Raspberry-Mochi Butter Cake With Matcha Glaze

Recipe from Margarita Manzke and Betty Hallock

Adapted by Alexa Weibel

Raspberry-Mochi Butter Cake With Matcha Glaze
Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Total Time
1¼ hours, plus cooling
Rating
4(1,024)
Comments
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This cake elicits awe on sight, and it’s a delightfully easy stir-and-bake dessert created by Margarita Manzke, the pastry chef and an owner at République, a restaurant and bakery in Los Angeles. Dense and chewy, mochi is a popular Japanese confection made from glutinous, sticky rice. It’s typically formed into pocket-size balls or squares but can also be made into cakes. As the rice flour batter comes together, it may seem gritty, but it will soak up the coconut milk and evaporated milk and soften as it bakes. Unlike many cakes baked with traditional flour, this gluten-free cake is so rich and moist that it’s hard to overbake. For the glaze, matcha powder is combined with confectioners’ sugar and coconut milk, which gives the cake an earthy tone, but you could easily swap in freeze-dried raspberry or strawberry powder. —Alexa Weibel

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Ingredients

Yield:One 9-inch cake

    For the Cake

    • ¼cup/55 grams unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the pan
    • 2¼cups/315 grams glutinous rice flour, like Mochiko brand (see Tip)
    • 1¾cups/365 grams granulated sugar
    • 2teaspoons baking powder
    • ¾cup/180 milliliters full-fat coconut milk
    • ¾cup/180 milliliters evaporated milk
    • 2large eggs
    • 1tablespoon vanilla extract
    • 12ounces/340 grams fresh raspberries

    For the Matcha Glaze

    • 2cups/280 grams confectioners’ sugar, plus more for dusting
    • ¼cup plus 2 tablespoons/80 milliliters full-fat coconut milk
    • 2teaspoons matcha powder
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides and bottom of the pan with butter.

  2. Step 2

    Prepare the cake: In a large bowl, whisk together the rice flour, granulated sugar and baking powder. In a medium bowl, whisk together ¾ cup coconut milk with the evaporated milk, eggs, vanilla and the ¼ cup melted butter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk thoroughly until combined.

  3. Step 3

    Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Add half the raspberries to the cake batter one raspberry at a time, 1 inch apart, pushing each berry into the batter to fully submerge.

  4. Step 4

    Bake the cake until it’s fully golden brown on top, the center is firm and no longer jiggly, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack. After the cake has cooled slightly, about 10 minutes, run a knife around the inside edge of the pan. Continue to let cool in the pan.

  5. Step 5

    Prepare the matcha glaze: Add the confectioners’ sugar, coconut milk and matcha powder to a medium bowl. Whisk until smooth; set aside.

  6. Step 6

    Once the cake has fully cooled, carefully invert it onto a cake platter or serving plate. Spoon the matcha glaze on top just until the top of the cake is coated. (You’ll have some glaze leftover.) Using the back of the spoon and working in 1-inch increments, swipe the matcha glaze from the top of the cake gradually over the edge of the cake, so it drips decoratively down the sides. (You can add more glaze as needed, or serve any additional glaze with the cake.)

  7. Step 7

    Carefully place the remaining raspberries in a decorative pile in the center of the cake. Lightly dust raspberries with confectioners’ sugar and serve immediately. Store the cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Tip
  • Be sure to use a rice flour made with glutinous rice to achieve the proper chewy texture.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
1,024 user ratings
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Comments

V

Version 2.0 for this weekend's experiment: 1) used bundt pan. Just butter thoroughly and dust well with Mochiko 2) added 30g freeze dried raspberry powder to dry ingredients (WOW) & kept sugar to 215g (combo of xylitol & regular) 3) completely abandoned glaze as it was SO sweet. Made a new glaze with white chocolate, coconut milk, matcha & vanilla. Holy doodle, it was really good & wasn't tooth-achingly sweet. Note: I needed more matcha than original glaze & the vanilla is key to the flavour

Lucien

I made this vegan by substituting the evaporated milk for evaporated soymilk (simmered about 1.5 cup until it was reduced to 0.75 cup), and using vegan butter and two flax eggs in place of butter/eggs. Also used blended fresh raspberries instead of whole (what I had available at the time), which I put on top after the cake was cooled, under the matcha glaze, with a bit drizzled over the glaze. Being from Hawaii, I make non-vegan butter mochi regularly, but this version turned out just as tasty!

Deborah

Really easy. Texture may be unusual for those not familiar with mochi. We like the chewiness. Also found it a tad too sweet - will reduce to 1-1/2 cups sugar for the cake, and perhaps the same amount of powdered sugar for the glacé. Coconut milk lent a wonderful caramel undertone to the glace.

Sam R

I have made this cake 4 times (as is), and it is a crowd pleaser. It is delicious!

sd

Used bob’s red mill sweet rice flour (the one with the mochi recipe on it). That was all I could find in town on short notice. Guessing a little coarser grain than koda farms mochiko. Made in a 8x8x2 square Pyrex for a potluck. Arranged raspberries in rows inside and on the top so it was easy to cut into small squares and didn’t dust with powdered sugar at the end. Otherwise made exactly as written. Matcha glaze was thick and crusted quickly and was delicious. Whisked together powdered sugar and matcha powder before adding liquid, no clumps. Impressive looking, delicious, inadvertently gluten free and extremely easy to make. Next time I might try making a double batch and baking in 9x13 dish. The way the recipe is written you end up with half a can each of evaporated milk and coconut milk left over. Payoff : effort ratio is extremely high. Loved it.

sd

Really liked this. Had wanted to make since I saw it and finally had the occasion. Made it for a potluck in an 8x8x2 square Pyrex and arranged the raspberries in rows inside and on top so it could be cut into squares. Cooked 60 minutes in my slightly cool running oven. Used bob’s red mill sweet white rice flour (the one with the mochi recipe on the bag) and it seemed to work fine- it was all I could find where I am. Guessing the koda farms might be slightly finer grain? Glaze was very thick and crusted quickly all in a good way. Could probably make a double batch and use exactly 1 can each of coconut and evaporated milk. Glaze would probably stretch to 2, but was delicious and I wouldn’t have have have it

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Credits

Adapted from “Baking at République” by Margarita Manzke With Betty Hallock (Lorena Jones Books, 2019)

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