April Monthly Bake: Carrot Cake Butter Mochi

I can point to a handful of desserts in my life that have been wholly transformative. One is my mom’s pig pickin’ cake; another, my first French macaron. But perhaps the most revelatory dessert I’ve ever tried is butter mochi, a treat that’s a pillar of Hawaiian potluck culture.

I had just started at The New York Times and my colleague Alexa Weibel brought in raspberry-mochi butter cake with matcha glaze, a recipe she was adapting from the iconic Los Angeles bakery République. I’d had Japanese-style mochi treats plenty of times (I’m a big daifuku guy), but this was in a class of its own. The texture of butter mochi is a bit squishy like a marshmallow, but with more chew and a lot more flavor. This version, studded with fresh raspberries, reminded me of biting into a Gusher. I couldn’t stop eating it. I had probably four slices. What can I say, I’m a total glutton for glutinous rice.

So to kick off the best season, I decided to marry the two desserts that make me happiest in one perfect union. Carrot cake and butter mochi, I now pronounce you April’s Monthly Bake. This dessert has everything (read in an “S.N.L.” Stefon voice): the earthiness and spice of carrot cake, the springy and buttery texture of mochi cake, pops of dried fruit, a tangy cream cheese glaze and a toasted coconut topping. I am so excited for y’all to try this one, especially if you’ve never had butter mochi before.

When I first baked butter mochi, I was shocked at how something so uniquely good could come together so quickly, and from so few ingredients. The base recipe, which is similar to Filipino bibingka, hinges on a mixture of melted butter, coconut milk, eggs and mochiko, or sweet glutinous rice flour. Because everything is mixed in one bowl and I can have it in and out of the oven in about an hour, butter mochi is my go-to dessert for just about any birthday or dinner party. It always steals the show, and as a Leo, I can never take that as a bad thing.

Plain butter mochi is amazing on its own, but it’s also a fun canvas to riff on with different mix-ins, extracts and glazes. I was so excited to try a carrot cake version (and even more excited when it finally worked). I also have to shout-out my friend Hetty Lui McKinnon, whose carrot mochi cake is out of this world. I was thrilled to have her recipe land in my inbox right as I was finishing up with mine. We are one big baking hive mind over here.

I went on a bit of a butter mochi deep dive during this project. My wonderful editor, Mia Leimkuhler, sent me some recipes from her mom’s and grandma’s old cookbooks, and I turned to more recent books: Alana Kysar’s “Aloha Kitchen: Recipes from Hawai’i” and Sheldon Simeon’s “Cook Real Hawai’i,” both filled with amazing recipes and gorgeous prose about the heart and soul of Hawaiian cuisine. It was interesting to see all of the variations across the types of milk used, the fat ratios, the flavors and the format.

I called up chef Sheldon, who’s no stranger to fun butter mochi variations (his chocolate birthday cake version is a personal favorite), to learn more about butter mochi as a Hawaiian staple and for some advice on fashioning my own version. He gave me some great insights (which I share in the video!) and told me that even though every recipe is a little different, whenever you see it on the table, you instantly feel at home.

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I’m so excited for you to try this Monthly Bake! I think butter mochi will become as much a staple in your kitchen as it is in mine. Share your bakes with me on Instagram @vaughn or baketime@nytimes.com, along with any questions you may have. (By submitting photos to us via email, you agree to our reader submission terms here.)

The Monthly Bake

Carrot Cake Butter Mochi

Click here to view this recipe.

Thanks for reading (and baking)! See you next week.

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