In the world of food fads, it’s high time we get jiggly with this latest one — especially when we’re talking about these particularly fluffy sponge cakes. Yeah, you’d think sponge cakes aren’t the most exciting things to talk about right, but you’ll be surprised; after all, it’s the castella here, the ones that look like this:
Oh!! Uh huh. Skip to 0:26 if you just want to watch the wobbly motion. As for why they’re popular, there’s definitely that element of drama there. At most stores, the cake comes out from the oven freshly baked, and is then placed on the counter to be served — and admired. There’s the anticipation of removing the baking paper, then tossing the tray high up in order to flip the humungous block over. With a long ruler (yeah, drama), that’s then sliced open to reveal its soft centre, but not without a mesmerising wiggle or two.
These castella cakes are definitely the source of that snaking queue at your neighbourhood mall, or a nasty comment by an outraged customer on Facebook, either way, it’s obvious that actually getting your hands on this piece of sponge cake is no piece of cake, thanks to its popularity over the recent months.
While the original recipe was devised in Spain, it was the Japanese who made it all the rage, using just eggs, bread flour, sugar and honey for their far more bouncy renditions. As for the ones in Singapore now, it seems we’re being introduced to the Taiwanese versions of the castalla cakes, usually served hot, and with the addition of well-loved cheese. ’nuff said, we’ll cut to the fad.
Le Castella
Straight from Taiwan, they’re the ones credited for starting the craze in Singapore — we heard there was a 4 hour queue back in May! To be honest, we only discovered Le Castella one fine day while walking around the basement of Tampines 1, and wondering why people were huddling about the nondescript store front with just wooden panels at the back, a prominent Chinese character for a name, stacks of brown boxes and one black counter top. Strange huh, so we stuck around. And then we saw it, those wobbly cakes being carried out to the kitchen, awaiting to be sliced, making the whole “cutting ceremony” a sales pitch right there.
Each generous slab of the original cake ($9.90) is moist and light, kinda like the Steamed Egg Cake that we’re used to at dim sum restaurants. As for the Cheese Castella ($11.90) it contains two layers of oozy cheese within, which adds a nice savoury twist to the otherwise sweet eggy flavour of the cake. At the moment, you might have to wait two hours for your cake, though the store has since implemented time slots for you to pick up your item.
Location: Tampines 1, #B1-32
Opening Hours: 11am – 10pm
Ah Mah Homemade Cake
Originally from Malaysia, the brand quickly expanded across its home country due to the rising popularity of its castella cakes, which led to an explosion of 14 outlets across the country — of course, this just means that they need to come over to our shores too, so Singaporeans can get a taste of the cakes for ourselves. The cakes from Ah Mah Homemade Cake are freshly made daily and inspired by the popular egg sponge varieties from Taiwan, hence the baking time of 80 minutes and a recipe of purely milk, eggs and quality flour without added water, preservatives or colouring. That also means that they’re pretty healthy, so you won’t feel too sinful the next time you’re munching on this snack.
You can choose from the Original ($8) or Cheese ($11) flavours — to date, over 18,000 of the delicious moist cakes have been sold in Singapore alone. Since arriving here, they’ve had outlets at Bukit Panjang Plaza, VivoCity, and a recent third outlet at JCube, while they’re also looking to conquer the East with one at Paya Lebar Square (24 August), as well as Plaza Singapura and Bedok in September.
Location: Bukit Panjang Plaza, #01-08; VivoCity, #B2-K7; JCube, #B2-K12
Opening Hours: 10am – 10pm
Antoinette
Consider this the more elegant version of the castella cake — after all, they’re called The Queen’s Castella Cakes, conceived by Chef Pang Kok Keong of Antoinette, and come in six exquisite flavours. We have the now-classic Vanilla ($8) and Vanilla Cheese ($11, with a cheddar and parmesan cheese glaze), but also Earl Grey ($12), Earl Grey Cheese ($15), Nutella ($13) and the local twist of Ondeh Ondeh ($11), or pandan-infused cake studded with gula melaka bits and hints of coconut. We’re certainly glad to see some originality here.
While the Taiwanese-inspired versions of castella cakes tend to be more pillowy, those from Parisian-style bakery Antoinette are of a denser texture, though still as fluffy — this requires a method that does without baking powder, and instead having the cakes lift purely by meringue and a slow-bake method for that light, melt-in-your-mouth feel.
Location: 30 Penhas Road; Mandarin Gallery, #02-33/34
Opening Hours: 11am – 10pm
BreadTalk
You know something’s a trend when BreadTalk has their own version of it, but hey, it looks like they’re doing a good job of replicating the soft texture of the sponge cake, judging from their social media postings. Of course, they’ve changed up the name as well, to a cute-sounding Pong Pong Cake ($8.80), and mixed it up with another Singaporean food craze: salted egg yolk. Hence, yes, the queues. The salted egg yolk filling sits between the layers of sponge that’s touted to be like the old-school versions, and though we heard that sponge isn’t as airy as their competitors, but you know, who in their right minds can resist anything salted egg yolk?! Certainly not us.
Location: Selected BreadTalk outlets at Causeway Point, Chinatown Point, Novena Square, Paragon, Toa Payoh HDB Hub, Vivocity and Westgate
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