Matcha Marble Castella Cake
By: Anncoo
Published: Thursday, March 29, 2012 - 12:58am

Ingredients




5 Eggs separated (total weight 270-280g), at room temperature
120g Sugar
100g Bread flour - sifted
2 tbsp Honey diluted with 2 tbsp hot water
1/2 tbsp Matcha powder diluted with 2 tbsp hot water

Preparation

1 To use the wooden mould, put it on a baking sheet lined with aluminium foil as the mould has no bottom, then line the inside with another baking sheet. You can refer to my previous post of Castella cake or use a loaf pan. 2 Place egg whites in mixing bowl and beat at high speed (I'm using Kenwood) until foamy. Add sugar in 2 to 3 increments until firm peaks form. 3 Add yolks one at a time at medium speed until well combined, about 1 minute. Add sifted bread flour and beat until just combined. 4 Pour in honey mixture and continue to beat for 1 minute. 5 Pour batter through a sieve into a large bowl and measure 120g plain batter into a smaller bowl and mix in the matcha mixture, blend well. 6 Spoon 4 heapful tablespoons of the plain batter into the middle of the mould then 1 tablespoon of the matcha batter on top. Continue alternately the batter until you finish them. 7 Slightly shake the mould together with the baking tray a little and use a skewer to drag into the batter from inside out to form the spider web pattern. 8 Bake at preheated at 160C for about 55 mins or skewer inserted comes out clean. 9 Drop the cake together with baking tray from a one foot height onto the counter top to prevent shrinkage. 10 When the cake is cool enough to handle, lift up the wooden mould from the cake. Peel off parchment paper and place onto a fresh piece of parchment paper. 11 Wrap the cake with plastic wrap while it is still warm and leave overnight in the refrigerator to preserve moisture in the cake and flavour to develop. 12 Trim the sides of the cake except the browned top before serve.

About

Ahhh choo!!  This 'kasutera bug' has been spreading all over the food blogosphere recently. I just saw Zoe had it yesterday and now the bug is attacking me again. I tried Biren's recipe this time as its has no cake stabiliser and butter in it. I've tweaked the recipe a little. I made it into marble effect with matcha powder and it really look pretty although you can still see  some pores in the cake. The top of the cake is very smooth, no shrinkage this time as I've dropped the cake real hard onto the counter top a few times. This cake is truly very soft and airy just melts in your mouth.