Butter Mochi Cake (Hawaiian Glutinous Rice Coconut Cake)

Quick answer

Total time: 65 min
Level: Easy
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients: 7

About this dish

Butter mochi cake is a Hawaiian baked dessert that uses sweet glutinous rice flour as its structural foundation, resulting in a single slice that contains both the dense chewiness of a mochi rice cake and the golden, lightly crisp crust of a conventional baked good.

The batter is thin and pourable - sweet rice flour combined with sugar, eggs, melted butter, whole milk, and coconut milk - and it is baked low and slow in a rectangular pan until fully set. During the long bake, the bottom of the cake densifies and becomes chewy in the way mochi does, trapping moisture within the glutinous starch structure. The top surface, meanwhile, dries out and the sugars caramelize into a thin hazelnut-brown crust with a faint crunch. Coconut milk threads a subtle tropical aroma throughout every bite without dominating. The butter dissolves into the starch matrix during baking, replacing the neutral, slightly sticky character that plain mochi can have with a warm, dairy-rich depth. At room temperature, the chewiness is most pronounced. Gently rewarmed in an oven or toaster, the crust crisps back up and the textural contrast between the two layers becomes more vivid.

Ingredients

servings

IngredientAmountUnit

sweet rice flour220 gg

sugar140 gg

milk240 mlml

coconut milk200 mlml

eggs3 eaea

unsalted butter60 gg

vanilla extract1 tsptsp

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Instructions

Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.

6 steps

1

Step

Preheat the oven fully to 175C and set out the baking pan.

The sweet rice batter is very sticky, so check the corners of the pan and wait until the cake has cooled completely before removing it.
2

Finish

Put 220g sweet rice flour and 140g sugar in a large bowl and whisk for about 30 seconds.

Break up any visible lumps now, because dry pockets can leave uneven chewy spots in the finished cake.
3

Step

Add 240ml milk and 200ml coconut milk first, whisking until the flour is moistened, then beat in 3 eggs.

Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl so no dry rice flour stays hidden.
4

Season

Whisk in 60g melted unsalted butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract until the batter looks smooth and glossy.

The batter should be thin and pourable, so do not add extra flour even if it seems loose.
5

Heat

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and tap it on the counter two or three times to release large bubbles.

Bake at 175°C for 45 to 50 minutes, until the top turns hazelnut brown.
6

Prep

Remove the cake when the edges pull slightly from the pan and the center no longer wobbles loosely.

Let it cool completely before cutting into squares, because warm mochi tears instead of slicing cleanly.

Practical Cooking Checks

The cues that matter most while cooking.

Key technique: Butter Mochi Cake yields a dense Hawaiian dessert with a chewy rice flour base and a crisp golden top.
Finish cue: Whisk in 60g melted unsalted butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract until the batter looks smooth and glossy.
Avoid this: The batter should be thin and pourable, so do not add extra flour even if it seems loose.
Storage and reheating: Let it cool completely before cutting into squares, because warm mochi tears instead of slicing cleanly.