Kasutera (Japanese Honey Sponge Cake)

Although I'm not Japanese, I do enjoy baking many different international goodies. Sift though my blog and you'll get what I mean :P Today I decided to make the delicate Japanese Honey Cake, aka Castella, aka Kasutera... aka yummers in a pan ~ hehehe.

I've always been fascinated with the cake whenever I walk into T&T (still the world's best supermarket!) and my daddy has bought it to treat the family now-and-then. What intrigued me was the beautiful brown "crust" on the top of the cake. It seems as though the honey rises and becomes concentrated at the top of the cake. Oh! So good. If you have never tried this cake you don't know what your missing. It's light, sweet and oh so delicious. I searched the whole internet to find the recipe that suited me and I settled on Diana's. For my first time making this cake the recipe was really simple and the results were excellent. I contemplated whether to make my Kasutera flavoured, with matcha or cocoa, as I thought they might add a little umph to the cake. But I decided against it, as it would probably cover up the slight honey taste of the cake and I just could not have that!

P.S. I was super nervous when it came to slicing the cake. I usually make beautiful goodies only to ruin them by cutting them unevenly... I basically mutilate my cooking :( So for this cake, I took extra caution in slicing it. I used a super long serrated knife and spent at least 30 seconds (no joke) cutting each slice. I was extremely excited to have sliced the Kasutera like a pro. Maybe I should invest in a bread slicer... but knowing me, it would probably squish my masterpieces into unrecognizable, but tastey, blobs of mush.