Japan – Raindrop Cake

by Zayna Khan

Raindrop cake; is not it look like a piece of art or something. This dish is not a very old traditional dish but It is now a part of Japanese cuisine from 2014. This is a zero calories dessert in which we can have only two or three ingredients and you come up with a unique dessert like an art piece.

This dish is a Japanese dessert made up of water, agar, and some sugar or synthetic flavors if you like. You can add edible flowers to it. Garnish it with anything you love to eat with it. This is your dish, you can amend it any way you like to.

Base of this dish is so simple so you can made it complicated while adding the flavors you love, with some different garnishing.

History of the dish

As if we move to the history and origin of this dish, ”MIZU SHINGEN MOCHI”, is word come to mind. Actually, this dish is introduced to Japanese cuisine by the company where was made for the first time in history. Kienshieka Seika company, which created this dish and name it MIZU SHINGEN MOCHI, in 2013.

”MIZU” means ”WATER” and ”SHINGEN MOCHI” means ”CAKE”.

After the idea of ”eating water”, this idea was taken up by American chef and introduce this dish to United States in 2016.

Elements of this dish

This dish has few elements are the following :

1.Water

Usually, mineral water is taken which is high in minerals and ions. But originally and traditionally water from MOUNT KAIKOMA in Southern Japan is taken and added to this dish. It is said that water from that mountain is slightly sweet so we don’t need to add sugar to this dish while making it with that water. But if you are not using that water then we have to add sugar.

2.Agar

Agar is a gelatinous, vegan material to solidify anything and make it like jello. It is derived from Algae. We can use gelatin instead of Agar in our dishes. When heating it up with something you want to solidify. It takes 20 minutes to solidify a liquid into jello-like consistency. Packets of agar powder sold out there in the markets. They have special instructions to cook with their product. Their weightage with the amount used and the temperature is given which is different from product to product.

3.Kuromitsu

Molasses like syrup which is used as topping to this dish. This is known as JAPANESE SUGAR SYRUP and also known as BLACK HONEY. The consistency of this syrup is thinner than honey and less sweet in taste with aroma variation from mild to strong. You can make this type of syrup from brown sugar.

4. kinaku

Soya bean flour is known as Kinaku, also used as topping to this beautiful raindop cake.

There are many variation made according to the addition of ingredients like:

• Citrus fruits
• Berries
• Edible flowers
• Any additional topping like chocolate etc.
• Maple syrup
• Sugar syrup

FLAVORS OF RAINDROP CAKE

This dish is usually made up that two main ingredients that are tasteless and with zero calories. So some of the toppings are added over this dish and make it a little tangy with sweet and sour flavors. Like kuromitsu this sauce or syrup which served on top of this dish and giving it a sweet effect and goes well with this beautiful dish.

This is a dessert of zero calories even if you add any toppings over it. You can have only 50 calories per serving of a dessert.

SHAPE OF RAINDROP CAKE

As this is a raindrop cake so shape must be of like a rain drop. We present this dish into the semicircle shape. Molds shaped like semicircle is used to set this dessert. This is very clear and crystal dessert so felt like a raindrop.

We can have different shapes of this cake like any star, square etc.

CUISINE = JAPANESE CUISINE

COURSE = DESSERT

TASTE = DEPENDS ON TOPPING YOU PUT ON

SERVING = COLD TEMPERATURE

YIELD = 4 PERSON

CALORIES = 30

INGREDIENTS OF THE RAIN DROP CAKE

• Mineral water = 1cup
• Agar powder = 1 tablespoon
• Edible flowers = as required

INSTRUCTIONS

• Take a cooking pan and add water with these agar spoons into it.
• Turn on the heat and start mixing it together. When mixture is dissolved and starts boiling turn off the flame.
• Now take a semi circle mold and add this mixture into it.
• While cooling down, add some edible flowers if you want to add into it on this stage.
• Now put this normal room temperature mixture into fridge to set for 5 to 8 hours.
• Usually it takes about 30 minutes to set a agar mixture but we required more than that for proper setting and unmolding.
• After setting, unmold the mixture into plate and serve with proper toppings.

KIROMITSU

Ingredients

• Black sugar / kokuto = 150 grams
• Brown sugar = 100 grams
• Water = 200 ml

Cooking method

• Take a cooking pot and add water with sugars into it.
• Now turn on the flames and it starts dissolving, when sugar is dissolved and mixture start boiling turn heat low and put it on simmering.
• After 10 minutes when consistency thickened cool down and serve.