Birthday Cake Butter Mochi (Gluten Free Funfetti Cake)
Looking for a gluten free, chewy, sprinkle mochi cake? Try out this birthday cake butter mochi recipe with two options for different textures and different rainbow sprinkles. It’s as easy as mix and bake with no special equipment or techniques required. Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links.
Hi, friends! I initially had this recipe slated for months later, but summer is the big birthday season in our family (my husband and both my girls), so I decided to move it up to now. This recipe has several options to achieve different textures and sprinkle designs, so please make sure to read the post to get your desired cake! Enjoy!
What is Butter Mochi? Butter Mochi vs. Mochi Cake?
Butter mochi is a food local to Hawai’i that is, in essence, the same as a mochi cake. Although I often hear mainlanders call it mochi cake or butter mochi cake, in Hawai’i and among Japanese Americans who immigrated through Hawai’i, it’s called butter mochi.
Note that this is considered a “local” Hawaiian food and not a traditional Hawaiian food, in that butter mochi is an invention stemming from the mix of Filipino and Japanese immigrants who came to work on plantations in the late 1800’s. In contrast, traditional Hawaiian food refers to cultural Hawaiian cuisine from before the US takeover of the Hawaiian kingdom. As for which immigrant culture invented butter mochi, the jury is still out. Butter mochi is very similar to the Filipino bibingka, but obviously it uses the Japanese glutinous rice flour mochiko. It wouldn’t be surprising if it’s a true mesh of both cultures.
Where to Buy Butter Mochi Ingredients
The ingredients for butter mochi are really the same as most other cake recipes. You’ll need basics like eggs, butter, and milk. Many butter mochi recipes use evaporated milk and coconut milk, like in my classic local Hawaiian butter mochi recipe. However, because I wanted to capture the birthday cake flavor, I opted to use whole milk and heavy cream instead. You can definitely substitute evaporated milk for the whole milk if you wish, though.
The key ingredient for butter mochi, though, is the mochiko. Mochiko is a flour made from short grain glutinous rice with origins in Japan, sometimes also called a sweet rice flour. In the US, you can find mochiko at many grocery stores in the international aisle. I usually use Koda Farms Blue Star Mochiko, which is also available on Amazon. Koda Farms is a Japanese American farm in California, and they make high quality rice products.
For more information on mochiko and rice flours, check out my Ultimate Guide to Mochiko.
Can You Substitute Other Rice Flours for Mochiko?
No. There are many different types of glutinous rice flours, but they cannot substitute for mochiko. For example, there’s Thai glutinous rice flour, which is made from a long grain glutinous rice. There’s also a Chinese glutinous rice flour, which is used to make nian gao. These will result in a different texture, so I do not recommend using them. You absolutely cannot substitute regular rice flour either, as it will have a drastically different texture.
Butter Mochi as a Gluten Free Funfetti Cake
As I was experimenting with different textures for this cake, I realized that you could really substitute this rainbow sprinkle butter mochi for a gluten free funfetti cake. It’s a little more dense and chewy than a typical box mix cake, but the look and taste is really similar. It works well as a pound cake, baked in a bundt pan (I have only tried a half recipe baked in a loaf pan, but a full recipe will be enough for a bundt pan). However, you must use my heavy cream version of this recipe!
Butter Mochi Texture: Two Options
When I first developed this recipe, I went for my usual preferred mochi texture: very dense, chewy, and… rice cake-y? During baking, though, the sprinkles migrated to the tops and bottom crusts and didn’t stay in the middle. It still had a cool rainbow effect, but not really the funfetti cake look that I was originally going for.
I tried the recipe again substituting half the milk for heavy cream and got the perfect funfetti cake middle. The sprinkles were perfectly suspended in the batter. I also tried a version where the sprinkles were only scattered on top of the cake, and it baked perfectly as well. However, this version was definitely more cakey: the sponge was fluffier and less dense and rice-like.
So I’ll leave it up to you! I prefer the mochi texture, so I would go with all milk and sprinkle the jimmies just on top of the cake for a rainbow sprinkle look. But if you really want the funfetti cake look, use the heavy cream version.
How to Make Butter Mochi
Baking butter mochi is ridiculously easy. You mix everything together and bake. Really. That’s it. You don’t even need an electric mixer; I mix everything by hand.
Of course, in good cake baking technique, it’s best to whisk dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately and then combine the two. I definitely whisk the dry ingredients… and then I usually just plop all the wet ingredients directly into my mixing bowl. It still turns out great. The only thing to watch out for is dry lumps of mochiko. Make sure you mix that batter really well, especially if stirring by hand!
Tips for Baking Mochi
With an easy recipe like this, I don’t have many tips or tricks, but I do need to talk about one thing: your baking dish.
I have never had a problem with baking mochi in either a glass or metal tin. However, I have had a few blog readers mention that their mochi burns at the edges before the center sets if they are using a disposable baking tin, a glass baking dish, or a ceramic baking dish. I highly highly recommend using a light colored aluminum 9-by-13-inch baking dish, not the disposable kind. The metal baking dish conducts heat the best, which is probably why the mochi bakes better through the center.
I sometimes get questions about greasing and lining my metal baking tins. I always use an oil spray and then line with parchment paper, to make it easy to lift the entire cake out of the tin and slice. However, if you don’t mind slicing directly in your baking tin, you don’t have to line with parchment paper… I just don’t like scratching up my baking dishes.
Also PLEASE please always check that your butter mochi is cooked through by sticking a toothpick in the center of your cake before you take it out of the oven. If the toothpick comes out with batter, it’s not done. Everyone’s ovens and baking dishes are different, so bake times will, inevitably, vary.
More Mochi Desserts
Looking for more mochi recipes like this one? Check these out:
- Classic Local Hawaiian Butter Mochi
- The Best Mochi Brownies
- Ube Butter Mochi
- Baked Mochi Donuts
- Chocolate Butter Mochi
Birthday Cake Butter Mochi (Gluten Free Funfetti Cake)
Ingredients
- 1 16oz box mochiko
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 cups whole milk, or sub half heavy cream, see notes
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted, 4oz
- 1 cup Jimmies sprinkles, 6oz
Equipment
- 1 9×13" metal baking pan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line your 9×13" baking tin.
- In a large bowl, whisk mochiko, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
- Add milk/cream, eggs, teaspoon vanilla extract, half teaspoon almond extract, and melted butter and stir very well to combine, making sure there are no dry chunks of mochiko.
- Sprinkle Option 1: Pour sprinkles into the batter and very gently mix, so as not to let the sprinkles sink to the bottom. Gently pour the mixture into your prepared pan. See notes for how using milk vs. cream will affect the dispersion of your sprinkles.Sprinkle Option 2: Pour batter into prepared baking dish and very gently sprinkle the jimmies on the top of the batter only (you will probably not need the full cup).
- Bake in your preheated oven for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the mochi comes out clean.
- Allow butter mochi to cool to room temperature (or close to it) before slicing and serving. Leftovers keep in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
- I really like a chewy, dense texture of butter mochi, which is achieved by using all milk (i.e. no heavy cream) in this recipe. However, it is difficult to keep the sprinkles suspended in the middle of the batter during baking. If you would like for more sprinkles interspersed in the middle of your butter mochi, you will need a drier batter that results in a more fluffy, cake-like texture. Substitute half the whole milk for heavy cream. The heavy cream version can also be used to make a pound cake. It’s a good gluten-free funfetti birthday cake substitute.
- You can also substitute evaporated milk for the whole milk.
- Different baking dishes require in different baking times. I highly recommend using a metal baking tin. Some followers have mentioned that disposable baking tins, glass dishes, or ceramic dishes burn the edges without cooking the center of the cake, due to the reduced heat conductivity of those materials.
Can this be made with a milk alternative? (I.e. oatmilk or almond milk)
Hi Natalie, you can definitely make this with a milk alternative, but the flavor and texture may be a bit different since each type of milk has differing amounts of fat. Hard to say if you’ll like the taste until you try it!