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(1,016)
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
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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.

Ratings

4 out of 5
1,016 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.

Greta

Love this recipe, made a milk tea variation today and it was a hit! I just used brown sugar milk tea from a can and changed the liquid proportions to 1/2 cup coconut 1/2 cup evaporated milk and 1/2 cup milk tea. The rest of the recipe stayed the same!

megan g

Used a cup and a half of sugar per many reviews, and subbed a few T of dairy milk when I ran out of coconut milk, and the texture and flavor was SO good. I also used crushed up freeze dried strawberries in the batter and on top, and it was delicious. I’m sure the raspberries would be great too but I’m partial to the matcha strawberry combo, and fresh berries aren’t in season here now. I’ll use this as a base recipe for any kind of butter mochi—you could go nuts with the possibilities! Great recipe, so good, crowd pleasing, and VERY easy!

Mags on the Beach

Very pretty cake, used bundt to bake. Because it's just baking powder, the rise is limited so it baked 2/3 up the pan. I used a little green tea in the icing because the bday girl wasn't keen on it and just using lemon was one dimensional. The exterior has this nice thin crunch and the interior is mochi chew. I think when people complain about sweetness they are eating a big wedge. Butter mochi is supposed to be a couple bites so cut it in small squares or thin slices not big like the photo.

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Credits

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

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