How to Make a Raindrop Cake (three ways)

Today I am showing you how to make the super popular Raindrop cake, but I’m putting a personal spin on the idea and showing you three different ways to make the Japanese dessert Mizu Shingen Mochi! In this step by step tutorial, I will show you the regular raindrop cake, one with gelatin art inside and another with gelatin floating fruit!

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Finding “exotic” ingredients in a small town can be difficult, so thank goodness for friends who live in big cities and send you random things when you put out a cry for help on Facebook. If it wasn’t for my friend Lisa, I wouldn’t have gotten the roasted soy bean flour so quickly to try this dessert with. Thank you friend! Lisa came to my rescue with the flour, which is just one of the odd pieces that make up this “cake”. The other pieces include the brown sugar syrup (not so odd but also hard to find but can be easily be substituted), and agar agar (tastes like the ocean and yes, hard to find).  We won’t even start talking about the syringes yet. 

Mizu Shingen Mochi is a Japanese dessert that has apparently been around for years, but a NYC company decided to bring it to it’s insane current popularity by introducing it at their market as the Raindrop Cake. Basically, the original is a mixture of water, and agar agar, and served with the soy flour and syrup. Having seen so many people already recreate the traditional version, I decided to put my own spin on it and make it a little bit (completely) different, and in three different ways! 

For the traditional drop I went with a clear gelatin base. If you’ve worked with gelatin, you know that there is always a slightly yellow tinge to it so in order to make it clear, I had to increase the ratio of water to gelatin, add lots of sugar and some citric acid. Citric acid is a “natural preservative and is also used to add an acidic (sour) taste to foods and soft drinks.” When you are choosing a flavoring for your raindrop cake, use an extract that is clear so that the gelatin isn’t clouded with the color. 

Gelatin art is something that I have been wanting to try for a while now and the only “difficult” part of this version of the raindrop cake is trying to track down syringes! I went to my local pharmacy, and despite feeling very awkward asking, I managed to get some syringes from them. They are also available on Amazon, and try animal feed stores too!  You want the larger gauges for the needles so that the gelatin mixture can easily get through. Be careful when using the syringes as it hurts when you poke yourself! Not that I would have done something so stupid or anything. Ha.  Make sure that your colored gelatin has cooled slightly before injecting it. Slight changes in the position of the needle will give you different angles to be able to create the petals. For the leaves, it’s important to keep the angle of the needle close to the top of the gelatin sphere to that they sit at the “bottom” of the flower. 

The floating fruit is the best tasting raindrop cake in my opinion. I love the additional color and taste that adding the berries gives. When I was trying out different fruits I learned that kiwi’s are too acidic for this, and the gelatin won’t set properly with them (or other acidic fruit) in it. If you choose to pour more gelatin on top of the fruit once it has briefly set, use a spoon to place more gelatin on top (so that it doesn’t disturb the fruit). Don’t wait for the initial layer to completely solidify or the second layer will not fully attach to the first.  

Any of these versions of the raindrop cake are wonderful to try! Have fun with it. 

How to Make a Raindrop Cake (three ways)

Clear Gelatin Recipe
Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons gelatin powder 
• 2 cups sugar (400g)
• 4 cups water (1L)
• 1 teaspoon citric acid powder
• 1 teaspoon Clear flavoring/extract

Procedure:

1. Mix gelatin with 1 cup of cold water and set aside for it to bloom.
2. Heat sugar with 3 cups of water and 1 tsp of citric acid powder in a saucepan. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
3. Remove from heat when vapor begins to appear above the surface. 
4. Add gelatin and stir until completely dissolved.
5. Add food flavoring and let the mixture cool.
6. Pour into desired containers and leave in the fridge for several hours.

Raindrop Cake
Ingredients:

• prepared clear gelatin half spheres
• roasted soy bean flour
• brown sugar syrup

Procedure:

1. Prepare gelatin half spheres and serve along side flour and syrup.

Gelatin Flower Art Raindrop Cake
Ingredients:

• prepared clear gelatin half spheres
• clear gelatin with whipping cream/milk
• gel paste

Procedure:

1. Prepare milk gelatin and color with gel paste. Using a needle, fill it with colored gelatin mixture.
2. Remove a small divot from the center of the globe, inject color into the globe with short injections for the flower.
3. Fill needle with green colored gelatin mixture and inject into the globe.
4. Fill divot with the color that matches the flower color.
5. Place globe back into fridge for the color to solidify.
6. To remove, hold outside of the container under hot water and gelatin will soften for easy removal.

Fruit Filled Raindrop Cake
Ingredients:

• clear gelatin
• fresh fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries etc)
• mint leaves

Procedure:

1. Pour prepared clear gelatin into mold.
2. Place fresh fruit into the cup. For a change, cut strawberries with shaped cutters.
3. Leave in the fridge for several hours.
4. To remove, hold outside of the container under hot water and gelatin will soften for easy removal.