How to Make Mochi Cake, Any Way You Want It

I'm in it for the texture. Bouncy, chewy, gooey, dense, moist, and also crispy. How can one food be all of these delightful things? I don't ask questions. I just keep baking mochi cakes. And now, my friends, you should too.

I know it's been hard to get all-purpose flour in some areas recently, as so many of us bake our way through quarantine. But if you can find some sweet rice flour (also labeled "glutinous rice flour" or "sticky rice flour"), you'll be able to bake my current favorite easy treat: mochi cake. I always have at least one box of Koda Farms Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour in my pantry. Recently I've taken to ordering it in sets of three so I have backup. That flour, eggs, baking powder, and sugar are the only non-negotiable ingredients in my otherwise highly riffable mochi cake formula.

My formula for mochi cake is the result of much tinkering. Inspired by classic Hawaiian butter mochi, this cake is toned down in sweetness and formulated so that you only need to use one type of milk instead of the traditional mix of cans of coconut milk and evaporated milk. You can swap coconut oil for butter to make the whole thing dairy-free and/or more coconut-flavored. You boost the flavor with spice: I like cinnamon, cardamom, and turmeric. Or you can omit the spice entirely. And you can add even more flavor by replacing some of the rice flour with any kind of powder-like flavoring, such as cocoa powder, malted milk powder, bright green pandan powder, matcha, or whatever you've got.

The shape is also up for negotiation. Traditional butter mochi is cut into squares, and mine works that way, too, if a brownie pan is what you've got on hand. A round cake pan also works really well, and that shape makes the cake feel more elegant and occasion-worthy. Muffin tins give you more fun chewy-crunchy exterior, which is a very good thing. They also make your mochi cake more easily portable. I refuse to pick teams, though. I see the benefits in every baking vessel.

Do put something on top of your cake before you bake it—this way the cake doesn't need any decoration after the fact. Coconut flakes or sesame seeds (of any color!) are my favorite options, and both add a nice element of crunch to the crackly top.

Last week, before turning over the final recipe to my editors, I made more than six different versions of this cake, trying to see if I could break my formula. I paired butter with coconut milk and added cardamom and cocoa powder to the batter. I mixed coconut oil with half and half and added matcha. I went all in on the coconut with both coconut oil and coconut milk (plus coconut on top) and tinted it yellow with turmeric. I baked each batch in a different vessel. I even made blue cupcakes with blue butterfly pea powder (I am in love with Suncore Foods and their crazy powders). Every attempt at breaking my formula worked so well that I couldn't choose a favorite (and I had to deliver mochi cakes to all my neighbors.) I'm not saying you should try to break the recipe, though. Just assuring you that this crazy-riffable mochi cake recipe really will work, any way you want it.

Mochi Cake, Any Way You Want It

Originally Appeared on Epicurious