30 March 2012

Marble Matcha Castella (Kasutera 长崎蛋糕)


The castella cake flu bugs spread so fast, I didn't manage to escape :)
The subtle sweet tastes, the smooth, delicate and bounce texture, I baked it not one, not two but three times in two days! My son rushed into the kitchen asking for a piece of what I baked when he smells the aroma! However, my cake is far from the perfect flawless castella-cake's definition which requires bottom and top of the cake to be flat with not a single ripple; cake texture to be poreless.

There are many different recipes for baking a yummy castella, I can't recall which castella cake was the first one I saw, but recently saw Ann baked her beautiful Matcha Marble Castella, her zebra marble pattern cake is exquisite! Zoe had her Japanese Honey Castella Cake. Sonia finally success baking her Castella.  Angie used spelt bread flour to baked her Matcha Spelt Castella and there is where I came to discover Biren from Roti n Rice recipe. 
Biren baked the castella cake without using the traditional wooden mould. Moreover, she did not use the cake stabilizer. This really increase my interest in trying out the famous castella cake using her recipe. Biren has a detail photos illustration on how to bake this cake, if you are interested in baking castella, hop over to her blog :)

* Note: you may noticed the photos are not so clear, this is because I am using the D80 which I am not familier with, please give me some time :)





My third castella, no major shrinkage and the top didn't collapse.

The above work-in-process photos were taken while I baked the first Green-tea Castella cake. It turned out not 100% successful because the top part of the cake which just under the cake top was a bit wet, same for the second castella cake (photos as below). Therefore, I increased my oven temperature to 180C for my third castella cake and prolong the baking time to 65 mins.

1st attempt: with 2 tbsp green tea powder and 2 tbsp honey


2nd attempt: 1 tbsp green tea powder and 1 tbsp honey


3rd attempt


Recipe adapted from Roti n Rice with changes
Ingredients:
115g bread flour
10g green tea powder (used 1 tbsp, dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water)
5 egg whites at room temperature
5 egg yolks at room temperature
150g sugar (used 80g)
2 tbsp mirin (omitted)
2 tbsp honey, dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water


Step:
1. Line loaf pan with aluminium foil, then with non-stick baking paper. Sieve bread flour. Set aside. Preheat oven to 180C (for my oven
2. Place egg whites in mixing bowl and beat at high speed (speed 10 for KA) for 30 sec. or until slightly foamy. Add sugar in 2 to 3 increments until firm peaks form, about 4 mins.
3. Add egg yolk one at a time at medium low speed (speed 4 for KA) until mixture well combined, about 1 min. Add sifted bread flour and beat until just combined. Add honey, continue to beat for another min.
4. Scoop 3 tbsp of white batter and mix with green tea powder. Set aside.
5. Pour the remainding batter through a sieve into the loaf pan. Press with a spatula to help batter go through sieve. Tap pan to remove air bubbles, you may use a chopstick to draw "Z" on the batter. Pour in the green tea batter to the white batter, stir the batter a bit with chopstick (don't overstir or else the green pattern won't be obvious). Smooth the top of batter.
6. Place the pan into middle rack of the oven and bake for 65 mins (for my oven) or until cake top is evenly browned.
7. Remove loaf pan from oven, drop it from one foot height onto the counter to prevent shrinkage.
8. When the cake is cool enough to handle, life cake up by holding the edge of aluminium foil. Turn cake upside down onto a piece of parchment paper. Peel off aluminium foil, wrap cake with parchment paper and leave overnight in the fridge (right side up) to preserve moisture in the cake and for flavour to develop.




Smooth, delicate and bounce texture! This recipe is a sure keeper.

38 comments:

  1. Aaww...The Kasutera bug finally came to you too and you made 3 cakes in two days! So pretty and you 成功了!!!

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    Replies
    1. the cake is yummy, so 3 cakes in two days is ok :) the cake top still not totally flat...

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  2. 你们很厉害
    这个很高难度
    暂时我没胆量挑战~~

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    Replies
    1. 我才没厉害,是这么多师傅级的无私分享,我看了好久才看懂。。。

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  3. Very patient for you to bake so many in 2 days! All look fluffy except undercooked abit for the first 2, otherwise the texture look fine. Next one would be very nice and perfect! I wonder how to get that smooth top skin? hmmm

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    Replies
    1. yes, trick of the castella is most of us will be fool by it browned crusty top thinking the cake is done. Mine one is not the perfect smooth top skin either :(

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  4. 两天做了3个,好佩服你的毅力!
    我呀失败了一次就不敢尝试。。。。咔咔!!
    要多多向你们学习哦~~

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    Replies
    1. 让自己多一次几会,再试吧!你可以的!

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  5. You did a great job! Wow! 3 attempts. Wonder how is the taste of this cake since everyone love it. Still thinking want to bake mine or not. 高难度的蛋糕,怕怕!

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    Replies
    1. The cake is very delicious! My hubby gave me thumbs up for it :)

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  6. Your photos are so beautiful! What sort of camera and lighting do you use?

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    1. my photos beautiful?! first time using Nikon D80 with natural lighting, not the auto function, need to adjust a bit, still learning :)

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  7. Tze, I still immune to the bug...may get me next week..hehe...

    You finally got it right...good on you!!

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    Replies
    1. you no need to bake also can get to eat the cake, your sister is also the XiFu of castella :)

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  8. beautiful castella! lovely hue of green

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  9. Congrats! So now you are under CC team already, hehehe ..frankly the real Castella texture is not light but a bit dense and compact actually .

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    Replies
    1. There are lot of different recipes not sure which is the original one. but saw one on the fresh loaf, the texture is like Biren's recipe; smooth, and compact looking texture that bounce.

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  10. Wow...three cakes in two days! So glad you got to baking this cake. The color of your cake in your second attempt looks exactly like mine with a tablespoon of matcha. The third attempt looks perfect!

    Thanks for the link back. I have shared your post on my Facebook fan page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Roti-n-Rice/242815743598 :)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Biren! Greatly appreciate what you have done :)

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  11. Thank you so much for the mention ;-) That's really sweet. ;-)

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  12. bravo for making it the 3rd time! sounds so challenging making this cake..especially getting that flat nice top! now i really like last attempt one, simply beautiful!

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    Replies
    1. Try it out you can do it! btw, recently your comments all went into the spam box? i saw yr message thro' email then realized the message were in spam box.

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  13. I want to catch this bug too but am so busy right now that it is frustrating not to bake this.

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  14. eileen@hundred eighty degreesMon Apr 02, 11:35:00 AM 2012

    This is a contagious bug, I've seen a number of bloggers made this but it seems challenging to me...congrats!

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  15. 做这长崎蛋糕真的会让人上瘾,所以我快快把木模转手,哈哈哈哈!

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  16. very pretty castella with matcha marble effect, Tze...:)just love it...

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  17. Tze, love how the swirl works in your cake. Congrats that you finally got it right. Surely it's a great satisfaction. I love those kind of feelings! :o)
    Hope you're having a great week ahead.
    Kristy

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  18. 我也很喜欢这个长崎蛋糕。做了两次,还想再做呢!

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  19. I'm so glad you worked out the kinks and have given us the perfect recipe! I love the beautiful marbling...YUM!

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  20. 我的木模还没来,尝试过用普通烤盘做,但是失败了。。呜呜呜呜

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  21. Your castella cake looks great! I just did my first Matcha Kasutera Cake earlier today - tasted great (everybody loved it). the texture was really soft but it kind of shrank, so I failed in making good presentation of this cake! Cheers to Castella Cake!

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