Castella is a simple Japanese cake with a long history. The following recipe is "faux" Castella, in that it cuts a few corners to approximate the taste, but it's much easier. You'll need the following ingredients for a small loaf-sized Faux Castella:
- 5 eggs
- 100g of sugar, preferrably cane sugar
- 100g of flour
- 1 soup spoon honey. Use more to make the Castella sweeter, or substitute by sugar if you don't like honey
- 1 soup spoon of baking powder.
Prepre a cake mold by oiling it, and putting some sugar in the bottom. Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Beat the whites and the sugar to an airy foam in a large bowl with a mixer. Add the egg yolks one by one, whipping the mixture to keep it light. Add the honey, and stir with a wooden spoon. Slowly, bit by bit, sift in the flour whilst stirring continuously with a wooden spoon. When all the flour has been integrated well, pour it into a cake mold. Bake it for 40 minutes at 180°C. Remove it from the mold, and put the Castella in a plastic ziplock bag, or cover it with plasic foil. Like that, it should cool down without loosing too much moisture. Cut into slices and enjoy!
