I have a confession. I have a weakness for anything made from glutinous rice flour. Be it tang yuan (glutinous rice balls), muar chee (a Malaysian snack), mochi (a Japanese snack/wagashi), or mochi bread – I love it all. There’s just something about the chewy goodness of glutinous rice flour that makes it so irresistible, to me at least.

It is this weakness for glutinous rice flour that led me to be intrigued the moment I saw Y’s post on mochi cupcakes. Cake + mochi in one? Could it work? Well, there was only one way to find out: to try it out for myself. And I can very categorically say that yes, cake + mochi work exceptionally well together.

It’s hard to find the right words to describe the texture of these babies, and the best I can do is to say they are “chewy but not overly heavy/cloying”. Those of you who have eaten food made from glutinous rice flour will probably understand what I’m getting at, but I’m betting that the rest of you will have no idea what on earth I’m going on about. Maybe one of my readers can help me out here?

But as I was saying, mochi cupcakes are yum. What I also like about them are the endless number of variations one can have – flavours I’ve made so far are matcha (green tea), blueberry, cherry and most recently these fig ones. Plus they’re gluten free! I have plans to make chocolate or peanut butter ones in the near future, so stay posted for that.

I’m sending these fig mochi cupcakes over to the lovely Deeba of Passionate About Baking. She’s a fantastic baker who manages to churn out all sorts of delicious baked goods even in the sweltering Indian heat, and is hosting this month’s Monthly Mingle which is themed “Fruit in Baking”. I’ve never actually taken part in any blog events, but I guess there has to be a first for everything!

On another note, don’t forget to check out my Hotel Chocolat GIVEAWAY! 🙂

Fig mochi cupcakes

Adapted from this recipe on Lemonpi

Makes approximately 12 cupcakes

225g glutinous rice flour

80g unsalted butter, melted

100g caster sugar

187g evaporated milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon mixed spice

3 figs, cut into 1-2cm slices

demerara sugar, for sprinkling (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 175’C.

2. Line a 12 hole muffin pan with muffin cases, and set aside.

3. Sift the glutinous rice flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and mixed spice.

4. Whisk eggs and sugar until light and fluffy (I use a stand mixer, but you could just as easily use a handheld electric mixer).

5. Fold in the melted butter into the egg/sugar mixture, followed by the evaporated milk and vanilla bean paste.

6. Fold in the sifted dry ingredients in two batches.

7. Pour the cupcake mixture into the prepared muffin cases (make sure to only fill it to about 3/4 full, or it may overflow). Place a fig slice in each muffin case, and sprinkle with demerara sugar.

8. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.