🍰 Castella

Name: Castella
Total time: 80 min
Yield: 10
Cuisine: Japan · Nagasaki
Ingredients: 6 eggs; 200 g sugar; 200 g bread or plain flour, sifted; 60 g honey; 2 tbsp mizuame (or extra honey); 2 tbsp warm water

Origin: Japan · Nagasaki

162kcal

per serving · 60 g

270kcal

per 100 g

4 gProtein7 g / 100 g

2 gFat4 g / 100 g

31 gCarbs52 g / 100 g

Castella is a Japanese sponge cake made from just flour, eggs, sugar, honey and mizuame, a clear starch syrup. Baked in a deep rectangular frame and cut into neat bars, it has a fine, moist, springy crumb, a honey-sweet flavour and a thin dark-brown top and bottom. It is usually served in slices with green tea.

Diets

✓

Vegetarianno meat or fish in a typical recipe

✓

No pork

✓

Dairy-freeno milk, cheese, butter or yogurt in a typical recipe

Not veganbecause of: egg, honey

Contains glutenbecause of: flour

Not keto52 g carbs per 100 g

Allergens

Contains (in a typical recipe):

⚠ Gluten ⚠ Eggs

What it is made of

floureggsugarhoneymizuame (japanese starch syrup)

Recipe

10 servings80 min

Ingredients

6 eggs
200 g sugar
200 g bread or plain flour, sifted
60 g honey
2 tbsp mizuame (or extra honey)
2 tbsp warm water

Method

Line a deep 18 × 18 cm frame or tin with baking paper. Heat the oven to 170 °C.
Whisk the eggs and sugar over warm water until pale and thick enough to leave a ribbon, about 10 minutes.
Mix the honey, mizuame and warm water, beat into the eggs, then fold in the flour in three additions.
Pour into the tin, pop large bubbles with a skewer and bake for about 50 minutes until golden and springy.
Wrap the hot cake in cling film upside down and rest overnight before slicing.

How to make it lighter

One standard slice of about 50 g is plenty with tea — it is dense with sugar.
Pair a slice with fruit instead of a second slice.
Thinner slices suit a calorie budget well because the cake has no rich topping.

History

Castella is usually traced to Portuguese merchants and missionaries who reached Nagasaki in the 16th century and brought sponge-type cakes with them; the name is often linked to Castile, though the exact route is debated. Nagasaki bakeries adapted the recipe over the following centuries, and it is still the city's best-known souvenir sweet.

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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →