Martha’s Localized Caramelized Banana Mochi Cake Recipe

Get local to the max with this Caramelized Banana Mochi Cake recipe from one of our favorite food lovers and creatives, Martha Cheng. In this recipe, she recommends native Hawaiian cooking bananas Iholena and Maoli.

On our marketplace today, you’ll find a mix of ripe, biodynamic Iholena and Popoulu bananas from Pu’u O Hoku Ranch that is perfect for this recipe (Popoulu is closely similar to Maoli, but is way cuter). We also have eggs from Shaka Moa to bind that recipe together!

Grab your ripe biodynamic bananas and eggs now while supplies last and get to baking!

Ripe Hawaiian Cooking Bananas (Pu‘u O Hoku Ranch)
Eggs (Shaka Moa)

Caramelized Banana Mochi Cake Recipe

(For a more “anchored” banana bottom (which becomes the top when complete and ready to present, please see Martha’s edit at the end of the recipe).

INGREDIENTS

For the caramelized bananas:

  • ¼ cup unsalted butter
  • ⅓ cup light brown sugar
  • 4 to 6 bananas (depending on size), sliced in half lengthwise. I like the Iholena and Maoli bananas in particular for this—make sure they’re ripe and yellow and just slightly soft.  
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

For the mochi:

  • 8 ounces mochiko sweet rice flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 large eggs
  • ¾ cup coconut milk
  • ¾ cup evaporated milk 

PREPARATION

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Melt the butter in a 9-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and salt and cook until melted, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and arrange the bananas, cut side down, in the pan, covering the entire bottom of the pan. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, mix the mochiko flour, sugar, and baking powder.
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, coconut milk and evaporated milk. Add the wet mixture to the dry and mix thoroughly until smooth. Don’t worry about overmixing this batter—you can’t.
     
  5. Pour the batter over the bananas and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 1 hour, until the top is golden.
  6. Run a paring knife around the edge of the pan. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then carefully invert the mochi onto a serving platter. Let cool to room temperature. This cake is best the day it’s made, when the edges are still a bit crisp and caramelized, but it will keep, wrapped, for a day. 

A solution to the floating banana problem: replace the brown sugar with white and instead of just melting the butter, make a caramel—take the sugar to an auburn color. And then place the bananas in the pan. The caramel will “glue” the bananas down. You might have to unstick a few after inverting, but they should still release fairly easily. Also, can barely distinguish between an all coconut milk batter and half coconut, half evaporated. Would that all problems in life were this fun to solve.

“Food is how I understand the world. It’s my in in learning about culture, systems, individuals. It’s how I learn our differences but also our similarities, whether it’s with the attendant at the gas station down the street or a chestnut roaster in Italy or a host mom in St. Vincent (which is really where all this started).” —Martha Cheng