Matcha. Mochi. Matcha. Mochi. Say it five times quickly like a tongue twister!

I had picked up a bag of glutinous rice flour a while ago to keep in the pantry in case of a mochi craving. Paired with a can of coconut milk and some butter at the ready, it’s easy to whip up a cake.

I discovered butter mochi a couple years ago when I was keen on making HK-style mochi balls (糯米糍) but didn’t want to deal with the fussiness of rolling steamy dough by hand and putting stuffing in. That’s the sort of activity better left reserved for a dreary overcast weekend afternoon.

Butter mochi though - it’s genius, and a fabulous dessert for a weeknight. You mix all the ingredients, dump them into a pan and bake it. Using an oven is such a great method because you just let all the ingredients mellow and figure it out for themselves. My favorite type of dessert requires no micromanagement from me; I’m more than happy to delegate the work to time and convection heat.

The worst part is waiting. When it comes out of the oven you do need to let it cool for a while, because it’s no fun to burn your mouth and then not be able to enjoy the taste after! However, the waiting is fully worth it - as the cake cools you get these incredibly flaky, crispy edges because this cake is reeeaally buttery.

that's neat ◡̈

Matcha butter mochi cake