I found another unusual flavour of castella to try - White Peace Castella by Minamoto Kitchoan, a Japanese bakery based in the Singapore Takashimaya Department Store. They usually import their pastries from Japan, from what I understand. Although some of these flavoured pastries are supposed to be seasonal, I've sometimes seen them around for most months of the year. White peach is quite suited to the upcoming new year season, but it is actually a summer fruit.
It came in a lovely box, as usual for such Japanese department store brands.
This castella was interesting for 2 reasons. First, they had little bits of white peace in the cake, right at the bottom (where the red arrow is in the image below). This peach tasted like canned syrup peach and was also kind of moist and soft, not hard or candied, despite being embedded in the cake. This seems to be from the white peach puree in the ingredients list.
This was the part that I really liked. The entire cake was filled with the white peace fragrance, and it really made the cake stand out as a snack over the original flavour. I imagine it would go well with traditional ceremonial matcha due to this sweet fruity fragrance contrasting with the dark earthy matcha flavours, so it would be great for those traditional gourmet moments.
The other aspect that I didn't like as much, is that they had some coarse sugar scattered throughout the cake. I believe it is zarame, which is a coarse, crunchy crystals of sugar. It added an interesting crunch, but usually people enjoy the super soft and fluffy texture of castella, so while the sudden crunch added variety to the texture, it was too much of a contrast and was quite jarring. It wouldn't go well with a meditative matcha experience either, because you would keep getting shocked by these sudden hard crunchy bits.
Finally, here is the ingredients list. As you can see, it is a very pure and traditional Japanese castella which uses no oil. Just that it has the peach puree and the weird granulated sugar mentioned. (Click to enlarge the image if needed.)
Discover other interesting Japanese castellas and peach treats
- Japanese Komeko Rice Flour Castella Cake by Fukusaya, Tokyo, Japan - wheat-free alternative to castella
- Oil Free Cocoa Castella with Raisins and Walnuts by Fukusaya in Japan
- Butter and Matcha Castella Rusks by Minamoto Kitchoan
- Peach Parfait KitKat
- Matcha, Original and Brown Sugar Castella Rusks by Quolofune
- Hojicha Biscoff Castella by Muji Cafe from their Festive Menu
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