Matcha Cake with Mochi

Have any of you ever had some snacks and then left them aside and ended up forgetting about them? That's unfortunately what happened to most of a pack of small filled mochi. These were red bean, taro, and black sesame mochi. By the time we remembered them, they were dried out and pretty unpleasant to eat.

In an attempt to save them, I tried lightly microwaving one to see what would happen. The result was edible, and had somewhat caramelized and become crunchy at the edges. Not exactly what I preferred as a mochi. The next solution I could think of was to bake them into a cake.

In order to find a flavor that would match all of the filling flavors, I opted for a matcha cake. Unfortunately, for me, the matcha flavor was not nearly as strong as I had hoped. The good side, however, was that the mochi were revived, which made it really pleasant.

Out of the mochis that remained, there were 5 taro ones, 4 black sesame ones, and one red bean mochi. Therefore, I put all five taro mochis on one side of the cake, and the rest of them on the other side, with the red bean mochi in the middle. In order to differentiate, I sprinkled the top of the black sesame/red bean side with black sesame seeds.

The recipe was adapted from Guai Shu Shu. If you want to add mochi, pour about 1/3 of the batter into the pan, then put the mochi in, before pouring the rest of the batter.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 200 g self-rising flour
• 90 g sugar
• 75 g cooking oil
• 175 g water
• 2 tbs matcha
• 2 tbs vinegar
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• Sesame seeds (optional)

  Procedure

1. Preheat oven 170˚C.
2. Grease and flour a loaf pan, or line it with baking paper. Alternatively, line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.
3. In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and matcha.
4. In another bowl, mix water, oil, and vinegar.
5. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.
6. Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Cool on a grill, then enjoy.