This is basically the cake of my childhood!

Mama Tanuki used to bake me this cake whenever my school had bake sales or when our family craved some kind of Japanese style sweets. Back then there were not so many Asian grocery stores so any non-American thing we wanted to eat had to be made from scratch. When I asked her to teach me this recipe, it had been almost ten years since she last made it. I had forgotten the humble and comforting taste of this simple cake.

First a little bit of castella history…

Castella originates from the 16th century when Portuguese merchants brought the cake over to Japan to Nagasaki. It was popular among sailors because it would last a very long time on their voyages. Back then, this was an extremely expensive dessert because of the amount of sugar needed to make it.

Mama Tanuki grew up watching this commercial by the most prestigious Nagasaki castella brand, Bunmeido. I wonder what kind of animal those puppets are 🤔…

Recipe

Yields: One pound cake in a 23 cm by 32 cm by 5 cm pan

Ingredients:

☕8 eggs

☕300 g sugar

☕2 tablespoons mirin

☕2 tablespoons honey

☕150 g all-purpose flour

☕2 tablespoons rum or sherry

For syrup:

☕100 ml water

☕1 tablespoon sugar

☕1 tablespoon honey

☕1  tablespoon mirin

note: if unfamiliar with mirin scroll to bottom of the page for more info!

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 175 Celsius (350 F) Line a baking pan (about 23cm by 32cm by 5 cm)with wax paper

2. Add the eggs into a large bowl with the sugar, mirin, honey, and rum/sherry. Mix on high speed about 5 minutes or more until it is whitish colored and a bit thick.

3. Add the sifted flour and use a mixer again on high speed for about 5 minutes .

4. Put the mixture into the wax lined baking pan. Drop the pan onto the counter a couple of times to release the bubbles.

5. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 175 Celsius 

6. While the cake is in the oven make the syrup by putting the water, sugar, honey, and mirin into a small pot on low heat and wait until it is reduced about one half of the original liquid.

7. Check the cake after 30 mins by inserting a toothpick and seeing if any of the batter sticks to the toothpick. If it comes out clean take out the pan from the oven.

8. While it is still warm use a brush to put the sugar honey mixture all over the top of the cake. Take the cake out of the pan with the wax paper still on and set aside to cool.

9. Once it cools down it is ready to cut. Note: I think the most visually appealing way is to cut off all of the edges so that it is a clean rectangular shape. Then, cut it into 4 long blocks, and cut each blocks into about 3 cm thick slices!

Enjoy!

Curious about some of the unusual ingredients in this recipe? 

Note: Contains affiliate links

Mirin

Mirin is a sweet rice wine with a low alcohol content.  It is similar to sake but with much more sugar and is one of the key components to Japanese cooking. For example: a simple and delicious teriyaki marinade can be made using 1:1 ratio of mirin and soy sauce.