Strawberry mochi cake

This is the cake I made for Sunday Night Dinner a few weeks ago. I was looking for a way to use one of the five pounds of mochiko I have in my room, and I found a yummy looking recipe here (courtesy of Kirbie's Cravings). I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it was a total success! The cake has a unique texture, sticky and chewy like mochi but light like a cake. The blog authoress has also used blueberries or cherries directly subsituted for the strawberries.

This recipe uses "sweet" or "glutinous" rice flour, which is sometimes also called "mochi-ko" after the Japanese. (Despite the name, it is actually gluten-free!) It can be found at Asian supermarkets or online, and possibly at whole food stores. It is very different from normal rice flour, so be careful!

Ingredients

• 16 oz (1 pound) "glutinous" or "sweet" rice flour
  
• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 (12 ounce) can (or 1 1/2 cups) evaporated milk
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups fresh strawberries, cut into small cubes (I used frozen)

Directions

1. Cream the butter with sugar. It helps to melt the butter a little first.
2. Mix in the evaporated milk to the butter/sugar mixture.
3. Mix eggs into the mixture.
4. Mix in the rice flour, baking powder and vanilla.
5. Stir in the strawberries.
6. Pour mixture into a 9 x 13 pan. (I recommend using foil--this stuff is hard to scrub off)
   
7. Bake for approximately 1 hour at 350 degrees.
8. Let cake completely cool, allowing the mochi to set, before cutting and serving.

Chocolate Decadence Cake

Another SND success! This cake is dense, moist and extremely rich. The recipe is originally from allrecipes.com but has been slightly altered.

Ingredients:
12 oz (2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips
4 (1-oz) squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped (OR 3/4 cup cocoa powder and 3 Tbsp oil)
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, melted
1 3/4 cups white sugar, divided
1/2 cup water
7 eggs, separated

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease your pan(s) very well (see below for the type of pan). If you like, you can line the bottoms with parchment, which might make it easier to remove the cake but tends to stick to the cake when you cut.

2. Put the chocolate chips and chopped chocolate (or cocoa powder/oil mixture) in a bowl. Add the melted butter.

3. Heat water and 1 1/2 cups sugar in a saucepan until it boils. (You can also do this in the microwave--but be sure to stir it occasionally to let the sugar dissolve). Pour over the chocolate and stir until smooth.

4. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks with 1/8 cup sugar until thick and creamy. Stir this into the chocolate mixture.

5. In yet another bowl, whip the egg whites with 1/8 cup sugar until they form soft peaks. This takes quite a while--I highly recommend an electric mixer. Gently fold the whites into the chocolate mixture.

6. Place the cake pan(s) on a jelly roll pan or a cookie sheet with 4 edges. Pour the batter into the pans, and put them carefully in the oven. Before shutting the oven carefully pour water into the jelly roll pan or cookie sheet, making a water bath.

7. Bake for 40-50 minutes. Be careful when you open the oven--the water bath makes a lot of steam. Carefully remove the cakes and let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for several hours. The top of the cake will fall.

8. To remove the cake from the pan, run a knife around the edges of the pan. Then dip the cake in hot water (I used a 9 by 13" pan for this). This will slightly melt the edges of the cake, making it easier to lift from the pan. It's still a pretty messy process, though--don't be surprised if some of the edges stick or the top crumbles.

9. Enjoy!! This cake is excellent on its own, or with whipped cream of any variety.

**Note on pan size: the original recipe called for one 10" round pan. If you're using a pan with tall sides, like a springform, this will probably be okay. If you're using shallower pans (pie pans) then you'll need two; in this case size doesn' t matter so much.

Alex's Gluten-Free Brownies

These were incredible and she left me the recipe, so I'm taking the liberty of posting it here:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup dark chocolate (chunks or chips)

Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Melt butter and cocoa powder in a bowl in the microwave. Add brown sugar, vanilla, and eggs and mix thoroughly. Mix in cornstarch and salt. Add dark chocolate and stir. Pour into a well-greased 8x8 pan and bake for 35 minutes or until a fork comes out clean.