Recipe: Coconut Mochi Cake

So ever since I learned about Mochiko rice flour, I've been obsessed. Its a glutinous type of rice flour. It is also called sweet rice flour. I buy the Koda brand which is available in most Asian stores. This flour is used mostly to make mochi which is a chewy rice cake stuffed with sweetened red bean paste. I, however, don't make mochi with it. When I was in undergrad, a friend from Hawaii introduced me to Butter mochi which is basically like a pound cake made with mochiko rice flour. It tasted like a soft, chewy, buttery cake, something like I've never tasted before. As the name suggests, butter mochi is quite rich and dense in calories. So I came up with a slightly lighter version that tastes about the same with lesser calories.

2 cups mochiko rice flour
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1 and 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/4 cup dried coconut flakes

You just mix everything together until its a smooth paste and then grease a dish and pour the batter in. If your batter is too tight, add more water or milk to make it runnier. The runnier the batter, the moister the cake and lesser the chances your cake won't be dry. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes. You must remember that the chewiness and gooeyness is characteristic of this flour and hence it doesn't mean that is is undercooked. I don't know if it is an acquired taste thing but I just love this dessert. It tastes like nothing you've ever tasted before.