Oil Free Cocoa Castella with Raisins and Walnuts by Fukusaya in Japan

After the interesting experience with the Rice Flour Castella Cake by Fukusaya, I tried their Cocoa Castella with Walnuts and Raisins. While I'd seen the Taiwanese versions of castella with raisins, I've not seen this raisin, walnut and cocoa combination in an oil-free traditional Japanese castella before. 

Unlike the other cube castella cakes by Fukusaya, this one came as one single large loaf. As you can see, the raisins and walnuts are only on top, and not in the middle. Furthermore, they called this the "Hollander Cake", although I have no idea why. There doesn't seem to be such a cake in Holland.

The taste was particular noteworthy and interesting, because of the cocoa and mizuame combination.

Mizuame (the Japanese sweetener made from starch) tends to take on a rather maltose-like taste when baked with flour, and that caramel-like maltose notes of the browned mizuame blended very well with the caramel-earthy notes of the cocoa powder. The fragrance was very rich as well.

Interestingly, this combination gave rise to a taste that was very similar to chocolate malt as a result. If you have tried chocolate malt drinks such as Milo or Ovaltine, this cake has a very similar taste! It tastes closer to Ovaltine in my opinion, since Ovaltine seems to have less milk content than Milo, and this castella doesn't have any dairy such as cream or milk. So think of it as a fragrant, oil-free and fluffy Ovaltine sponge cake.

The raisins and walnuts did not contribute as much to the experience, but did provide an occasional pop of sweetness and moisture, or else slight bite. The walnuts were not soggy but did not come across as particularly crunchy. These little morsels were also a bit too sparse to have a real effect. I think I would have preferred the cake pure and smooth with the rich cocoa-malt fragrance.

Overall, I would highly recommend this interesting cake especially as a gift to people with dairy-free requirements.

For reference, this is the ingredients list. (Click the image to enlarge.) It says egg (from Japan), sugar, wheat flour, mizuame, cocoa powder, raisin, walnut, flavouring.

And these are how the cake was packaged.

Discover other Castella snacks

• (mentioned) Japanese Komeko Rice Flour Castella Cake by Fukusaya, Tokyo, Japan - wheat-free alternative to castella
• Matcha, Original and Brown Sugar Castella Rusks by Quolofune
• Ruskology 102 - Butter and Matcha Castella Rusks by Minamoto Kitchoan
• Hojicha Biscoff Castella by Muji Cafe