Honey I Messed the Castella …but it was still so good!!
Deeba @ PAB
“When you hear buzz around the beehive, you know they’re making honey in there.”
Terrence Howard
This week’s been bookmarked to post recipes I’ve bookmarked & gotten down to attempting. Strange how the best of plans fall flat on their face & all prior preparation flies out of the window. Had a free kind of free day…no hub, no kids, no laundry & no grocery…decided to bake a cake, The Honey Castella. I’ve been fascinated with it with ever since the very talented doctor-blogger-foodie-friend @ No Special Effects posted it. It’s the first one of Manggy’sthat I’ve had the courage to try. Most of his drool worthy creations are intimidating in the least, full of Special Effects (don’t get misled by the ‘No‘), & I’m very hesitant to try climbing to his ‘Everest‘ heights. About the cake in his words, “It’s already been specially engineered by skillful Nagasaki bakers (inspired by the Portuguese who introduced the PãodeCastela) to have a superior crust and lovely crumb. The crust is dark (actually supposed to me much darker than mine), sweet, smooth, and silky. The crumb is dense and moist. Just unmarred perfection.”
This seemed simple enough & I MESSED IT UP, I think!! It’s not really my fault…is it ever? See, I was all set up to make it with all the above ‘NO’ factors on my ever so free day. BUT, luck was tough & the morning went on to NO electricity. So I had this neat row of ingredients, lined baking tin, jar of honey, recipe notes neatly copied down…etc & *SULK*, only 3 eggs; making matters worse – no power to bake. I even had an impressed Manggy (or so I choose to believe) knowing that I had everything ready. Hit the kitchen counter early the next morning…easy, breezy, beautiful…until the recipe asked for the oil to be whipped into 1/2 a cup of batter, when a bolt of lightning struck the dolt in me!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh, had bunged the oil in the beginning with everything else in my stupid hurry. Not my fault…I could feel Manggy staring over my shoulder through-out & was already nervous that I had beaten the blessed batter 8 minutes, instead of 10 etc. I bravely carried on, hurriedly shoved it into the oven…got a beautiful cake but still rue what I might have missed. Mailed the good man @ No Special Effects & he immediately gave me an analysis based on my pictures. O boy… was the tin larger that 8 inches he queried? Shiver me timbers man, how did you guess? Crumb looks good, crust is fine…see, he’s just a Doc in disguise & there are plenty of Special Effects there. Despite my major blooper, the cake was fantastic, though suffered in proper aeration. It was everything he said it would be…superior crust, lovely crumb, dense & moist! Would have been lighter & spongier had I not been careless…next time!!
Our post baking conversation went something like this… Me:Hi there… Alright ‘fess time. I got the title ready…”Honey I Messed Up the Castella!!” You don’t want to know what I did after all my prep, but you’ll have to know. Had everything ready, but when old Mother Hubbard got to the cupboard, there were only 3 eggs. Plans were rapidly shelved for want of an egg-white!! This morning, everything was going along fine…till the time that the oil had to be whisked into 1/2 a cuppa batter. And that moment a blinding flash went through my silly brain…***********… I had happily tossed the oil in with the rest of the merry stuff. I’ve got the post ready in my head & a list of who’s who to blame…so worry not, it’ll be posted soon. Otherwise it came out fine ( think a bit underdone coz i thought it would get too dark & was done pretty much sooner than 25 minutes for the first bit. I’ve had a slice already & it’s really nice & light…but I rue what it might have been………..aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!
Manggy:Oh, Deeba… Well, I’m glad it tasted nice. Was the pan size 8 inches? It looks a little larger.You shouldn’t have minded the dark crust– it really is supposed to be that way– it’s MY Castella that had too pale a crust for reasons unknown.Definitely whipping the eggs with the oil already in it will hinder proper aeration. Oh well! Did it form the thick, slowly sinking ribbons?I’m glad I was able to make your morning a little more exciting, ha ha ha 🙂
Honey Castella adapted from The Sweet Spot As copied from Manggy’s @ No Special Effects(he did all the hard-work of recalculations etc.)
True Castella from Nagasaki does not contain any added oil, which makes Ong’s recipe unique. There are also several other techniques in traditional Castella that I don’t use here: sprinkling the batter with coarse sugar that settles at the bottom and makes a dark, sweet bottom crust, taking out the cake halfway through baking and disturbing it to destroy the air bubbles and make the cake dense, and baking in a covered container to steam the cake. You will also notice there is a slight fall in the cake, which creates a raised rim of crust. This didn’t bother me, but if you don’t like the effect, you can cool the cake upside-down: just be careful to do so on a greased surface so you won’t lose any of the precious crust. 88g (1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour 3 large eggs, at room temperature 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature pinch of salt 126g (1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons) granulated sugar 42g (1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons) honey 22g (1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons) canola or other neutral oil (you may also use the same weight, or 1-1/2 tablespoons of butter, melted)
Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Spray an 8-inch round pan with baking spray and line the bottom and sides with parchment. Don’t spray the parchment after lining. Sift the flour onto a sheet of wax paper or a bowl and set aside. In a heatproof (or mixer) bowl, add the eggs, egg yolk, salt, sugar, and honey. Place this over a saucepan of simmering water and beat on medium speed with a hand mixer (or use a whisk) for 10 minutes (the mixture will be at least 40°C, or 104°F). Take off the heat and beat on high speed for at least 6 more minutes using a hand mixer (or 10 minutes on a stand mixer if you started out with a whisk). The batter will be cool, pale and form very thick ribbons that take a very long time to sink completely into the surface of the batter.Gently fold in the flour into the batter in 3 additions. Take about 1/2 cup of the batter and whisk it into the oil until completely homogeneous, then drizzle it back into the batter, folding continuously as you add it.Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes, then turn the heat down to 150°C (300°F) and continue baking for 18-25 more minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few very fine crumbs. Cool the cake completely (cool inverted on a sheet of greased parchment if desired). Unmold to a serving platter.
And of course I did some more with the beautiful Castella sponge. Couldn’t resist it.
Made some light ‘Mango Mousse CheesecakeTrifle’ as I chose to call it.
Was delicious. Recipe shall follow in the next post!
Am sending this post off to a Group Writing Project, on a cool site I just discovered, Problogger. The call is to ‘Write a Post with a Killer Title. Be as creative as you like. Make the post relevant to your blog.’
