Strawberry Mochi Cake, the Best Berry Bounce

If you like the bouncy, springy texture of mochi and you like the rich, sweet taste of regular cakes, then you will love Strawberry Mochi Cake! Sweet, slightly chewy, and naturally pink, it's basically a pink strawberry starburst in baked dessert form. Shall we?

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• What is Strawberry Mochi Cake?
• Ingredients You Need for Strawberry Mochi Cake
• What is Mochiko, or Sweet Rice Flour?
• How to Make Strawberry Mochi Cake
• Tools and Equipment for Strawberry Mochi Cake
• Strawberry Mochi Cake Recipe

What is Strawberry Mochi Cake?

Mochi Cake is a dessert made with a base of mochiko, aka glutinous rice flour, rather than traditional wheat flour. The glutinous rice flour gives Mochi Cake that signature soft, sometimes sticky, slightly chewy texture that is associated with Japanese mochi, Chinese nian gao, and Korean sweet chapssal tteok.

Rather than mixing rice flour with water, shaping dough by hand, and steaming, though, Mochi Cake incorporates butter, milk, and eggs into the batter, then bakes the cake in a pan in the oven like traditional "western" style cakes.

Mochi Cake or Butter Mochi?

If you're thinking "Mochi Cake sounds just like Hawaiian Butter Mochi!" you're thinking is right! In fact, I was originally going to name this Strawberry Mochi Cake as Strawberry Butter Mochi. The ingredient and ratios are very similar, and then basically you just have to add strawberry to the batter! However, the liquid ingredients in this Strawberry Mochi Cake are all milk, whereas most butter mochi incorporates some or all coconut milk.

You can call it whatever you want, even "Nature's pink starburst."

Best Butter Mochi and Mochi Cake Recipes:

• Hawaiian Butter Mochi, the BEST tried and tested recipe for the buttery soft original
• Matcha Butter Mochi, for the matcha girlies
• Pumpkin Butter Mochi, if your Pumpkin Spice Latte and mochi had cute little bouncy mochi bars
• Red Bean Butter Mochi, a traditional flavor with mochi, made modern in Red Bean Butter Mochi, and one of my Mom's favorite dessert of all time

Ingredients You Need for Strawberry Mochi Cake

Here is a list of the ingredients you need for Strawberry Butter Mochi:

From the refrigerator:

1. Strawberries
2. Butter
3. Eggs
4. Milk

Dried and pantry ingredients:

1. Mochiko, also known as sweet rice flour or glutinous rice flour, 1-pound
2. Sugar
3. Salt
4. Baking powder
5. Vanilla Extract

Optional: Sliced almonds, toasted sesame seeds, or shredded coconut are optional ingredients you can sprinkle onto the batter right before baking. The toasted sesame seeds will kind of look like the seeds on the strawberries! Either sesame seeds or coconut will make a visual statement and add a little extra toastiness!

What is Mochiko, or Sweet Rice Flour?

Mochiko is a type of rice flour made from sweet rice, sometimes called sticky rice or glutinous rice. Though mochiko is generally associated with Japanese cuisine, it is a popular ingredient across many Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines, sometimes used in savory dishes, and mostly used in sweet desserts and confections. When baked or cooked, mochiko imparts a distinctive texture that ranges from bouncy and squishy to sticky and chewy.

If you've ever had mochi, mochi ice cream, or any of the small colorful rice cakes like Korean tteok/dduk, Filipino bibingka, and Chinese nian gao, you're familiar with the texture!

Does Glutinous Rice Flour aka Mochiko Contain Gluten?

Though the name has the word "glutinous" in it, glutinous rice flour does not have "gluten," spelled with an "e" in it, so it is in fact, gluten-free. The word glutinous refers to the high starch content of the sweet rice, which is what makes it sweet and sticky.

This is the brand of mochiko I use. A multi-generation Japanese-American rice farming family grows and mills it on their Central Valley California farm!

Other Types of Sweet/Glutinous Rice Flour

There are several types of sweet rice flours that are similar to mochiko in that they are derived from sweet rice, but different in the way they are processed and therefore slightly different in the final texture and how it is used:

• Shiratamako - pictured above, Japanese type of glutinous rice flour, processed soaking the rice first then milling into a much finer final product that is better suited for silky mochi confections. This is not as widely available as mochiko, and is generally more expensive.
• Thai glutinous rice flour - made by the "wet milling" method and is used for smooth silky dumplings. If you can't find a glutinous rice flour labeled mochiko, this is a good substitute.
• Sweet Rice Flour - basically any other "Western" brand that makes its own finely ground sweet rice flour, e.g. Bob's Red Mill.

Additional Ingredients Notes and Resources

1. Mochiko. I almost always use this brand of mochiko. You can buy it at most Japanese and Asian grocery stores, and online.
2. Sugar. Plain granulated sugar works the best here. If the sugar is organic or unrefined, it may have a slightly beige tint to it which is fine.
3. Salt. Either this kosher salt or this ancient sea salt for every day use in the kitchen.
4. Butter. I use salted butter for everything because I love salt. You can use unsalted butter, but why.
5. Milk. You can use any fat percentage of regular dairy milk, though I have had the best results with 2%. Even nonfat/skim milk is fine if you use a full-fat coconut milk.
6. Toasted Sesame Seeds. Any Japanese or Asian grocery store will have sesame seeds that are already toasted. If you can only find raw or unhulled sesame seeds, lightly shake them in a sauté pan over medium heat for about 90 seconds until they are fragrantly nutty.
7. Black Sesame Seeds. Any Japanese or Asian grocery store will have. Make sure to get black sesame seeds, already toasted.

How to Make Strawberry Mochi Cake

Plan ahead: Make sure milk and eggs are at room temperature by taking them out of the refrigerator about 1 hour before you start.

Prep Strawberries

Make Strawberry Mochi Cake Batter

Pro Tips, Tricks, and Techniques

• More Strawberry. For an extra boost of strawberry flavor, use both fresh and freeze dried strawberries. Because the ground freeze dried strawberries are small by volume, this does not affect the texture of the final Strawberry Mochi Cake.
• Butter Spread All the Way Into Corners. Make sure to grease all the way into the corners of the pan to make sure the Mochi Cake releases.
• Dust Pan with Extra Mochiko. Dust the buttered/greased pan with some of the mochiko or regular rice flour to make a very crackly crust around the edges of the final baked Mochi Cake.
• Whisk and Stir by Hand rather than an electric mixer, which will aerate the batter too much and give it a fluffier, more cake-like texture rather than the bouncy, chewy, mochi-like texture we want in Mochi Cake.
• Tap the Batter in the Pan against the counter to pop out any air bubbles.
• Use a PLASTIC Knife, like the disposable kind, to cut the mochi for the smoothest, edges and no sticking. I tried a serrated/bread knife, my ultra sharp Bob Kramer knife heated, run under water, slicked with oil and butter, and none of those even came close to a clean cut. I have no idea what the science is behind how or why the cheap plastic knife works the best, but it does.

Ingredients Substitutions and Varying Ratios

The Strawberry Mochi Cake itself, like all butter mochi recipes, is fairly forgiving in terms of flavor additions and measurement precision. However, there aren't many actual substitutes for the ingredients themselves, e.g. sweet/glutinous rice flour, butter, sugar, and eggs.

Full Substitutions

• Can you use regular rice flour for Strawberry Mochi Cake? No. Regular rice flour is not "sticky" and does not produce the mochi "bounce." You can use different styles of sweet rice flour or glutinous rice flour, but you cannot use regular rice flour, or any other kind of flour, for that matter.
• Can you use a different type of flour for Strawberry Mochi Cake? No, you cannot use any other kind of flour, e.g. wheat flour, cassava or other starch, or ground nut flours.
• Can you use frozen strawberries? YES! You can absolutely use frozen strawberries for Strawberry Mochi Cake! Thaw the same volume of strawberries, 8 ounces, in a bowl. Add thawed strawberries along with the melted juices to a blender and purée. You may not even need to add milk to help make it super smooth. Pass through fine mesh sieve and add the filtered purée with the other liquid ingredients.
• Can You Substitute Out the Butter? The point of Butter Mochi is butter. If you want to use oil, make a different recipe. However, you can absolutely substitute coconut or another plant-based butter that has the same flavor and texture of regular butter.
• Can you Replace the Eggs? I have not yet personally made this Strawberry Mochi Cake with an egg substitute, either store-bought or something like ground flaxseeds. If you do, please let me know how it turns out! I would recommend against ground flaxseed though, as they will take away from the smooth texture of the mochi.
• Milk. If you would prefer not to use regular dairy milk, you can substitute with an equal amount of coconut milk, any other plant-based milk, or simply add 1½ cups plain water. Just be mindful that if you're trying to make this Strawberry Mochi Cake dairy-free, you also have to consider replacing the butter.

Varying the Amount of an Ingredient

• Sugar. If you prefer a dessert that is less sweet, decrease the amount of sugar by up to half without affecting the texture of the final Mochi Cake. However, do not use a low- or no-calorie sugar substitute.
• Butter. My mom, a stubborn product of the lowfat diet era, requires that I reduce the butter by half in anything I ever make or bake. I have made this Strawberry Butter Mochi Cake with half the amount of butter (¼ cup melted butter) and it wasn't terrible. It had a texture that is much closer to regular Japanese-style mochi or Korean tteok which do not contain butter.

Tools and Equipment for Strawberry Mochi Cake

There isn't any special tool or piece of equipment required for Strawberry Mochi Cake. In fact, I highly encourage you to skip hauling out heavy stand mixers or hand mixers for this. However, that doesn't mean there are a couple of things that might make this recipe easier than it already is to get from pantry to plate.

• 9x13-inch pan. Because the final baked mochi is very sticky, you will have to grease or spray the pan no matter what. So it doesn't matter if the pan is non-stick or not. I love this pan with the 90° angle, perfectly squared off corners. This is a more affordable one available on amazon.
• Ceramic 9x13-inch pan. Because Mochi Cake is considered something of a "homestyle" recipe, I love the look of it in baked and served directly out of a cute ceramic dish. And how cute is this sage green one that matches the matcha green???
• Parchment paper. if you're really worried about the mochi sticking to the pan, use parchment paper. Grease the pan directly first, layer with parchment, then grease the parchment. If you don't grease the parchment, the mochi will stick to it!
• Glass mixing bowls. You will need a fairly large mixing bowl to make this.
• Sifter. I use an inexpensive metal wire sieve to sift dry ingredients together. P.S. metal sieves are great for straining bone broth!
• Whisk. So much easier to grab a whisk out of the utensil drawer than haul a mixer out of the cabinets!
• Spatula. To scrape every last drop of that precious mochi cake batter out of the bowl and into the pan.

Different Size Pans for Baking Mochi Cakes

• Can You Bake Mochi Cake in a Muffin/Cupcake Tin? Yes! See photo above left! And I highly encourage it because you get MAXIMUM crispy caramelized edges! Bake this Mochi Cake recipe as is in two 12-cup muffin tins, yielding 24 mochi muffins. Fill the muffin cups ⅘ full with just a ½-inch of space at the top. Mochi muffins do not rise like regular muffins and will not overflow. No muffin tops!
• Can You Bake Mochi Cake in a Square Pan? Yes! See photo above right. You can bake this recipe as is in two 8x8-inch square pans. Or, make half the recipe and bake in one 8x8-inch pan. The final product will be a little flatter, so check the Mochi Cake at 45 minutes.
• Can You Bake Mochi Cake in a Round Pan? Yes! You can bake this recipe as is in two 8-inch round pans or two 9-inch round cake pans. Or make half the recipe and bake in one 8-inch or 9-inch pan. The final product will be a little flatter, so check the mochi cake at 45 minutes.
• Can You Bake the Mochi Cake in a Loaf Pan? No, not recommended! A loaf pan is too deep for this batter that is very liquidy. Unless you have four loaf pans and only fill them about 1-inch high each time.

I baked a killer Tres Leches Cake in the only 9x13-inch pan I owned and took it to my then-boyfriend's house for a dinner party. We broke up and I never got the pan back. So I make my Mochi Cake in one 9x9-inch square pan and the overflow in a muffin pan.

No I do not want to buy another 9x13-inch pan.

Leftovers and Storage

You can absolutely keep leftover Strawberry Mochi Cake for several days in the refrigerator and up to a month in the freezer. You just need to take care to do a couple of things for optimal storage:

• Pre-slice the Strawberry Mochi Cake into individual portions
• Wrap each individual piece of Strawberry Mochi Cake in parchment paper (best option) or plastic cling wrap (acceptable option) to keep them from sticking together.
• Air-tight containers are the best for keeping the mochi from drying out and getting a little too chewy (unless you like that)

Here are detailed tips for how long to store leftovers:

Refrigerator. Keep leftover Strawberry Mochi Cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for five days. Take individual servings out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature or heat gently in the microwave for 30 seconds or in a toaster oven on medium.

Freezer. Store Strawberry Butter Mochi Cake for the longer term, about 1 month, in the freezer. It is best to freeze what you know you wont eat right away. Wrap each portion in parchment paper to keep from sticking, and store in an airtight, freezer-safe container. Thaw in refrigerator overnight, or pop into a toaster oven or air-fryer for a few minutes.

Countertop. NOT RECOMMENDED for leftovers beyond a couple of hours, due to food safety reasons!