Pumpkin-Coconut Mochi Cake

For all your Thanksgiving week snacking needs

Hi friends. Somehow here we are and it’s already the week of Thanksgiving. I’m sure you already have your Thanksgiving dinner menu all picked out. If you still need a menu plan, here’s a complete Thanksgiving menu I developed for Epicurious that can be cooked start to finish in just three hours.

I’ll be at my aunt’s house for Thanksgiving this year, which means all I have to do is bring a dessert. I’m thinking I’ll make this classic from Gourmet, which my family has been making for decades. I might do a classic pumpkin pie instead, or as well, we’ll see. To make gluten-free pumpkin pie, I like to buy these gluten-free gingersnaps and make a crumb crust with them—it’s so much easier that way!

But let’s forget about Thanksgiving dinner menus for a minute and talk about the days before and after the holiday when you’re sitting around visiting with friends and family. You’re going to want something sweet to nibble with mug of hot coffee or tea. And I think I have just the thing for that: my pumpkin-coconut mochi cake.

I started making mochi cakes in 2020 in the months just before our offices and test kitchens officially closed for the pandemic. Naturally gluten-free with a chewy-gooey texture I still can never get enough of, I became sort of obsessed with all the ways to riff on a mochi cake based off of traditional Hawaiian butter mochi. That winter I developed this formula that could work with multiple flavors, types of milk, and types of fat. Working on my cookbook a year later, that recipe evolved into what is now my platonic ideal mochi cake, made with browned butter and a coconut crust. If you haven’t tried it, you really must. Four years after developing it I still make it often—it is my husband’s (and his sister’s!) most requested dessert. I have my favorite mochiko on subscription because of these two particular mochi cake lovers in my family.

With cans of pumpkin puree staring me down from every corner of every grocery store last week, I decided it was time to try putting some in my browned butter mochi cake. With a few tweaks and swaps, what emerged is a new family favorite, which we’ve been happily nibbling all weekend long. It’s still got that bouncy mochi texture going on, but also sort of a pumpkin pie filling custardy-ness. The browned butter and splash of bourbon lend it a fully caramelized autumnal glow, while the pumpkin and traditional pie spices bask in that glow with the coconut for a delightfully nontraditional holiday treat. Bonus points: it’s gluten-free, and doesn’t require any special equipment to make. Wish I could pass you a slice through the screen!

Pumpkin-Coconut Mochi Cake

Serves 8

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for pan

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut 

1 cup unsweetened full-fat coconut milk

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon bourbon

2¼ cups (370 g) glutinous rice flour, preferably Koda Farms Blue Star Mochiko

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously butter an 8-inch cake pan. You can totally make this in a 9-inch pan if that’s what you have, it’ll just be less tall. Generously coat the pan with shredded coconut, tapping out excess into a bowl, and reserve for topping the cake.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Cook, swirling often, until the butter foams and then stops foaming, smells richly nutty, and is starting to turn golden-brown. Remove from heat, pour in the coconut milk and pumpkin puree, and stir to combine, being sure to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan as you stir. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar and continue whisking until the mixture has cooled to room temperature. Add the eggs, bourbon, rice flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, allspice, and nutmeg and whisk until smooth. 

Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan, then evenly sprinkle the top with the remaining shredded coconut. 

Bake until the coconut is golden-brown and the top begins to crack, 55 to 65 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. Run a knife around the perimeter of the cake, place a plate over the pan, and invert the cake onto the plate. Hold the wire rack over the cake and invert the cake again onto the rack. This tricky-sounding but easily executed maneuver helps preserve your pretty coconut-top crust!

Here’s wishing you and yours a nourishing (in all the ways!) holiday this week. Try not to stress too much about your Thanksgiving dinner—I like to think of it as just another dinner party! And to that end, I recommend you do as we do in my family and serve it at our normal 7pm dinner time, which gives the cooks (hi!) a lot more time to enjoy the day and leisurely prepare a feast for their loved ones.

xoxo, A