Pumpkin Mochi Bundt

Happy National Bundt Day!

I’m not one to observe food holidays, but the fact that Mary the Food Librarian celebrates this one so ardently makes it hard to resist joining in. This is her fourth year of I Like Big Bundts and my third time participating.

The bundt cake is pretty great. Don’t like frosting? Not a fan of decorating cakes? Bundt cake for you! (Incidentally, I am one of those people.) Really, they look pretty enough as-is, thanks to those bodacious curves.

This year I decided to make a Pumpkin Mochi Bundt, obviously. I’d been eyeing JustJenn’s Pumpkin Mochi for a couple of years now, and seeing as how she and Mary are good friends, it only seemed fitting to bake it in a bundt pan. Jenn has a lot of mochi recipes on her site (I’m a big fan of the brownies), and she even has a mochi cookbook out.

While I do like big bundts, I like to bake small ones in my half-sized 6 cup pan. So, I halved Jenn’s recipe for a 13×9-inch pan, which worked out perfectly. I wasn’t quite sure about how long to bake it, so I started with 20 minutes, and then after a couple of checks, added 16 minutes total. Even though the tester came out clean, I think it could have used a few more minutes; the edges are a little gummy, but that might be normal. I’m cool with it.

For those who have never baked with mochiko (glutinous rice flour) the resulting spongy, chewy texture can be a little weird at first, but I found that it gets pretty addictive. An added bonus is that it’s gluten-free, so this cake would be a great dessert option for Thanksgiving if you or any other guests are avoiding wheat.

By the way, this is the first time I’ve successfully baked a bundt WITHOUT using the baking spray with the flour in it. Jenn says she just brushes melted butter in the pan, so that’s what I did and SUCCESS. I mean, I was extremely liberal with the buttering, but still. I am a changed woman.

If you baked or will be baking a bundt for National Bundt Day, you should let Mary know by November 23 because she’s posting a roundup of all submitted bundts. She’ll also send you some gift tags and enter you in a raffle for a fancy-pants bundt pan. See? So festive!

And yes, she has a ton of bundt recipes on her site if you’re in need of some inspiration.