This is the story of two cakes that have long been beloved in East Asian baking traditions—and how I merged those traditions into an airy, downy-soft, cream- and fruit-festooned marvel that’s perfect for any celebration.
The first is one many will immediately recognize: the Asian bakery–style layer cake made up of lightly sweetened chiffon blanketed in whipped cream and crowned with an intricate rainbow of seasonal fruit, from berries to kiwis to durian. Within East Asian (and Filipino and Vietnamese) communities, these fruit and cream cakes are a staple at birthday parties and other gatherings, a lofty, less-sweet alternative to the buttercream-slathered sheet cake. “It’s the cake my family has gotten for everyone’s birthday every year since I can remember,” my colleague Faye Yang told me when I asked others around the test kitchen to share their memories of the dessert. “The chiffon was soft, pillowy and moist, and the whipped cream was fresh and just a tad bit sweet.”
The second is the castella, a sublimely plush, velvety cake from Taiwan. This cake (and others similar to it, such as Malaysia’s ogura cake) is more of an everyday delight, served in unadorned slices with hot tea or coffee or as a simple dessert. It’s distinctly moist and springy, with a fine, tender crumb—a texture owed to a couple of key steps in
