You will absolutely love this ultra-soft and fluffy Taiwanese cream cheese castella cake. This is one of the softest castella sponge cakes I have ever made. This is a Taiwanese castella cake with oil and no butter.
After baking my first Taiwanese pandan castella cake, I have then made a long list of different flavors of Taiwan castella cake I want to make. This cream cheese castella cake was one of them. This cake is insanely soft, fluffy, and jiggly. It is literally soft like cotton candy. It’s basically has a similar texture to Japanese souffle cheesecake
How to make Taiwanese cream cheese castella cake
1. We will bake the cake in a water bath. Get another larger pan and fill it up with water, about 1 inch full, and put it inside the oven, on the middle rack. So the water will heat up together with the oven
2. Line your cake pan with parchment paper on the bottom and the sides. I used two parchment paper overlapping. So I can lift the cake out from the pan for cooling down later. If you use a loose-bottom pan, put the pan inside another pan. I found that water still manages to sip in when I double wrap with aluminum foil
3. Add cream cheese, oil, and milk to the double boiler you set up and whisk until the cream cheese is melted. Remove from the heat and wipe the bottom of the bowl
4. Whisk the whole egg to loosen up. Add the yolks,whole eggs, and vanilla extract into the cheese mixture
5. Sift in the cake flour and salt and whisk again to combine. Set aside
6. Beat egg whites on low speed until foamy, then add vinegar and continue beating for another minute and then increase the speed to medium (speed 6 on KA) and add sugar in 3-4 batches and continue to beat until you get a medium-soft peak. When you lift the meringue up with a whisk, the tail will bent. Do not overwhip the meringue
7. Add 1/3 of the meringue into the cake batter. Use a whisk to fold over to combine
8. When you get to the last 1/3 of meringue, switch to a spatula and swipe down and fold over to combine to make sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure the batter is folded with the meringue evenly. Work gently but fast
9. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Use a skewer to draw a zig zag to pop any large bubbles inside the batter. Bang the cake pan on the countertop a few times to pop large air bubbles
10. Place the cake pan into a preheated oven, inside the pan with water that has been preheating with the oven earlier
11. Bake for the next 1 hour 50 minutes to 2 hours. Took me 2 hours with my oven. You can start checking on the cake at about 1 hour 30 minutes mark. The cake should bounce back when you gently touch it. It should be dry to touch. A cake tester should come out clean with maybe a few crumbs but it shouldn’t be wet
12. Remove from the oven and immediately and bang on the countertop a few times to minimize shrinkage. Then immediately lift the cake out from the cake pan very gently by grabbing on the parchment paper. Place on a cooling rack and gently peel off the parchment paper on the side of the cake and let it cools down completely this way before cutting. The cake will jiggle when you pat on it. It will stop jiggling once the cake has cooled down completely
13. Use a serrated knife to cut the cake so you won’t squish down the cotton soft cake. The castella cake can be kept at room temperature for 3 days in an air-tight container. If you are patient enough, serve it the next day and the flavor gets even better
You can see how soft, fluffy, and tight the crumbs of this cake are. They literally melt in your mouth. When you gently squeeze the cake, you can hear the squishy sound. Truly a sponge cake at its best! It takes a longer time to bake, but oh..it is so worth it!
Did you make this Taiwanese cream cheese castella cake recipe?
I love it when you guys snap a photo and tag to show me what you’ve made 🙂 Simply tag me @WhatToCookToday #WhatToCookToday on Instagram and I’ll be sure to stop by and take a peek for real!
Taiwanese Cream Cheese Castella Cake
Ingredients
Please measure ingredients by weight
Cake batter:
- 5 egg yolks about 18-20 gram each
- 1 large egg beaten, about 58-60 grams with the shell
- 100 gr cream cheese
- 60 gr cooking oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 60 gr whole milk
- 70 gr cake flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 5 egg whites
- 80 gr granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vinegar
Instructions
Things to prepare before you get started:
- Preheat oven to 300 F (150 C) for conventional oven. If you use convection oven, lower the temperature by 20 degrees. Get the eggs out from the fridge for about 15 minutes, to let them come to room temperature
- We will bake the cake in a water bath. Get another larger pan and fill it up with water, about 1 inch full and put inside the oven, on the middle rack. So the water will heat up together with the oven
- Line your cake pan with parchment paper on the bottom and the sides. I used two parchment paper overlapping. So I can lift the cake out from the pan for cooling down later. If you use a loose-bottom pan, put the pan inside another pan. I found that water still manages to sip in when I double wrapping with aluminum foil
Set up a double boiler (bain marie):
- Put some water in a saucepan and set a heat-proof bowl sitting on top of the saucepan. The water shouldn't be touching the bottom of the bowl
Prepare cake batter:
- Add cream cheese, oil, and milk to the double boiler you set up and whisk until the cream cheese is just melted. Do not overheat. Remove from the heat and wipe the bottom of the bowl
- Whisk the whole egg to loosen up. Add the yolks and whole eggs, and vanilla extract into the cheese mixture
- Sift in the cake flour and salt and whisk again to combine. Set aside
Prepare egg white meringue:
- Beat egg whites on low speed until foamy, then add vinegar and continue beating for another minute and then increase the speed to medium (speed 6 on KA) and add sugar in 3-4 batches and continue to beat until you get a medium-soft peak. When you lift the meringue up with a whisk, the tail will bent. Do not overwhip the meringue
Fold the meringue into the cake batter:
- Add 1/3 of the meringue into the cake batter. Use a whisk to fold over to combine and when you get to the last 1/3 of meringue, switch to a spatula and swipe down and fold over to combine to make sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure the batter is folded with the meringue evenly. Work gently but fast
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bang the cake pan on the countertop a few times to pop large air bubbles. Place the cake pan inside the larger pan
Bake the cake:
- Very carefully transfer the cake pan and put it inside the larger pan with water that you prepared earlier. Bake for the next 1 hour 50 minutes to 2 hours. Took me 2 hours with my oven. You can start checking on the cake at about 1 hour 30 minutes mark. The cake should bounce back when you gently touch it. It should be dry to touch. A cake tester should come out clean with maybe a few crumbs but it shouldn't be wet
Cooling down:
- Remove from the oven and immediately and bang on the countertop a few times to minimize shrinkage. Then immediately lift the cake out from the cake pan very gently by grabbing on the parchment paper. Place on a cooling rack and gently peel off the parchment paper on the side of the cake and let it cools down completely this way before cutting. The cake will jiggle when you pat on it. It will stop jiggling once the cake has cooled down completely
To serve:
- Use a serrated knife to cut the cake so you won't squish down the cotton soft cake. The castella cake can be kept at room temperature for 3 days in an air-tight container. If you are patient enough, serve it the next day and the flavor gets even better
4 comments
There are two things that I would like to point out regarding this recipe. First, 1/4 tsp salt appear twice as items 6 and 9. Not sure when to add item 9 in the preparation process. Second, the vinegar was not mentioned in the meringue preparation stage. I have made this cake for a friend. Haven’t tasted it yet.
It’s a typo error! I have edited the recipe. I hope the cake turned out well for you
Wonderful light texture and not too sweet. Just a bit too eggy in taste for my preference. Perhaps it’s because I felt like I didn’t need the vinegar to stabilize my meringue since I was able to whip it up to stiff peaks without. So note to self, increase cream cheese in the future. Also recommend checking in early on around the 20-30min mark to see if you have to cover the top of your cake to prevent it from being overcooked on the surface.
Hello, If you find it too eggy, adding 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract helps to ease that.