Carrot Castella - 人参カステラ -

Carrots, carrots, carrots.... I had a lot of carrots in the fridge that needed to be dealt with, and you know what that meant... Carrot cake... ;)

This time I used the same method as the popular Japanese cake カステラ (Castella), but I replaced the strong white flour with wholemeal flour to make it feel more..."healthy", and added quite a bit of carrot.

This cake has two stages to enjoy. Day one, it's light and you might feel like you want to call it a 'loaf' rather than a 'cake'. Then, when you rest it for a day or two, it gets more moist and juicy, which makes the cake more 'cake'-like. Two in one, sounds good right? ;D

Ingredients:

Wholemeal flour 100g

Dark brown sugar 100g

Mixed spice 1-2 tsp

Egg 4

Honey 3tbsp

Shredded carrots 100g

Hot water 1 tbsp

More carrots cake?

Carrot cake with homemade carrot jam

Carrot brownie

カステラ - Castella

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted here! It's not I haven't been baking. In fact, I spend a lot of time in the kitchen... but I just don't get much chance to sit down and write nowadays... ;(

Anyway, this is one of my recent hit cakes called 'かすてら(Castella)'. It's a very simple Japanese cake which originally came to Japan from Portugal in 16th century. (History is not my strongest subject so don't ask me anymore please...)

It's a sort of very light sponge cake but I would say it's more like a cross between cake and loaf.

This time I used brown sugar instead of white, then added stem ginger and a bit of rum to give the popular Japanese cake a 'Yumi twist'. ;D

It worked... It was divine...
It filled my Japanese food craving hole in my stomach...

The method of making Castella is pretty similar to a classic sponge cake (cf. my Basic Swiss Roll). However, there are a few important things that make you bake an authentic tasting and looking Castella. For example, you need strong flour not plain, and you bake in a lower temperature for a longer time than a usual cake....
Anyway, all those tips are going to be illustrated on BON APPETIT soon, so just bare with me! ;D

For now, they are the ingredients:

Strong flour 100g

Dark brown sugar 100g

Egg 4

Honey 3tbsp

Stem ginger 30-50g

Rum or water 1 tbsp