Hello Castella!

My husband and I went to New Malden last Saturday, to check out the little Korean town in London.  (which I will write a bit more later).  We went to a Korean supermarket (it was huge!) and saw some Castella cakes (蜂蜜蛋糕) by the till - it looks so fluffy and suddenly my inspiration came - that's what on the baking itinerary for the weekend!

After browsing a few recipes online, I decided to go after Just One Cook Book's recipe - very detailed explained and the reviews were great.

The first cake was a little too sweet, but is super moist and soft.

The first batch was done on Saturday night, in the 'original' honey flavour.  But after my husband and  I tasted it, we think we might need to cut a bit on the sugar level.  So the recipe below is the 'updated' version, for the one just came out the fridge Tuesday morning.  And that is a 'Pandan' version.

Pandan Castella Honey Cake (1 pound loaf)

Ingredients

3 large eggs (chilled in room temperature for 24 hours)

90g sugar

100g bread flour

1 tbsp honey (2 tbsp honey if making original flavour)

1 tbsp warm water

2 tbsp Pandan extract (omit it for original flavour)

1 1/2 tbsp coconut milk (omit it for original flavour)

extra honey for glazing:  1 tbsp honey + 1/2 tbsp warm water

First of all, line a 1 pound cake tin with baking paper.  Use melted butter to adhere the all sides.

Line the cake tin with parchment paper

Preheat oven at 160C

Sift the bread flour twice, so it is super smooth with no lumps.  In a small bowl, combine 2 tbsp of honey with 1 tbsp warm water.

In a large bowl, use an electric whisk in medium speed to whisk the eggs until frothy.  Slowly add in the sugar and increase speed to high, keep whisking for about 5 minutes - until the egg batter is thick in texture, pale yellow in colour.  It will be 4 times bigger before it was whisked and leave a ribbon trail when you lift up the whisk.

Egg batter is ready when it looks pale yellow and leaves a ribbon trail when the whisk is up

Add honey and whisk in low speed until just combined.  Then whisk in pandan extract and coconut milk also in low speed.  

Whisk in honey, pandan and coconut milk - just until combined

In 3 addition, add in the bread flour, each whisk for 15 seconds in low speed.

Now pour the batter into the lined tin, run a stick through the batter to lead out any large air bubbles.  After that, jingle the tin against the counter, this will bring out more air bubbles from the batter and leave a very smooth texture for the cake.

2 steps to bring out air bubbles - run a stick along, then jingle it against the counter

Bake for 40 mins until it is fully set, and it should have a bouncy, fluffy texture when you touch it.

Remove from the oven, and spread on top with the honey glazing.  Then place a large piece of cling film on the counter, remove the cake and turn it upside down onto the cling film.

Wrap it tightly and put it in the fridge immediately to retain the moisture inside the cake.   It is ready to be served after sitting in the fridge over night (upside down!).

Turn it upside down and wrap with cling film.  

I had it this morning for breakfast, is so good to pair with fresh coffee!

Pretty in pink!

Eating veggie and baking green tea cakes for the past couple of weeks seems a bit too 'green'..?  Let's indulge in a splash of pink!

Inspired by kitchen tigress blog, and Ispanan - I give a little twist on the matcha swiss roll by giving a hint of fresh raspberry and rose water.    You can never go wrong with raspberry and rose!

Here is the recipe, go pretty in PINK!

Raspberry and rose swiss roll  *for a 12cm x 16cm rectangular pan

Ingredients

60g egg yolk

30g caster sugar

40g vegetable oil

30g flour

a pinch of salt

140g egg white (aged 24 hours in room temperature)

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

1 tbsp raspberry jam

pink oil based food colouring

Filling

100g double cream

1 tbsp raspberry jam

1 tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp rose water

25g fresh raspberry

Preheat oven at 200*C

Line a rectangular pan with parchment paper, leaving two sides of the paper a bit longer that hang out from the pan, it will be easier to remove the cake later on.

In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolk with 10g sugar until thick and creamy.  Add oil and whisk until evenly mixed.  Add raspberry jam and mix well.  While whisking, slowly add in the sifted flour with a pinch of salt.

In a separate large bowl, whisk the egg white in medium speed until frothy.  Add cream of tartar and whisk until foamy.  Increase to medium high speed and add in 40g sugar, tbsp by tbsp.  Keep whisking until it reaches peak foam.

Add 1/3 of the egg white into the egg yolk mixture, fold in gently to lighten up a bit the volume of the egg yolk mixture.  After that, pour it in into the remaining egg white and fold in carefully.

Put the mixture into the lined pan, jingle it against the table to loosen the large air bubble from the batch.  Bake for 9 mins in the medium level.  Than add a pan to the bottom level and continue to bake for another 5 minutes - this will prevent burning the base of the cake.

Remove from the oven, immediately drop the pan from 1 feet high for a couple of times to release the moist within the cake.  Take the cake out to cool on a cooling rack.

While the cake is in the rest, we can prepare for the filling.

In a medium bowl, whisk the double cream in high speed until a little thickened, add the jam, rose water and whisk in icing sugar - adjust portion according to taste.  And also add in few drops food colouring according to your liking. The cream is ready when you whisk it until firm.

When it is completely cool, place a piece of parchment paper on the cake and flip the cake over.  Carefully peel off the original parchment paper - this side will be for spreading the filling on.

Generously spread the cream over the cake (the side you removed parchment paper from), lay the raspberries evenly over the cream. Then roll up the cake from the longer side (which means the cake should be placed 16cm side towards yourself and the 12cm side is on both sides).

Serve with a few raspberries and a cup of breakfast tea.