Japanese Castella Cake

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and line an 8x4" metal loaf pan with parchment paper. Evenly sprinkle the 2 tbsp of coarse sugar into the bottom of the loaf pan and set aside while you make the cake batter.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, add eggs and 1/2 cup of sugar. Beat until the egg mixture becomes very light in color and fluffy in texture. When you lift the whisk out of the batter, it should trail off the whisk in "ribbons" that hold its shape slightly before melting back into the bowl.

Add honey, milk, and oil and beat again until well mixed.

Add in bread flour and gently whisk until just combined.

From slightly higher above the loaf pan than you might normally hold your bowl, pour the cake batter into the prepared pan. This is to get rid of any large bubbles in the batter.

Swirl a chopstick through the batter in the loaf tin to remove any remaining large bubbles.

Bake in your preheated oven for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top is browned. Check at around the 30 minute mark. If your cake is browning too quickly at the top you can cover it with aluminum foil and/or reduce the oven temperature to 300F. Every oven is slightly different so adjust accordingly.

Remove cake from oven and allow to cool to room temperature in the tin. As soon as the cake is cooled enough to touch, I recommend covering with plastic wrap so that it doesn't dry out. When cake is cooled, you can remove it from the tin. The typical presentation is to slice the brown edges off the side of the cake, leaving the brown crust on the top and the crunchy sugar crust on the bottom, but there's nothing wrong with eating the brown side edges. You can also slice the cake lengthwise in half and then crosswise into about half inch slices.

This cake can be served on its own as a snack with tea. If you find that it has dried out a little, I recommend making the honey syrup and brushing it onto the cake before serving. This cake also tastes great with whipped cream and fresh fruit or even a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Leftovers can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature.