Both ingredients you should be able to find at an Asian grocery store. If you are wanting a more traditional flavor use soybean flour, kinako, and black sugar syrup, kuromitsu. Absolutely LOVE it!!! Using the lemonade powder and sugar makes this little cake taste like a ball of lemonade. I use a thicker sugar because I’m trying to add texture. To serve, I use a little raw sugar or turbinado sugar. If it doesn’t set then add more agar agar 1/8 tsp at a time. I suggest starting with my ratio and try a bite, if it’s too firm start to lessen the agar amount by 1/8 tsp at a time. You want it to feel like water in your mouth. You don’t want it to feel like jello in the mouth. The trick is to have the cake set, but just barely set. I found 3/4 tsp to 1 cup is my perfect ratio but I’ve seen recipes that have way less or way more. All agar agar isn’t quite the same so the setting power will vary slightly. You may want to play around or try it out before you make it for other people. Carefully take them out of the molds and plate them with your toppings. Don’t take the cakes out until you are planning on serving them as they will melt in 20-30 minutes. You can use any mold you want but it needs to be silicone. If it is over heated it can get clumpy and just kinda rubbery. If it is heated too little the cake won’t set. Try to make sure you are following the process closely. Once the water hits a roiling boil, turn on a timer for 1 minute 30 seconds. Take the agar agar and water and put it in a saucepan. Boil it a couple minutes, 5 tops, and just move it to the side to cool down. You need to put more water in the pot than the amount you need because some water will evaporate. Water is literally the only flavor you have in the cake so make sure you’re starting off right.) To pre boil the water I just dump a bunch of water into a pot and put it on high. (You know there is always a couple kinds of bottled water that taste funky or dirty or just not quite right. I use either a bottled water I like the taste of or I pre boil the water. Your ice cubes will be crystal clear and no funky stuff when melted. Now, try making ice by boiling the water first and then pouring it into the ice cube trays. Have you ever made ice by filling an ice cube tray straight from the faucet? The ice cubes end up cloudy and when they melt into a glass of water it looks like there are flakes or something floating in the water. It is best to use purified water so there are no impurities to make the cake cloudy or look hazy. You’ll get better quality agar agar for a much better price. However, if you have an Asian grocery store near you, go there. Usually it’s found with other Asian ingredients. Agar agar is found in most grocery stores. It is a setting agent made from seaweed so it is completely vegan. If you’re unfamiliar with agar agar, it is an alternative for gelatin. The cakes are made with 2 ingredients, water and agar agar. The cakes are very delicate and need to be eaten pretty quickly as they melt in 20-30 minutes. These are there to add flavor, sweetness, and texture. (They are called raindrop cakes because they look like a giant raindrop.) They are served with soybean flour, called kinako, and black sugar syrup, similar to molasses, called kuromitsu. Traditionally, these are a Japanese dessert called Mizu Shingen Mochi. With my version, the cake is traditionally made, but the added flavor is lemonade. Isn’t that the fun of cooking though? Find something that inspires you and play with it so it becomes new. Let me be the first to say this is my interpretation of the cake. Also, a little bonus, because it is basically just water, it’s fat free, calorie free, pretty much everything free and vegan. They look super cool and are surprising very easy. A couple years ago these were all over social media.
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