Mochi – Shaped in Hello Kitty and Pompompurin

When I first found out there is an easy way to make mochi (rice cake) at home, I got so excited! I like mochi but the only way I knew how was the traditional hard way:

Now I know I can easily fulfill my mochi cravings at home without the hassle, I quickly purchased the main ingredient, mochiko, at Amazon and got to work. For the mochi, I made my plan to decorate them into two cute characters, Hello Kitty and Pompompurin. For the filling for mochi, red bean paste is traditionally used, but instead, I decided to fill with white chocolate mousse. I’ve made the white chocolate mousse before, and I was sure the mochi would go great with it.

To start out, I prepared the filling first because it needed to be frozen ahead of time for the mochi.

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White Chocolate Mousse Recipe

The recipe for the white chocolate mousse is adopted from MyBakingAddiction.

Ingredient

• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 1/4 cup chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips
• 2 ounces cream cheese
• 1 tablespoons powdered sugar, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

*The quantity listed above will make a lot more mousse than you need for two mochi cakes. Enjoy the leftover as is or make more mochi to use it up as filling. Any leftover mousse can be refrigerated and enjoyed for up to 2 days.

Instruction

1. Prepare a small tray with parchment paper. Set it aside.
2. In a small microwave-safe container, gently melt the white chocolate in 30-second increments, stirring frequently, in the microwave at half-power.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar until light and fluffy
4. Beat in the white chocolate, vanilla extract and salt on medium speed until well combined.
5. In another bowl, beat the whipping cream at high speed until stiff peaks form.
6. Fold in the whipped cream into the white chocolate / cream cheese mixture. Do not over mix!
7. Taste the mousse and if it’s not sweet enough, fold in more powdered sugar until the mousse is sweet enough for your liking.
8. Pour the mousse into a pastry bag. Snip the bottom corner. In a pinch, you can also use a gallon-size Ziploc bag. Twist and clip the top of the bag to avoid overflow. On your prepared tray, pipe out 1-inch rounds of mousse.
9. Put the tray in the freezer until the mousse is firm.

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Mochi Recipe

The mochi recipe is adopted from kiyafries.

Ingredient for Plain Mochi – (Makes 2 Hello Kitty mochi cakes)

• 1/4 cup mochiko sweet rice flour
• 1/2 tablespoon + 1/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon corn syrup
• Pinch salt

Ingredient for Orange Mochi – (Makes 2 Pompompurin mochi cakes)

• 1/4 cup mochiko sweet rice flour
• 1/2 tablespoon + 1/4 orange juice
• 1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon corn syrup
• Pinch salt

Instruction

1. Whisk together all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl until smooth. The bowl should not be more than ⅔ of the way full of batter. The mixture will be similar in consistency to a cake batter.
2. Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap. (If the plastic wrap is too tight, condensation will not be able to escape and will drip back down into the mochi. It can also overflow.)
3. Microwave on high power for 30 seconds, then stir with a heat proof silicone utensil. Re-cover the bowl with the plastic wrap and continue microwaving and stirring 30 seconds at a time until the mochi is no longer white, but has a more translucent quality and is very gummy (This took me about 1.5 minutes, but the time will vary depending on your microwave). It’s better to cook longer to be safe than to undercook– undercooked mochi will not hold its shape.
4. Turn out the mochi onto a plastic cutting board or work surface that has been generously coated in a solid layer of mochiko. Sprinkle more mochiko on top of the mochi. (Be careful, it will still be hot!)
5. While still warm but cooled enough to handle, shape your mochi. Use a knife that is coated in mochiko to divide the mochi into two pieces. Use your fingertips and palms to flatten each piece into a disk. Fill each disk with the frozen white chocolate mousse. Use your fingers to pinch closed around the filling. Roll the mochi in mochiko.
6. Undecorated mochi can be kept at room temperature for several hours, or, wrapped individually in plastic wrap (this will keep it from drying out and becoming hard) and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or two weeks in the freezer. But mochi is best eaten the same day it is made!

Decoration

Before decorating, I cooled the mochi cakes completely in a refrigerator.

I made some features of the characters ahead of time. By using some royal icing I made previously, I drew characters’ facial features, Hello Kitty’s bow and Pompompurin’s hat on parchment paper, and let them harden overnight in a refrigerator.

Placing the decorations was really tricky… Using a tweezers was a must because I made the decorations so tiny. By putting a very small amount of liquid icing as glue, I placed all facial features on the mochi cakes. 

Once I decorated the mochi cakes, they needed to be served right away. The moisture from the liquid icing ruined the powdered surface of the mochi. In a matter of 15 min, Hello Kitty’s face started to melt like a zombie… I was lucky I could take some pictures before all that happened. I will have to figure out how to make the decoration last for the next try.

Summary

Aside from the difficulties in the decorating process, the Hello Kitty and Pompompurin mochi tasted soooo good! The mochi came out perfectly soft and chewy, and the rich white chocolate mousse added perfect sweetness<3 I must do a redo for this recipe and post again.