Chocolate cupcakes last week, chocolate mochi today. It’s chocolate on chocolate! I try not to post anything too similar close together, just for variety, but in this case it was inevitable just due to timings and my schedule – consequently you can expect some backlog here, but that’s alright – it just means more to spread over the course of October.
This month’s Adopt a GF Blogger was hosted by none other than the creator herself, Sea of Book of Yum – her site’s a wonderful plethora of recipes, all gluten-free and with a wide, international range, and you find yourself lingering there for quite a time, before leaving with armloads of recipes you want to try and ones you can make right now. (Who knows, maybe I’ll adopt her next time.)
This is my second time to participate in this event – I was giddy to participate: waiting in anticipation for that adoption sign-up sheet to pop up, and then the rush of everyone signing up, picking who they want to adopt – some trading off if more than one person picked the same blogger as is sometimes the case. When I signed up, I picked Jenn of Cinnamon Quill – in addition to her blog, she also runs the fantastic Gluten-Free Feed website: think of it as a gluten-free Tastespotting or Foodgawker, if you will, but much more open in several ways. Off the top of my head, I’ve submitted about two or three recipes of mine so far. Through Gluten Free Feed, I’ve also found several blogs I don’t think I would have otherwise or recipes from blogs that I do follow but that I missed the first time round!
For my adoption, I chose to make Jenn’s Dark Chocolate Infused Mochi Cake. Inspired by a blueberry mochi cake, this mochi cake uses cocoa powder. This is not the kind of mochi traditionally associated with Japanese New Year and other Japanese holidays (although it is also eaten year-round), which is sticky and made from pounding glutinous or sweet rice into a paste. This mochi is made from sweet rice flour, also known as mochiko, and this cannot be substituted or else it would not be mochi anymore, as well as most likely not possess the same characteristics – this second part here I’m only guessing as I have not attempted to make the mochi with any other rice flour.
One day I do want to make the sticky mochi, but not today.
After asking Jenn if I could use a round cake pan rather than the square one specified, I ended up using that square pan in the size specified, which I lined with parchment paper, after my grandmother gave me one. For those of you who want to go out and make this cake with a round pan, Jenn said that a 9″ inch round cake pan would probably work – just have a baking or cookie sheet under it just in case of any overspill. (When I make the cake here in a round pan, I’ll report back to you to let y’alls know how it went. In the meantime, this cake pan size conversion chart is a good place to start.)
The only thing that I did drastically differently about this cake was, essentially, make it a chocolate mochi layer cake. This I had not intended from the get-go, but it was necessary after I realized that while I’d picked up the cocoa powder, I’d somehow missed chocolate chips…which are right next to the cocoa powder. (As this is not an especially sweet chocolate cake, the chocolate chips were thrown in to add that extra oomph.) So what I did was make my easy and quick chocolate sauce/icing and baked the mochi cake in two layers. To layer and frost the cake, I followed some of the tips in this resourceful post all about tips for cake layers and icing from Smitten Kitchen.
As you can see, the cake didn’t rise that much (I used baking soda instead of baking powder, so that might have been a factor), but it didn’t take away from the yummy factor. Myself, I liked that it was a chocolate cake but that it wasn’t an overly sweet one. If anyone wanted their slice a bit sweeter, they could just drizzle honey over it.
For the record, this is the second layer cake that I’ve made.
You can make Jenn’s recipe for the mochi cake here.
[Update] Check out the Adopt a GF Blogger round-up here!
Adopt a Gluten-Free Blogger, Previously
It looks great, and so rich!!! I also love gluten free feed, jen has done a wonderful job with it.
Thank you for the adoption; I feel loved
I love what you did with the cake…mmmm layer cake. It looks very good. I do like undersweet desserts, and sometimes I forget that people tend to eat dessert for that sweet punch, haha, the honey is a good idea though! Interesting to see that maybe it didn’t rise quite as much with the baking soda. I know there is a whole chemical connection with baking soda and acidity, but I have yet to fully understand it. Thanks again for the kind words and shout-out! Now, may I please snag a piece of that cake? 
Aw, it was my pleasure, Jenn, and thank you!
I’m glad you like what I did. I think having some undersweet desserts are a good thing – there’s more than enough (or too much, depending on how you look at it) sugar overload. There’s some cake left still, so of course feel free to have one. 
This looks decadent and delicious!
This looks delicious! I really want to make the sticky mochi one day too! I have a recipe bookmarked for when I’m ready to do it. Maybe we should have an around the blogworld mochi making party.
Iris, that would be fantastic to have a blog mochi making party! We should plan one, maybe around Japanese New Year?
That Chocolate Mochi Cake looks so so good, Zoe! I don’t mind at all if cakes like that don’t rise much. It seems to me that there’s much more dense goodness that way.
Lovely adoption post. I am a big fan of Jenn, Cinnamon Quill, and Gluten-Free Feed and I need to get back to the latter (have not visited lately!).
Hugs,
Shirley
Thank you, Shirley! All of the cakes I’ve made have never risen that much: they’re generally about that high as this layer cake, and I’ve gotten used to that height so when I have a slice of cake that is the standard size I suppose, I’m almost always surprised. First thing I think is, “It looks too big!” Haha.
You would think that wouldn’t you? They’re perfectly fine! Big or small, as long as they’re delicious, I don’t care what the size is.
Well Z, even though there was an absence of any humor in this post (that a non-foodie could detect at any rate), I shall give it five stars simply because the cake was delicious.
Exit occasionally-aggravating-younger sister (as in: making older sister roll her eyes. Yipee! 
)
^_^ Love you sis.
Hi Zoe,
I think the cake looks great. If you hadn’t said it, I would have thought it was supposed to be that way. I, also, prefer less sugary desserts. Especially close to bedtime. Just can’t sleep, otherwise. And, I want to taste the chocolate.
Great post and pictures! Where can I get those plates?
xoxo,
Tia
Hi Tia, thanks! That’s a great point you made there about sugary desserts, and I agree. Once it gets near seven thirty, eight o’clock-ish at night, I generally don’t eat; I drink only water from that point – sometimes I will eat late, such as if there’s company over for example, but I just find I sleep better and feel better in the morning when I don’t eat past said period. That’s just me, though.
Those plates…my family’s had them for years. I think they were found at an art gallery gift shop, though I’m not sure so don’t take my word for it.
Great piece of work I hope I can make it just like in your pictures. thanks for the great recipe.