Le Castella – We Waited 5 Hours for Taiwan’s Popular Sponge Cakes… Here’s How We Felt

Photos by Nathanael Chan

Videos of Castella, a Japanese sponge cake, has been going viral on Facebook and Instagram recently. Who knew that this particular brand from Taiwan (樂古早味蛋糕 – Le Castella) would set up a shop on our sunny island? We started queuing at 4.20pm on Thursday, a day after they opened officially on 10 May, and only received our cakes around 9pm.

Each huge, jiggly Castella cake is made of flour, eggs, sugar, and starch syrup. After baking in their enclosed kitchen, the employee brings the huge Castella cake out, tosses it high up, and flips it over to remove the baking paper before slicing it into 10 portions.

The Original Castella cake boasts a fluffy and moist texture, and has an eggy flavour to it. The top that’s baked to a nice brownish hue is enjoyable. The size of one Castella cake is about 23cm x 13cm; you’ll notice the employee using a long ruler for measuring while slicing the cakes. One Castella cake is good enough for sharing among 4-6 persons, that’s if you intend to finish it on the spot. We were advised to finish it within the day of baking, but you can also keep it refrigerated for 3 days.

The Cheese Castella cake, on the other hand, has a denser texture. We expected it to be more light and airy. It consists of two thin layers of cheese within, which gives the cake a well balanced sweet and savoury taste. More cheese, perhaps? 🙂

There are only 2 flavours available here at this moment, Original ($9.90) and Cheese ($11.90). They will be launching the Chocolate Castella cake soon.

Do note that each freshly prepared batch of Castella cake takes approximately 70-80 minutes to serve, and each batch is only sliced into 10 portions. So you got to be patient while queuing as some customers might purchase a crazy amount of Castella cakes. Perhaps, Le Castella should limit each customer’s purchase so as to manage the crowd better.

Well, if you’re bored queuing, just look out for the handsome Taiwanese employee in the shop. We’re pretty sure his smile will melt hearts.

So, are these Castella cakes worth the queue? Well, we recommend you to try only when the hype dies down. Perhaps then, we would also return for the Original Castella cake.

MissTamChiak.com made anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.

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