You give me really awesome cupcake wrappers, I WILL make you cupcakes in said wrappers!

As it turns out, there’s actually a lot more to a real red velvet cake than the hint of cocoa and often garish color. For one, buttermilk. That was all well and good…if I didn’t have to make it dairy-free (so I could share with my best friend). I usually use either coconut milk or condensed soy milk (which I condense myself). Luckily, after a little searching I found out that soy milk could, in fact, be spoiled with a small amount of acid just like regular milk can when you need a buttermilk substitute. One hurdle down!

Another issue I ran into was the leavening – mochi cakes generally only call for baking powder for leavening (which falls into a dense, chewy awesomeness moments after coming out of the oven) while red velvet calls for baking soda and vinegar to be added, foaming, at the last second. I went with the red velvet method and it worked out great.

Lookit that frosting! So smooth!

In keeping with my dairy-free theme, I decided that fake cream cheese and margarine was too creepy a combination to use for a frosting (despite mochi cakes not really needing frosting in general, I don’t think you can have proper red velvet without some kind of white frosting), so I went with a white chocolate-coconut milk ganache. I know white chocolate isn’t dairy-free but a small amount is tolerable, and the ganache is so rich and luxurious that you don’t need a lot. Just one little creamy, slightly coconutty swirl is enough.

Not neon red, but a more pleasant, edible shade.

Another difference between red velvet cake and mochi cake is that the fat in red velvet is generally all vegetable oil, as opposed to the melted butter used in mochi cakes. I used all vegetable oil the first time I tried to make these (yes, it took me two tries) and they came out just fine. Except, being the first try, they weren’t quite right yet. A bit too much cocoa, not enough red.

Artsy shot!

Not unexpectedly, I had been posting to Twitter the whole time about my experiment, and got a fantastic suggestion from a like-minded Twitterer. Why not add red bean paste to the mix?

OF COURSE!

So, on my second try, I substituted red bean paste for half the oil, decreased the amount of cocoa powder and used only enough dye to turn the batter a pinkish-orange color. The cakes baked up wonderfully and taste not completely unlike red velvet, from the hint of cocoa and the tang of the acidic “buttermilk”, but also a little classically Japanese with the red bean and mochi flavors also popping up a bit. And, of course, there’s that frosting…

Parrots love cupcakes too.

Red Velvet Mochi Cupcakes

First, Make the Ganache (because it takes a while to set up):

1. 200g white chocolate, chopped
2. 100g coconut milk

Melt the white chocolate over a simmering double boiler. Set aside. Heat the coconut milk until steaming (you can do this in a small saucepan or just in the microwave) and pour it into the chocolate. Using a small spatula, stir gently from the middle of the bowl until the ganache is fully emulsified, scraping along the sides once in a while but not incorporating any extra air. Set aside to set up – you can chill it if you’d like but give it a stir once or twice to make sure it doesn’t set up too hard. It can be softened at room temperature if it does.

Then, Make the Cakes (red velvet recipe adapted from Pithy & Cleaver):

1. 12 oz. plain soy milk
2. 2 tsp white vinegar
3. 2 oz. vegetable oil
4. 2 oz. sweet red bean paste
5. 1 cup (200g) sugar
6. 2 eggs
7. 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
8. 5 1/3 oz. Mochiko
9. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
10. 1/8-1/4 tsp red gel food coloring
11. 1/2 tsp baking soda
12. 1/2 tsp white vinegar

Place the soy milk in a small saucepan and simmer until it reduces to 6 oz. Remove from saucepan and allow to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a muffin tin with paper liners (or prepare a cake pan if that’s how you roll).

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, red bean paste, sugar and eggs. Add the cocoa and Mochiko, mix thoroughly. Add the 2 tsp. vinegar to the condensed soy milk and pour it into the mixture, whisk to combine. Whisk in the color gradually until you get a reddish-orange color. Measure the baking soda into a small bowl, pour in the 1/2 tsp. of vinegar and allow to begin frothing, then dump into the batter and quickly mix. Pour immediately into prepared baking vessel. Bake 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into a cake comes out clean. Cool on a baking rack.

Once the cakes are fully cooled, fit a piping bag with a star tip and fill it with the ganache. Pipe a swirl onto each cupcake.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

I know there are a lot of weight measurements in this recipe, and frankly I’m not interested in converting every little thing I make. I wouldn’t make this without a scale personally. My advice to those who wish to convert the weights to volume? Don’t. Just buy a scale. They’re not expensive and after one or two recipes you’ll wonder how you ever baked without one.

Cinnamon hat!

I don’t remember how, exactly, I got this idea. I remember I was brushing my teeth. Boring idle tooth-brushing time apparently somehow made me think of mochi cake. Or maybe I thought of pumpkin. I’m not exactly sure which came first to be honest.

Hat fell down :(

I wasn’t really sure what the best way to incorporate pumpkin into the recipe would be, but I remembered I had made the apple mochi cakes by substituting applesauce for half of the melted butter so I decided to try the same with pumpkin puree.

Mmm, nibs.

I think it worked out quite nicely – the cakes came out with an orangey-yellow tinge and are yummy and chewy, just like a good mochi cake should be!

Oh my!

I used the traditional blend of every spice possible to compliment the sweet pumpkin flavor – cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, plus I threw some allspice berries in the milk before condensing it. Honestly you could probably skip the condensing step in a mochi cake recipe, I barely cooked this batch down. I don’t know why the original recipe called for evaporated milk.

Chewy, pumpkin-y, slightly spicy - what more could you want?

I also busted out the cacao nibs for a little chocolatey crunch on top. They really do provide such a nice textural contrast with the wonderfully chewy mochi and my love for pumpkin and chocolate together is well documented.

Still one of my favorite things to make.

Pumpkin Mochi Cakes

1. 7-8 oz. milk
2. 3-4 allspice berries
3. 2 oz. pureed pumpkin (canned is fine, just make sure it’s plain, none of that pie filling nonsense)
4. 2 oz. butter, melted & cooled
5. 1 cup sugar
6. 2 eggs
7. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
8. 1 tsp baking powder
9. Pinch each ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger & cloves
10. 8 oz. Mochiko
11. Ground cacao nibs, for sprinkling

Place the milk and allspice in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and bring just to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for a few minutes – you want to condense the milk slightly. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for at least 10 minutes to infuse the allspice flavor into the milk. Measure out 6 oz. of the milk, discarding any extra along with the allspice. Chill while you prepare the rest of the batter.

Preheat the oven to 350. In a med-large mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, butter and sugar until it’s of an even consistency with no lumps. Whisk in the milk, then the eggs and vanilla. Once they are fully incorporated, whisk in the baking powder and spices all at once, then gradually mix in the Mochiko. Continue whisking until the batter is completely smooth. Pour into lined muffin tins, sprinkle with cacao nibs and bake for 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick or skewer inserted in the middle of one of the cakes comes out clean. Allow to cool for a couple minutes in the tins, then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Serve at room temperature. Makes 12 regular-sized cupcakes.

I brought some of these in to class the same day I brought the madeleines. The response among my classmates seemed to be positive. Lots of mochi fans in my class I guess, and I do find that mochi cake “virgins” tend to be pleasantly surprised by the texture of these awesome baked goodies. I shared them with the chefs as well and chef told me he probably wouldn’t buy it in a bakery because it wasn’t something he was used to (exactly the opposite of my philosophy when it comes to buying foods but I digress). However, as he pointed out immediately after, he DID eat the whole thing. You can’t not love mochi cake I guess.

I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

They have FEETS!

This is like the fourth or fifth time I have attempted this particular flavor of macaron, which I haven’t seen anyone do before. Every batch I’ve made up until this one has suffered the same horrible affliction as my “chocolate chip cookies” – no feet.

There are actually more than three, but some got cracky and others got smeary.

Not that these didn’t have their own issues – I actually baked them at too high of a temperature and the ones around the edges of the baking sheet got a little cracked, but the ones in the middle turned out perfect! It took me quite a while to figure out what my problem was, though.

There's more flowery bit on top for maximum flower flavor!

At one point I was SURE that my almond meal was just too cold – I kept it in the freezer and I probably wasn’t bringing it up to room temperature before I mixed everything together. Right?

You can stack 'em up! Sort of!

Wrong. Howeeeever…I did realize that the problem was related to the freezing of the almond meal. Specifically, the freezing and the thawing and the CONDENSATION that resulted. Yup, my almond meal was wet.

What if they build the pyramids out of macarons?...Well, they wouldn't be here anymore, for one.

So I heated my oven just the slightest bit, then turned it off so it was still residually warm. I spread a bunch of the almond meal out on a baking sheet and let it sit in that nice warm oven for a little while, like ten minutes or so. It dried out quite nicely, and I was finally able to make the macarons I’d been trying to make for months.

In the spotlight! Which is actually Bowser's light! Sorry Bowser :(

Hibiscus Macarons with Chocolate Ganache Filling

For the Macarons:

1. 1/4 cup granulated sugar
2. Scant 1 Tbsp dried hibiscus flowers, plus a bit more for sprinkling
3. 1 cup almond flour
4. 1 cup powdered sugar
5. 3 egg whites, aged & room temperature
6. 3 drops red gel food coloring

In a food processor or heavy-duty blender (such as a Vitamix), pulse the granulated sugar and hibiscus until the sugar is a fine powder and the hibiscus is fairly finely ground. The sugar will be slightly magenta-colored. Let the ground sugar settle for a few minutes before attempting to remove the lid. Sift together the almond flour and powdered sugar, set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, whip the egg whites on medium-high until they turn to foam, then gradually add the ground hibiscus sugar. Whip on high to stiff, glossy peaks, then quickly beat in the food coloring. Fold into the almond flour mixture until completely incorporated and gooey like magma. Using a large round tip or a pastry bag with no tip, pipe the batter onto a parchment-lined baking sheet or two, with circles drawn on the underside of the parchment if you need a guide. Make sure to secure the parchment to the sheets with a dot of batter in each corner before piping the circles. The tops of the circles should flatten out on their own. In a mortar and pestle, roughly grind the remaining hibiscus and sprinkle a couple of tiny pieces on each of the piped circles. Allow to sit for an hour so that s kin can form on top of the macarons. Preheat the oven to 300, then bake for 10-12 minutes. Do not allow to get browned. Cool fully, then pop the macarons off the baking sheet and set aside.

For the Ganache:

1. 1/2 cup heavy cream (you could substitute milk or soy milk for health reasons if you’d like)
2. 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate (around 70% cacao), chopped roughly (I used baking chunks that were already the right size – you shouldn’t use chocolate chips though, they have a shiny coating that will mess with the ganache)

Place the cream in a small saucepan over high heat. Put the chocolate in a medium, heat-proof mixing bowl. When the cream just comes to a boil, remove from heat and immediately pour over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Let cool until thick and not runny. You can speed up the process in the refrigerator if you wish but keep the ganache safe from drips of condensation – they will cause the emulsion to break.

Once the ganache is thickened, pair the macaron shells up by size. Spread one of each pair with an even, not-too-thick coating of ganache (about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch thick) and gently press the matching shells into place. Let sit in a cool place for the ganache to set fully.

Hibiscus is such a wonderful, tangy, berry-like flavor, and goes well with the intense sweetness of macarons. If I had more time on my hands I would have liked to have filled these with a lemon curd or perhaps with a hibiscus jelly, but ganache is quick, easy and goes wonderfully with the tart little bits of chewy flower in the shells.

I’m also much better at piping now that I’ve had some formal practice and training in class, and it was no problem to get the batter piped correctly without any type of guide. The batter was also much thinner than when I’ve made it before, but I think this is the first time I’ve actually gotten it correct – the tops flattened right out and you can see that I got an even, shiny shell. I’m going to make another batch  – in a different flavor – very soon, so watch out for more macarons!

Of course, I HAD to provide something sweet.

Look familiar?

Actually, my first idea was a little (not actually little) something called a drunken watermelon, which, in theory, is a watermelon with a hold drilled in it and a fifth of alcohol (vodka is recommended but I went with tequila…TEQUILA!) drained into the fruit. It’s supposed to absorb into the fruit overnight and then you SHOULD be able to slice it up for a sweet, juicy, alcoholic picnic treat.

The usual sweet-spects.

I tried to boozify the watermelon. It so didn’t work. I ended up just hacking away at the giant thing for an hour with my biggest knife and dousing a huge bowl of bright pink chunks with the tequila (not all of it, maybe a little over a half of the bottle, the chunks would have been SWIMMING if I’d added more), then lugging the whole thing to Central Park. Where it was definitely appreciated!

There be berries in them cakelets!

As you can see, the pictures here are not of watermelon. Though I do recommend soaking watermelon in tequila (and then running it in the blender at the end of a hot and sweaty day…oh yeah). Nope, these are…wait for it…mochi cupcakes!

Yup, berries.

Made differently enough from my original chocolate batch to merit a separate post, I decided! Also I am bored and figured I’d better get back into the habit of posting. But also these were really good. And almost no one else thought to bring dessert. Plus everyone loves cupcakes! And chocolate! And mochi!

These guys are different in that I put a big fat blueberry in the center of each. I also didn’t use Dutch press cocoa powder because NO ONE HAD IT. At least not in the three or so grocery stores in Brooklyn that I checked. And I didn’t feel like going all the way to Manhattan and overpaying for some at Whole Foods or wherever. So I used plain old not-dark cocoa powder. I also infused the soy milk that I used in then with lavender buds. Which explains the lavender in the pictures. Chocolate, lavender and blueberry are one of my favorite combinations and everyone seemed to agree that it was a lovely trio indeed!

OH I also made these bite-sized so they’d go a little farther as far as sharing goes. And because I wanted the blueberry in the center of each to be tasted and not get lost.

Aw, so fancy!

Chocolate Mochi Cakelets with Lavender and Blueberries

1. 12 oz. soy milk (regular milk would work too)
2. 1 Tbsp dried lavender buds
3. 4 oz. butter, melted & cooled (you can use Earth Balance to make these dairy-free if need be)
4. 1 cup sugar
5. 2 eggs
6. 1/2 cup cocoa powder (dark/Dutch process if you can get it)
7. 5 1/3 oz. Mochiko (sweet rice flour)
8. 1 generous tsp baking powder
9. Several large blueberries (at least 36), washed and patted dry
10. Cacao nibs, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350. Place the milk and lavender in a small saucepan and simmer. Cook down and condense to about half the amount of milk. Remove from heat, cover and let the lavender steep while you prepare the other ingredients.

In a medium-large mixing bowl, whisk together the butter, sugar and eggs. Add the cocoa, Mochiko and baking powder, stirring just to incorporate. Strain the milk and add it, stirring until the lumps are almost all gone. Fill lined mini-muffin tins halfway with the batter, place a blueberry in the center of each and cover with another small spoonful of batter. Sprinkle with a few cacao nibs per cakelet and bake 15-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in one comes out clean (watch out for that blueberry!), cool in the pan for 5 minutes then remove to a rack to cool completely.

I’m pretty sure everyone totally loved these. Most people have yet to try or even hear about mochi cakes, which is a shame because they are totally awesome (though people hear chocolate, mochi and cupcakes and they definitely get excited!). And they are the perfect picnic dessert, considering their ability to travel so well.

Apologies for the harsh lighting.

The day before I arrived was my best friend’s birthday, so of course I brought cupcakes! Mochi cakes (again) to be precise.

The weather isn't exactly cooperating in Maine at the moment.

These are a little more special than the first batch of mochi cakes I made – as you can see, these are chocolatey. Very chocolatey. Three kinds of chocolatey, in fact: dark cocoa powder in the batter, chocolate chips inside and on top, and cacao nibs in place of sprinkles for an extra crunch of bitter chocolate goodness.

I hear these were good.

There’s a secret ingredient (coconut milk!) plus a little surprise in the middle. Unfortunately there’s no picture of the middle, since I didn’t eat any – the recipe makes twelve, I was able to fit ten into a container for transport and I gave the other two to Z. But I hear they were delicious.

The glare!

Triple Chocolate Mochi Cupcakes

1. 4 oz. butter (I used Earth Balance to make these dairy-free), melted & cooled
2. 1 cup sugar
3. 2 eggs
4. 1/2 cup dark or Dutch process cocoa powder
5. 5 1/3 oz. Mochiko (sweet rice flour)
6. 1 generous tsp baking powder
7. 6 oz. coconut milk (I was a little short and added an oz. or so of soymilk)
8. 1 tsp vanilla (may have skipped this…)
9. 12 large raspberries or blueberries, washed and gently dried, or 12 small-medium strawberries, washed, dried & hulled…or a random mixture so it’s a REAL berry surprise!
10. About 48 large bittersweet chocolate chips
11. 1-2 Tbsp cacao nibs

Preheat the oven to 350. In a medium-large mixing bowl, whisk together the butter, sugar and eggs. Add the cocoa powder, Mochiko and baking powder, stirring just to incorporate. Pour in the coconut milk and vanilla and stir until the lumps are pretty much all gone. Pour into a lined muffin tin, filling the liners halfway. Gently press a berry into the middle of each and then surround the berry with three chocolate chips, standing them up in the batter. Spoon the rest of the batter on top to cover everything, then top with a chocolate chip in the middle and sprinkle cacao nibs around the rest of the exposed batter. Bake 20-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean (remember that the chocolate chips will get melty), cool 5 minutes in the pan and then remove to a rack to cool a bit more.

You can eat these warmish if you want them to be gooey in the middle, but I hear they are fine on their own. Mochi cakes don’t need any frosting, though I wouldn’t be upset if you ate one warm with some ice cream. Their unfrostedness also makes them great for transporting on seven hour bus rides, whereas the main drawback to a normal cupcake is their untransportationalness. Enjoy the new words I just made up.