This Rice Cake is really fun to make. Along the way are two tricks that are super cool and I am guessing most of you won’t have heard of them.
As for the rice cake, it doesn’t follow normal cake rules at all and when you take the first bite, you will be hooked. It has a simply irresistible texture and sinking your teeth in, is clearly the right thing to do.
It is the chameleon in the kitchen! It can take on any guise you care to give it. To name a few of the many different flavours you might dare to try – almond, chocolate, hazelnut, coconut, lemon, orange, rum soaked raisins; all these go superbly with this little number and are very easy to substitute.
GLUTEN FREE
It is rather similar in vein to the baked Lemon Cheesecake with ricotta I posted 2 weeks ago. However, the bonus for many regarding this Rice Cake recipe is that it is gluten-free without even trying.
This Rice Cake is not so well known in Turkey but all the ingredients are readily available here and the ‘lor peynir’ (ricotta) certainly lends itself extremely well to this Rice Cake recipe. That’s if you use the cheesy version.
TWO POSSIBLE CHOICES – WITH OR WITHOUT RICOTTA
You have two options. The top recipe uses ricotta and is a lovely rich version. The lower recipes are also delicious and although they do not have any ricotta in them, your guests will think they do. All the recipes adapt well to different flavours. The lower two recipes are very similar, with a little butter added to them, replacing the need for ricotta. I can’t emphasize enough how versatile this Rice Cake recipe is.
A ‘WONDER TRICK’ THAT I ABSOLUTELY LOVE
I learnt a trick that just makes cakes come out of tins so easily. I am rather intrigued how it actually can work, but I can assure you it does. It is quite amazing.
Simply grease your tin and then roll around a decent amount of sugar on the tin base and round the sides. For these recipes here, I have reduced the amount of sugar in the recipe to accommodate the extra sugar in the tin.
It is not costing any extra calories to take this simple step and it adds a nice coating to the cake as well as making it a pleasure to turn out the cake. The recipes below have the amount of sugar stated for cake and tin separately.
A CHOCOLATE CHIP TRICK TOO
I have also read that to ensure chocolate chips do not all sink to the bottom, you can roll them in flour or fine breadcrumbs. It requires less than a tablespoon of flour or crumbs to coat a full cup of chocolate chips, before dropping them into the cake batter. If you wish to keep this cake completely gluten-free, you can use cornflour.
I did try the cornflour method because I was making this cake completely gluten free for a friend’s birthday and I can say that about a third of the chocolate chips sunk. So I think we can say that is fairly successful.
My third rice cake in 5 days was dressed with hazelnuts instead of chocolate. Initially this was met with great disappointment when Henrik learnt there was no chocolate but later he admitted that the hazelnut rice cake was right up there with the chocolate one. In fact, he had loved all three of them. After originally turning his nose up at the thought of a rice cake, he is a total convert.
ICING SUGAR is not the way to go with this cake
For the birthday cake, I wanted to dress the cocoa dusted cake with a patterned layer of icing sugar on top, using a doily. A word of advice – don’t. The icing sugar disappeared within seconds of dropping it on. Nothing I could do would allow it to stay. The cake is simply too moist.
IF YOU CAN RESIST.. 2 points worth noting
POINT 1
Sometimes I disgust myself. On my third rice cake – (yes I do test and retest these recipes!) I was so addicted that I simply had to eat a slice before it was completely cold. I guess it was good because I learnt two things about warm Rice Cake.
Firstly, it does not slice cleanly when warm.
Secondly, the flavours are not truly settled and are a bit blurred. It’s far better cold.
POINT 2
We still had a couple of pieces of the cocoa dusted chocolate chip rice cake left over on the third day after making it. We could not believe how delicious it was. The cocoa had become quite moist and the cake became a little mousse-like. If you can resist the temptation not to eat it all on the first day you will be in for a treat, it’s definitely worth saving some a couple of days.
This also applies to other flavours such as coconut which came to the fore, the following day. Now if you can count, you can see I am now up to the fourth rice cake in under two weeks. This has to stop! Soon!
SOME RICE CAKE FLAVOUR COMBOS WORTH CONSIDERING:
Here are a few well known and popular flavour combinations for the Rice Cake. Once you read the recipes, you will see that it is very easy to adapt any given taste you desire.
The basis of the cake flavour stems from the lemon peel strips steeped in the milk. You should pair these flavours with the lemon peel, but do not add the vanilla essence or grated lemon rind which are found further down the recipe, when adding flavours from the list below. These listed below will substitute for the vanilla and grated rind.
- 1 1/2 – 2 teaspoons of coconut essence
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of coconut essence and 1 cup dessicated coconut
- 2 teaspoons of almond essence and 1 cup chopped blanched almonds
- 1 cup raisins soaked in just enough rum to cover them. Add both raisins and rum
- 1/2 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts and 3/4 cup chocolate chips
- 50 ml brandy – prick cake with toothpick whilst hot and pour on top
- 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 1/2 tsp almond essence
The list is virtually limitless and can include various chopped dried fruits and different spices such as cinnamon or nutmeg. There is also a large range of different liqueurs and spirits which would go very nicely with this cake.
The rice mixture before baking should be of a thick but slightly sloppy consistency. If it is looking too dry, after adding the eggs and flavouring, a little milk can be added.
- Peel of 1 lemon
- 120g sugar
- 2 cups (480ml) milk
- 2 cups (480ml) water
- 200g short grain / broken rice / Arborio rice
- pinch of salt
- 3 eggs
- 250g sweet (unsalted) ricotta
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- Grated rind of 2 lemons
- Place lemon peel strips, sugar, milk and water in a pan and bring to boil
- Simmer for 30 mins minimum but the longer the better for bringing out the lemon flavour
- Remove the peel and add the rice and salt
- Bring to boil, cover, turn down low and simmer 5 minutes
- Turn off heat, do not remove lid, cover with a towel or similar, leave to absorb liquid for 30 mins
- Remove lid and allow to cool
- Turn oven on to 160C
- Add eggs one at a time mixing thoroughly after each egg
- Add grated rind or at this point add in your choice of flavouring
- Add ricotta and mix extremely well
- Grease pie tin
- Sprinkle normal sugar generously over greased pan and turn around and tilt to spread evenly
- Spoon in cheesy rice mixture and flatten with the back of a spoon
- Cook until it has turned golden and an inserted skewer comes out cleanly
- Allow the cake to cool in the tin
- 750ml milk full fat or skimmed
- 120g sugar
- Strips of lemon peel from one lemon
- 200g short grained rice / Arborio Rice / broken rice
- pinch salt
- 80g butter
- 3 eggs
- 2 tsp cardamom essence
- 40g (1/3 cup) chopped toasted hazelnuts
- 30g normal sugar for dusting pan
- Place lemon peel and milk in a pan and bring to boil
- Add sugar
- Let simmer 5 minutes before removing lemon peel
- Add the rice and salt
- Bring to boil, cover, turn down low and simmer 8 minutes, stirring occasionally
- Turn off heat, do not remove lid, cover with a towel or similar, leave to absorb liquid for 30 mins
- Remove lid and allow to cool to a warm temperature
- At this point, drop in the butter, stir it a little and let it melt into the cooling rice mixture
- Turn oven on to 175C
- Grease pie tin which can range from 23cm to 28cm (9" to 11")
- Sprinkle sugar generously over greased pan and turn around and tilt to spread evenly
- Once rice is close to cool, add eggs one at a time mixing thoroughly after each egg
- Stir in the almond essence
- Add the hazelnuts and mix well
- Spoon in rice mixture and flatten gently with the back of a spoon
- Cook until it has turned golden and an inserted skewer comes away cleanly
- Allow it to cool in the pan
- Turn on to serving plate
- 750ml milk
- 120g sugar
- Strips of lemon peel from one lemon
- 200g short grained rice / Arborio Rice / broken rice
- pinch salt
- 80g butter
- 3 eggs
- 2 tsp almond essence
- 100g (1 cup) chocolate chips
- 30g normal sugar for dusting pan
- Place lemon peel and milk in a pan and bring to boil
- Add sugar
- Let simmer 5 minutes before removing lemon peel
- Add the rice and salt
- Bring to boil, cover, turn down low and simmer 8 minutes, stirring occasionally
- Turn off heat, do not remove lid, cover with a towel or similar, leave to absorb liquid for 30 mins
- Remove lid and allow to cool to a warm temperature
- At this point, drop in the butter, stir it a little and let it melt into the cooling rice mixture
- Turn oven on to 175C
- Once rice is close to cool, add eggs one at a time mixing thoroughly after each egg
- Stir in the almond essence
- Add the chocolate chips and mix well
- Grease pie tin
- Sprinkle sugar generously over greased pan and turn around and tilt to spread evenly
- Spoon in rice mixture and flatten gently with the back of a spoon
- Cook until it has turned golden and an inserted skewer comes away cleanly
- Allow it to cool in the pan
- Turn on to serving plate
- Dust cake with cocoa powder using a small sieve
Hoping you have as much fun in the kitchen as I have had, whipping up these rice cakes. I find making them nearly as addictive as eating them.
Afiyet Olsun!
Thanks Lulu for the amazing rice cake recipes, thanks again