottom parchment paper. Wrap the cake with a fresh parchment paper and another layer with plastic wrap and leave overnight at room temperature or in the fridge for flavor to develop.

To serve, cut off edges on three sides except the browned top with a very sharp knife. Cut into thick slices using a sawing motion.

                 My slice cake look a little short and flat but nevertheless I am pleased this time

                                                        it doesn't shrink and wrinkle up.

                               

This castella cake method of using two baking pans slotted with cardboard wrapped with aluminium foil was brilliant and it was sourced from Kitchen Tigress blog.  Thank you.

Perfect "Steamed Baked" Fruit Cake

I'm back ...after missing in action for so long.  I have been unwell right after the Chinese New Year.  I know my recuperating period has been quite long.  The medicine that I took has made me lost all appetite and I have been eating very little lately too.  And all these have also make me feel lazy to bake or cook to update to my blog.  I am sure you will agree with me sometimes you just don't have the mood to do anything else.

Today, I am posting my favourite fruit cake again.  Other than kumquat, mixed dried fruit is one of my favourite cake.  If you have come to know my blog here, I have done few steamed fruit cake before; my 1st time done is Steamed Fruit cake  (steamed for 2 hrs 45 minutes), my 2nd recipe also is Steamed Fruit Cake (steamed for 4 hours).  And just last Christmas, I have also made a Christmas Pudding which called to steam for 4 hours 30 minutes. 

With the long hours of steaming the cake, the cake will stay moist in texture and believe me, the cake is absolutely sooooooo delicious.  I know some of you will freak out when I said the steaming took at least 3-4 hours.     

But now, there's a solution, instead of steaming you can use the method of "steam bake" the cake to cut down the cooking time..  Isn't it great?  Well, this idea, I really have to thank my dear friend Hui of Butterfly-Waltz whom has advised me and after she has successfully done hers by steamed baked this Perfect Steamed Baked Fruit Cake.

“Steamed Baked” Mixed Fruit Cake 

Ingredients

(A)

200g butter (at room temperature)
150g caster sugar
3 eggs

150g plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

(B)
350g mixed dried fruit

1/3 cup rum or brandy (you can add in more if you like OR you can use orange juice too!)

150g plain flour, sifted

(C)

150g caster sugar

30g water


Method

Macerate the mixed dried fruit in the 1/3 cup rum for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Add in the 150g sifted plain flour into the mixture of dried fruit together.  Combined well and set aside.

Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.  Add in eggs, one at a time until well combined.  Add in vanilla essence.
Put in sifted flour, bicarbonate soda and cream of tartar.  
Add in the fruit mixture.  Mix all well together and set aside.

Meanwhile, place the 150g caster sugar into a saucepan and pour in the 30g water at the side of the  saucepan.  Cook till the sugar turn caramel.
Mix a well centre in the dough batter and pour in the caramel in the well and quickly mix all well combine.

(Please be extra CAREFUL when you pour in the hot caramel in to the batter!!) 

Prepare water bath and place in preheated oven of 170Celcius. 

Tip: use a medium/big square baking tray, filled with water and place in lower oven shelf. Heat water in the oven  (There's NO NEED to place cake tin "into" the water bath)

Grease and lined with greased proof paper to two small loaf pan pour the cake mixture in. 

Place cake tin on the second lowest shelf (or whichever shelf one usually use for baking) and bake at 170C for about 90minutes or until the skewer insert in comes out clean.

** I’m using two small loaf pans instead of 8” square pan as this will cut short the steam baking time. 

** You can wrap the cake pans with aluminium foil to slow steam bake to avoid burning on top.  

Feel free to do which step you feel appropriate.  

The Best Blueberries Muffin

I have been MIA for more than a month already; never knew time passed so fast and now it is already mid January 2014.  

I know at this time the Chinese is busily baking their cookies for the coming Chinese New Year.  I have yet to bake mine but I'm trying to clear some items in my fridge and hence my first post of 2014 is my Blueberries Muffins.

BLUEBERRIES MUFFIN
Recipe sourced from Food.com

Ingredients 
113g butter , at room temp
1 cup granulated sugar (do adjust accordingly to your taste) (I used 130g)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Directions
Heat oven to 180°C.

Grease 18 regular-size muffin cups (or 12 large size muffins).
In bowl, mix butter until creamy. Add sugar and beat until pale and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating after each.
Beat in vanilla, baking powder and salt.
With spoon, fold in half of flour then half of milk into batter; repeat.
Fold in blueberries.
Spoon into muffin cups and sprinkle topping onto each muffin.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown and springy to touch.