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Taiwanese Catella Cake

A step-by-step guide to the jiggly, fluffy, pillowy Taiwanese Castella Cake. Try this detailed recipe to enjoy the incredibly tender cake and the satisfaction of jiggling a hot smooth bouncy cake.
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Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 2 hours
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine asian, Taiwanese
Servings 8 people

Equipment

  • 1 electric hand mixer or stand mixer
  • 1 20cm x 20cm square baking pan 8 inch x 8 inch
  • 1 larger baking tray for the water bath
  • 1 thermometor

Ingredients
  

  • 6 Large Eggs approx. 300 - 320g without shell
  • 70 g Neutral Oil e.g. canola or sunflower seed oil
  • 100 g Milk
  • 40 g Honey
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Paste or vanilla extract
  • 100 g Cake Flour
  • 70 g Sugar
  • 1 tsp Lemon Juice

Instructions
 

Line the smaller pan & prep the ingredients

  • Use the backside of the pan as a guide to fold the baking paper into a square, then unfold it. Make sure each side is wide enough to cover the edges of the pan.
    parchment paper folded to line the square baking pan.
  • Snip along either of the folded lines at each corner. Cut only up to the corner point to create flaps.
  • Place the paper inside the pan with the corner flaps overlapping at the back of the adjacent side.
    parchemnt paper with overlapping sides as tray-lining demonstration
  • Optional: use some butter or margarine to stick the flaps with the sides and the pan to hold them together.
    square baking pan lined neatly with parchment paper
  • Separate the egg whites and egg yolks. (6 Large Eggs) Set the yolks aside and put the whites to the fridge.
  • Measure out everything in separate bowls. (I usually do everything except for the ones in squeeze bottle or ingredients measured in spoons because I just measure the whole bottle as I squeeze, so no extra dirty dishes.)
    All the ingredients for castella cake prepared in separate bowls, including sugar, egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, oil, milk, flour,lemon juice, honey, and vanilla paste

Scalding and Batter Base

  • Heat 70 g Neutral Oil to 70°C (158°F), then take it off heat and sift in 100 g Cake Flour. Whisk until combine.
  • Add 100 g Milk to the flour mixture. It is normal if if looks blotchy.
    scalded batter with hot oil, flour, and milk
  • Add the egg yolks, 40 g Honey, and 1 tsp Vanilla Paste. Mix well to combine.
    smooth yellow yolk batter with egg yolks, honey, and vanilla extract added to scalded milk, oil, and four mixture
  • Preheat the oven at 150°C (158°F).

Whip up the egg whites

  • In a separate big clean bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer on low - medium low speed until big bubbles starts to form. Add 1 tsp Lemon Juice and increase to medium-high speed.
    slightly whipped egg whites with big bubbles, a stage to speed up whipping
  • Gradually add the sugar and continue whisking until firm peaks form. It can take quite some time if you are using hand mixer( > 15 mins). Around 5 mins in a stand mixer.
  • Optional: If you see large bubbles, turn the speed down to low and mix for 1 minute. It helps breaking them up.

Combine the whites and batter and start baking

  • Boil some water in a kettle (enough to cover the bottom of the larger pan with about 1 cm depth).
  • Scoop out 1/4 of the meringue (whites) into the yolk mixture and mix until smooth, so that it has a more similar consistency to the meringue before completely combine the two.
    a quarter of the meringue in yolk mixture
  • Pour the yolk mixture back to the whites and gently mix with a spetula until just combined.
    c
  • Pour the batter to the square pan, then tap it against the countertop a few times to get rid of big air bubbles. Smooth the surface with a spetula or bench scraper.
  • Place the square pan inside the larger pan and send the whole set to the middle of oven. Then, carefully pour the hot water inside the outer pan, so the inner one is surrounded by a approx. 1cm water bath.
    If it's easier for you, you can pour the water first then send it to the oven as well. Use lower-middle rack if your oven temp is uneven.
  • Bake for 1 hour. Check the surface color at 30-40 mins mark. If it is already quite brown, loosely cover it with aluminum foil to prevent further darkening.
  • Once baked, carefully take the cake out of the oven. Then, hold the baking paper on the sides to pull the cake out of the pan and place it on a cooling rack. Peel off the baking paper on the sides right away.
    taiwanese castella cake fresh out of the oven, with jiggly, fluffy, bouncy texture
  • Once the cake has cooled down, you can cut into it and enjoy! Or move it to the fridge, it tastes even better cold.

Notes

FYI, the cake doesn't really stay pretty. It will get crinkly and collapse a bit in the middle after 10 mins or so. But it's ok! If you look up taiwanese castella cake recipe. You will find that most people only have pictures when the cake is just out of the oven, so don't feel bad if it's not pretty after it cools down.
However, if it collapses right away, then it's probably because the bake time is not long enough or the oven temp is too high on the top so the skin forms too early and the steam cannot escape. It wouldn't look as tall, but still teaste amazing anyways.
Keyword taiwanese, vegetarian