The other day I went to my friend’s house for a very small get-together. I’ve known her for about 10 years. Since she became a mom we don’t hang out very often, but she’s one of those friends whom you don’t see or talk to everyday but when you meet them you can just chill and chat. There was also another friend coming, and I wanted to bring some desserts.
I had a bag of sweet red bean paste in the fridge and a can of sweet red beans. I got them a while ago but didn’t have a chance to use them.
I also had this sweet rice powder, Mochi-ko. It’s produced in the U.S., so I think you can find it in any Asia super market.
Hmmm what can I make with these… I know, I can make daifuku! (rice cake with sweet red beans inside) It’s boring to make regular daifuku, so I decided to make everyone’s favorite, strawberry daifuku! I pretty much made it so I could eat it, actually.
I didn’t take enough photos to do a how-to, because this was my first time making it, and I had no idea how it’d turn out. The recipe is super easy, and I made two batches in only 30 minutes! The final products were delicious, but I feel like I can make them better next time.
This already looks good.
I should've cooked sweet red beans in a pot to let the moisture out a lilttle bit. I felt it was a bit sticky. I put them in the fridge like this so the sweet red beans became harder and easier to deal with.
I followed the recipe but I felt like I heated the dough (?) a bit too long. I think my microwave’s heat setting is hotter than a regular microwave.
This is pretty much how you make rice cake, mix sweet rice powder, sugar, water, and microwave it!
I think the dough was a bit too hard, but because of that it was fairly easy to handle. But I'll try to make it softer next ime.
No one will see the bottom of the daifuku... no one!
I was just going to put them in a tupperware and take it with me but then I remembered that a couple days before, Derek accidentally bought really cute cupcake cups. He thought I put it on the conveyor belt with other baking stuff I was buying, so when he saw the cashier putting it in a bag, he thought nothing of it. I was just thinking how I could use all the cupcake cups… I put a daifuku in it and they fits perfectly!
I had to eat one of them to make sure that it tasted okay.
The skin could've been thinner, but it was DELICIOUS!
Maybe I’ll take more photos for a how-to next time. Also, I found a recipe for daifuku with all-purpose flour and I want to see if it’s as good as using sweet rice powder.
The strawberry daifuku were a huge hit! They were all surprised how easy it was to make them. We were chatting over glasses of wine but we had to have daifuku with green tea. Nothing goes well together like daifuku and green tea.
My friend’s daughter is 2 and a half, and her recent obsession is Hello Kitty. She had Hello Kitty dolls everywhere but I noticed that every Hello Kitty doll had a mouth and most of them even had eyebrows. My friend said that her daughter asked her to draw them on. It makes sense that kids find it weird that Hello Kitty has no mouth or eyebrows, but I thought it was hilarious because they all looked like knock-off Hello Kitty with mouths and eyebrows.
This is their magical Hello Kitty puppet. A 2 and a half year old will listen to everything this puppet says, including brushing teeth, washing hair, going to bed, etc...
We all talked, laughed, sang and danced with the 2 and a half year old. It really made me realize that everything tastes so much better when you eat it with the people you like. 
For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.
I was born in Japan, lived in New York for a while and now living in San Diego, California. I love creating things with my hands in my free time whether it’s making character bento or stuffing stuff! And now I'm working for 
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, those strawberry daifuku look awesome! I’ll have to make some myself now. I gotta get around to buying some mochiko, that’s for sure.
That looks wonderful! And the little girl, so cute! Hello Kitty has always needed a mouth, you know. ^_-
Those look awesome, especially for a first go! I’m excited about maybe giving it a try some time now, since I too have access to all those ingredients! =D It’d be great if a daifuku showed up as a part of a bento, but do you think it’d work out?
Athena
It’d be awesome to have daifuku in a bento, but unfortunately homemade daifuku tends to get hard really fast. I microwaved it the next day but it didn’t get as soft as the first day. But I heard that there’s a recipe to make daifuku that stays soft for a couple of days. Maybe I’ll try it someday… !
That looks amazing!! I never tried making daifuku before as I thought it would be hard but you made it look easy!
I spoke to an experienced chef in Hong Kong who has been making the Chinese equivalent for 40 years. ( http://wp.me/p18zw1-As ) He told me that he only recommends eating them fresh on the same day. He usually only makes just enough to sell for the day!
Those look so good! I have all those ingredients at home right now!
What proportions did you use of mochiko/sugar/water?