Lemon-Honey Nian Gao (Mochi Cake)
Updated May 13, 2025
- Total Time
- 1¾ hours
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1½ hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 4lemons (preferably Meyer)
- 1cup/333 grams honey, plus more if needed
- ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for greasing the pan
- 3cups/454 grams mochiko (sweet rice flour), like Koda Farms Blue Star brand
- 1tablespoon baking powder
- ½teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- 4large eggs
- 1(14-ounce) can unsweetened coconut milk
- 1(14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
For the Lemon Topping and Soaking Liquid
For the Cake
Preparation
- Step 1
Prepare the lemons: Very thinly slice 2 or 3 of the lemons until you have about 24 rounds, each no thicker than ⅛-inch. (Save the tips and any imperfect slices for juicing.) In a small bowl or container, cover the lemon slices with the honey and allow them to macerate until lemons have softened slightly and start to release their juices. (The lemons can soften in the honey up to overnight if kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator.) From the remaining lemons, squeeze ⅓ cup juice into a measuring cup for the cake and 2 tablespoons juice into a small bowl for the soaking liquid; set both aside.
- Step 2
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13-inch metal cake pan. Line the pan with parchment paper so that there is some overhang on the long sides of the pan. Butter the parchment paper. (Be generous greasing the pan. The extra butter will yield an extra golden brown crust.)
- Step 3
Carefully pluck the lemons out of the honey, allowing excess liquid to drip back into the bowl, and layer the slices in an even layer on the prepared parchment paper. (You’ll want enough to snugly cover the bottom of the pan.) Reserve the remaining honey mixture for the batter and the soaking liquid.
- Step 4
Whisk the mochiko, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In a separate large bowl, whisk the eggs to break up the yolks. Add the melted butter, coconut milk, condensed milk, ⅓ cup reserved lemon juice and ¾ cup (241 grams) of the reserved honey mixture, and whisk until smooth.
- Step 5
Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients. Whisk until the batter is smooth and there are no lumps. Slowly pour the batter into the prepared pan in an even layer, making sure to not push the lemon slices to the edges.
- Step 6
Bake until the cake is golden around the edges, blond across the surface and slightly puffed, 40 to 50 minutes. (A cake tester, toothpick or paring knife should come out mostly clean, with perhaps a few clingy crumbs. There should be some bounce when you touch the cake.)
- Step 7
Meanwhile make the soaking liquid: Combine the 2 tablespoons lemon juice with the remaining honey mixture. (You should have about ¼ cup of the mixture; if you’re slightly short, add more honey as needed.) Poke holes on the surface of the cake and immediately drizzle the soaking liquid all over the cake. Allow the cake to rest and cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes.
- Step 8
To serve, place a large cutting board on top of the cake and flip the cake pan. Remove the parchment paper and cut into squares. Serve warm or at room temperature. Leftovers can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Private Notes
Comments
I noticed no instructions for turning out the cake. Is this like an upside down cake or do the lemon slices just float to the top when the mochi batter is poured in and baked?
Based on other baked goods I've made with sweet rice flour, baking it a day ahead of time won't make it soggy exactly, but particularly if you're in a slightly humid environment, the crisp edges will be less crisp. The chewy, bouncy interior should remain the same though. For this reason I like to make mochi cakes as cupcakes or other smaller portions, so as to enjoy their unique crispy exteriors which contrast so delightfully with the bouncy interior
Made this today. I've had the steamed version before, but never baked. Overall really good. I didn't have a metal 9x13 pan, so I instead used a 8x8 square and a 9"cake pan, both anodized aluminum pans. Mathing it out, that makes it about the same size as the 1 bigger pan. I went with the 24 slices of lemon laid on the bottom of the cake, and that wasn't nearly enough to get complete coverage. After it baked however, I didn't mind too much. I only macerated the lemons for 15 minutes or so, and I think the overnight soak would be better to ensure more tender lemons My bake time was significantly shorter than the recommended times by about 10 or 15 minutes. Part of that could be attributed to my smaller pans, but keep an eye out regardless. A few other comments ask about removing it from the pan, and I had to flip it upside down in order to present the lemons on top - they didn't float Texture-wise, the cake is chewy and pillowy, and not as sickeningly sweet as I was afraid it'd be. Still, it eats very easily, but knowing the calorie bombs that go into the cake, I'd recommend moderation
We love most of NYT recipes, so we decided to try this one for my daughters birthday. IT was inedible. It was wet and slimy after one day, the dough did not hold up, and the taste and texture were nauseating. Don't try this one.
I wish the recipe would have told you how long to let the lemons macerate- I would have started it a few days earlier. However, I only had about an hour to let them soak in the honey. After reading all the comments about bitterness in the lemon rind with a short macerating time, I was nervous to completely layer the pan with lemons for fear of too much bitterness, so instead I only used half lemon slices and layered them along the edge, to keep it from being overwhelming. (I used regular organic lemons, couldn’t get Meyer). Despite all of that, it was incredibly good and I felt like it would have been fine to use more of the thinnest lemons to fully layer the pan. Oh well. I brought it to a Chinese friends Lunar NY party. She loved it and said it reminded her of the ones her mom used to make, but her mom always used red bean as the flavor and she was thrilled to see a mochi cake paired with something refreshing like lemon and honey instead. The kids weren’t big on it due to the texture but that’s fine; more for grown ups. The sweetness is perfect for snacking.
I plan to macerate tonite, bake tomorrow - half- batch. Not wanting to waste a half-can of anything, which would come out better: Using 1 full can of coconut milk? Or - the sweetened condensed? I prefer my desserts on the less-sweet side.