Japanese Castella Cake (Pack of 1, Matcha)

If you’ve never had castella before, it’s vaguely like a pound cake, but a bit sweeter and a bit drier. These Imuraya ones are about on par with other packaged ones I’ve had from Japan (but not exactly close to ones fresh from a bakery). They’re quite sweet (note that two slices are 60% your daily value of added sugars), juuuust on the borderline of being overly so. Considering there’s no added fat (i.e. no oil nor butter), it’s still relatively moist. Ingredients: Original - egg, sugar, wheat flour, corn starch syrup, water (pic) Matcha - egg, sugar, wheat flour, corn starch syrup, water, powdered green tea Cheese - egg, sugar, wheat flour, corn starch syrup, water, cheese powder (cheese solids <pasteurized milk, salt, culture, enzymes>, milk solids, salt, lactic acid), natural flavor Expiration date of the ones I received 4/2023 range from 7/24/23 - 8/3/23, but the package says “The printed expiration date only applies when the product is kept frozen. Please consume within 90 days after defrosting.” (pic), and these aren’t frozen, so…? Package says “Product of China”, but the current listing info here says “Country of origin: Japan”.

Did me dirty....

I can't believe how delicious those Japanese style sponge cakes are. I am not exactly a lover of sponge cake but this doesn't taste anything like the standard sponge cake I know, it's 10 times better, and then some. This product has everything we shouldn't he eating too much of, haha. High sodium, high cholesterol, high carbs but to have it as a treat without worrying about the nutrition fact is not something to feel guilty about. The sponge cakes come in 3 fairly big packs. Inside each pack is a plastic tray. The pieces of cake are pre cut and nicely put in the tray. The only problem I see is that the pack cannot be resealed after it's been opened. I put the pack inside a bag with a zipper after opening it. I have a habit of freezing my desserts since I don't like to overeat on sweets. After having 2 pieces of this cake yesterday, I put it in the freezer. Since the pack cannot be resealed, I also figure it will keep much better in the freezer. After freezing the cakes, they came back absolutely beautifully and they were not hard. So if you purchase this product, I would very strongly suggest to freeze it. I feel that these cakes taste even better when they come right out of the freezer. No need to thaw them. Shelf life is 3 months from the day I received this, but this can be stretched quite a bit by freezing them. After reading this review you probably guessed that I'm a huge fan of these Japanese style sponge cakes. What a treat.

I had high hopes for this sponge cake but it really wasn't appetizing at all. I tried the cheese flavor and it was extremely dry to the point that I couldn't take another bite. It also didn't have much of a cheese taste that I ever tried before. I could not bring myself to try the other flavors. Overall I was very disappointed and would not recommend it.

Beautiful packaging. Well packaged/sealed. The smell is light and really nice as soon as you open the packaging. I love light, airy, lightly flavored sponge cakes and am always looking for new ones to try. We have a few asian/international markets but I don't always like the ones I've found so far - the texture and really like lightness (airy, soft). This brand is really good and love that it's pre-sliced. Great for sharing and for small gatherings. The matcha was light enough for me (I usually don't like matcha), but the cheese is always my favorite. The texture is perfect-right between a cake and bread. The cheese is light and sweet like a cream cheese flavor (just adding a touch of sweetness). I could eat the whole bag (but I won't) - would be great with coffee or tea - or just well anything.

When I ordered these I did not know what to expect. You get a package of three flavors -- original, matcha, and cheese. While my husband did not like the cheese, I found it tasty myself. He did like the original, though. Each package comes with seven generous slices of cake, and you can eat them one by one, or, in my case, I used some of them as a base for fruit and whipped cream, which tasted very good. Since these are imported, the price is fair for the product. I enjoyed them all and would have no hesitation in purchasing these again.

I wasn't totally sure what to expect when getting these as Castella Cake is something new for me. I particularly was a little unsure of the "cheese" flavor, so that was what we decided to open up first and I was pretty impressed! The cheese taste was very subtle, but made for a really nice intriguing flavor that I thought added to the sweetness of the cake nicely. Currently eating the original flavor, and while I think it is the most similar to what I would expect, I kind of miss the extra nuance the cheese flavor had. For something that comes pre-packaged from Amazon, we were really impressed at how fresh these tasted and how soft and moist the cakes were. We took our time eating them and in the couple days between opening the package and finishing the cake it was noticeably drier, but still very good.

As of the time of this review (4/19/23) the product description indicates these to be a product of Japan while each package clearly indicates them to be "Product of China"/"Imuraya (DALIAN) FOODS CO., LTD" (these are "Japanese Style" but not a product of Japan.) The products are wrapped in an aluminum packaging bag to preserve freshness. You remove a lining from on top as well as an oxygen absorption pack to expose the 7 slices. Be cautious that each slice has a plastic strip on the bottom of them that needs to be removed. I didn't notice this at first and bit into it the first time. My packages arrived 4/16/23 fresh and undamaged with expiration date "07/31/23", though this expiration date can be partially misleading. The package indicates "The printed expiration date(MM/DD/YY) only applies when the product is kept frozen. Please consume within 90 days after defrosting." The product doesn't come frozen, and I opened the matcha first to try. I had 3 slices and put the rest in the refrigerator along with the other 2 unopened flavor packages. The product was very tasty, but if don't consume it in its entirety it quickly starts to dry out even in the refrigerator. The other two varieties I thought were decent but not as flavorful or enjoyable as the Matcha flavor.