INGREDIENTS
German coconut buttercream
300 ml coconut milk
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
4 egg yolks
75 g raw caster sugar
20 g (2 tbsp) corn starch
60 g salted cultured butter, chilled and chopped into 1 cm cubes
250 g salted cultured butter, extra, softened to room temperature
Coconut mochi cake
350 g (1 ¾ cups) glutinous rice
100 g raw caster sugar
1 tsp salt flakes
100 g softened palm sugar or coconut nectar
4 eggs
400 ml coconut milk
200 ml coconut cream
60 g salted cultured butter, melted, plus more to grease the tin
1 vanilla bean pod, seeds scraped, reserve the empty pod to use in buttercream recipe
To serve
2 mangos, thinly sliced
METHOD
German coconut buttercream
1. Place the coconut milk, vanilla seeds and vanilla pods into a saucepan. Place on medium heat, induction setting 5 and heat for approximately 10 minutes. Remove from the heat once it’s almost boiling. Remove the pods.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks, sugar and corn starch until light and frothy. Slowly pour the heated coconut milk into the bowl, whisking to combine. Once all ingredients are incorporated, place back into the saucepan. Cook on a medium-low heat, induction setting 4 stirring, for 5 minutes or until the mixture has thickened and is smooth.
3. Remove the custard mixture from the cooktop and whisk in the cold butter.
4. Cover with baking paper sitting directly on top so that the crème pat doesn’t form a curd and chill in the fridge for at least two hours.
5. Place the extra butter in the bowl of a freestanding mixer with a paddle attachment and mix on high speed for 6 minutes, or until the butter is very pale and doubled in volume.
6. Reduce to medium speed, slowly spoon in 1 tablespoon of the custard mixture at a time. Incorporate each spoonful before putting in the next spoonful.
7. Place the buttercream into a piping bag with whatever nozzle you’d like to decorate with. Place the buttercream in the fridge for 1 hour, or until firm.
Coconut mochi cake
1. Using a food processor or spice grinder, grind the glutinous rice into a fine powder.
2. Butter and line a 24 cm cake tin with compostable baking paper.
3. Mix all of the dry ingredients together, then incorporate all the wet ingredients, use a balloon whisk to incorporate everything together. Let the mixture rest for at least 30 minutes.
4. Using a rubber spatula, pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin.
5. Preheat the oven on Fan Plus at 175°C.
6. Place the cake on shelf level 2 and bake for 60-70 minutes. Do not under bake this cake. It will be gritty!
7. Cool at room temperature before decorating, it will be soft, but firm at the centre and a lovely golden brown.
To serve
1. Place the cake on a cake stand and decorate with the mango slices and buttercream.
Hints and tips
- “German buttercream is wondrous, not stodgy or overly sweet, making this mochi cake a dream; light and airy to the almost fudgy cake base of sticky rice.” – Palisa
- Bananas, strawberries or other seasonal fruit can be used if mangos are not in season.
- The cake should be stored at room temperature, if you refrigerate desserts containing rice flour, it will change the texture and go hard.
- If you can only find unsalted cultured butter add 2 teaspoons of salt flakes to the buttercream.
APPLIANCE / FUNCTION
Palisa Anderson
Chef, restaurateur and author, Palisa Anderson is second-generation restauranteur and self-made first generational organic farmer. For Palisa, food is life. Having grown up in the kitchen of Sydney institution, Chat Thai, she soon expanded the family business to include several other eateries, which she now stocks with produce from her successful foray into organic farming, Boon Luck Farm in Byron Bay. “More than ever, an emphasis on quality, sustainability, authenticity and immunity boosting ingredients is important to us and vital to the well-being of our diners, our land and our children.”
