It was a trend last year that this raindrop cake almost pops up on any food channels. The light, intangible softness, and almost see-through opacity of a water drop make this Raindrop cake or Mizu shingen mochi so popular, double that with its interesting visual appeal.
You don’t have to collect rain to make a raindrop cake. Just kidding! This raindrop was not that hard to make, just a few tools and you will get some nice dessert at a low-calorie count in no time.
Ingredients are simple. You would need some gelling agent, water, and sugar unless you want something fancier like sakura flower, strawberry tips, small fruits… Those can be added as well to decorate.
To make sure the drop is clear, using distilled water is recommended. Of course, white pure sugar or any nonbrown color sugar would work.
Of course, the type of jelly powder being used is what makes one drop different from another. Most of the drops in Japan are made using CoolAgar with a larger ratio of water (to make it wiggly soft and clear). This CoolAgar is formulated of Carrageenan, a gelling agent. So if you can’t find the brand in a nearby store, try carrageenan and use the same or more water ratio as package instruction.
Now, if you can’t find any carrageenan, then agar powder, gelatin, and the like can be substituted as well. Just watch or maybe test with different levels of water to see which would give the best water shape. Note that gelatin is not vegan, so if that is a concern, be sure to consider something else.
As stated, the more water concentration the softer your drop will be. If you want your drop to flop down like real water, add more, otherwise just do as package instruction then the shape will hold.
I used a silicone spherical ice mold to make these drop completely round. However, you can use half-sphere (etc. an all-round bottom cup for that)
This drop is usually served with kinako (Japanese soy powder) and syrup. But if you can’t find one, grinding some roasted peanut, cashew any type of nuts/bean would work
Tips: if there’s a bubble when you are pouring the jelly to mold, use a toothpick to pop and remove it.
Put fruit or flower to half-filled half-cool jelly to hold its in place, wait until the whole thing lightly set before fill up the mold with the remaining mixture.
Recipe for Wiggly raindrop cakes
Ingredients
- 3 g carrageenan powder Japanese Coolagar, Agar agar, gelatine equivalent
- 300 ml distilled water
- 20 g sugar white
- 20 g soy powder for garnishing
- 4 Tbsp syrup any flavor
- cherry blossom, tea flowers, cherry, etc. decoration
Tools
- silicone sphere mold, egg mold… or small bowl
- small funnel that fit hole on sphere mold
- toothpicks
Instructions
- Follow package instruction to coagulate powder or as below.
- Mix agar/gelatine/carrageenan powder with sugar.
- Heat water on medium setting. When water is hot but not boiling yet, pour in the powder-sugar mixture while stirring to prevent precipitation.
- When all powder dissolve and the whole color became clear, it's time to pour into mold
Using silicone sphere mold
- Place bottom-half mold over an icy cool water bath.
- Keep the unused jelly liquid warm over the smallest heat setting on your range top (this to prevent it coagulate). Fill to about 3/4 of each half sphere.
- Add flowers or decorative fruits. Use a toothpick to adjust shape/position or remove any bubble.
- In case of using fruit for decoration, wait a couple seconds for the jelly layer to half-set before adding the fruit. This is so that it can hold the decoration in place.
- Replace and secure the other top half sphere and fill the rest through the small hole on top. If using the smaller ice cube mold, then just fill to 3/4 of the mold, and snap the top layer on top.
- Let sit to cool down to room temperature. Then chill in fridge until serving.
- Serve cold after 30 minutes – an hour with soy powder and some syrup.
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