Polly's CASTELLA Cake - Finally

This was baked back in January 31.  It was the fourth recipe I tried and turned out pretty good. 

It's always fun to beat up a great meringue.

Add egg yolks one at a time and beat well into meringue.

Sprinkle flour in  a small portion at a time and mix well.

Repeat.

Pour into greased parchment paper.  Pour it in slowly to release large air pockets.

Tap the mold a couple of times to release trapped air bubbles on countertop lined with towel.  The desired result is a cake with fine crumb resembling pound cake.   Notice the ingredients (at the bottom) that there is no addition of "fat" in preparation.

Bake in two cake pans.  Outer cake pan is slightly bigger than the inner and holds the Aluminum walls.

Revert the slightly cooled cake onto a reversed baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Slice the sides off to expose the tender crumbs.  The cut offs are your reward before the crowd.

Slice and serve.  Looks like there were still some more trapped air bubbles.  Better job the next time.

Ingredients in my recipe are as follows:

85 g egg whites

60 g sugar

60 g egg yolks

Add 20 g honey

Then,

60 g Flour - I use Natural White Premium AP Flour, Unbleached, Unbromated by WheatMontana

                    Can be purchased at Walmart.

20 g Milk - Add milk last - perhaps better to use Whole Milk, slowly add milk by drizzling it in at the top and whisk the milk at the top layer of the batter.

Using spatula, scrape sides and fold gently. Tap the mixing bowl a few times on the countertop to release more air.  Allow to rest for few seconds and tap the bowl on the countertop again.

Panning Brownie Pan

Form walls with Aluminum foil around the cake mold.

    Aluminum cardboard cake mold - I never quite understood the function of the cardboard, other than that back in the old days when the Portuguese arrived in Japan, there are no baking molds and oven and that the solution was to improvise the cake mold out of cardboard? or it creates gentler heat to bake against the batter and creates tender crumbs?  If you want to make the aluminum wrapped cardboard walls, create 4 sides with cardboard measuring 23 x 15 cm and about 5 mm thick.

*6/10/2020 - I am not sure how reliable the information is, but I found out that cardboard molds pass the heat slowly and helps retain moisture during baking - definitely a good reason to try the method rather than adding vege oil, etc.

I need to do some more research or actually test it out (again - I did it once and the cake did not turn out).

    I did not use lined cardboard for this baking.  I lined my brownie pan with buttered unbleached organic parchment paper.  Wrapped the brownie pan with aluminum wall.

    Noticed the ingredients that there is no "fat", except for the maybe using Whole Milk or milk with higher fat content.   The recipe resembles basic sponge cake.  I wonder Heavy Cream would work?  or Low Fat Milk and add 60 g vege oil

Preheat Oven to 160'C.

Pour batter into lined brownie pan very slowly to allow air bubble to release before hitting the cake mold.  It is supposed to prevent large air holes to form during the baking to give a finer look like a pound cake. 

Tap pan down on the countertop a couple of times to release trapped air.

Bake 35 min. - Bake in bottom of oven till beautifully browned and make light crepe paper sound when slightly pressed at the top.

Remove from the oven.

Remove cardboard and outer pan.

Holding the cake mold, drop it on a double towel covered counter top or if you have a foam pad, from 30 cm high a couple of times.  This will cause the cake to sunk down slightly at the same time forming wrinkle. 

Invert the pan onto a lined sheet pan.

This will cause the cake to smoothen the top - 30 sec. 

Re-invert the cake back onto another lined sheet pan.

Let it cool completely.

Serve.

Store any left over in an air tight container.