Gudetama Honey Rice Cakes

This will be a simple recipe for creating your own Gudetama figured rice cakes. The process is super manageable and only requires some time in shaping the actual Gudetama! Feel free to add any ingredients into your rice cakes such as red bean, black sesame, or peanut butter!

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup glutinous rice flour (divided in half)

2/3 cup water (divided in half)

Yellow food coloring

Black food coloring

Honey

To make the rocks:

1. Add a few (2-3) drops of black food coloring into 1/3 cup of water.
2. Combine half the rice flour and the 1/3 cup of water with food coloring in a bowl. Mix well, adding either flour or water until you can hold the dough with your hands without it sticking too much.
3. To make the rocks, roll these into balls (1-in. diameter) and let them set in the fridge (not freezer). Leave one ball out.

To make the Gudetama:

1. Add a few (2-3) drops of yellow food coloring into remaining 1/3 cup of water.
2. Repeat step 2.
3. Start shaping your Gudetama by rolling your dough into an oval shape.
4. Use a chopstick or the back of a spoon to make the chin of the Gudetama. You can do this by gently pressing a horizontal, curved line in the middle of the dough (see pictures for reference)
5. Pinch the sides of the dough to make little arms
6. Take the one ball you left out in step 3 and add a few more drops of black food coloring to it until it’s black or almost black. You may need to add a little more rice flour if it gets too wet.
7. Flatten out this ball and, using a knife, start cutting out small horizontal pieces for the eyes. Then slightly longer lines for its mouth.
8. Arrange these on your gudetama’s face as you’d like!
9. Boil a pot of water. While waiting for the water to boil, stick your Gudetama in the fridge to let them set.
10. Once the water is boiling, take out all your rice cakes (rocks + gudetama) from the fridge. Use a spoon or ladle to carefully drop each Gudetama ONE AT A TIME into the pot. Don’t boil more than 2 at once. Once they float up to the surface, they’re done. Take them out and transfer to a bowl filled with a little bit of water.
11. Repeat with all the remaining rice cakes.
12. Arrange them however you’d like and enjoy! I enjoy mine with honey or jiu niang (酒酿, aka sweet fermented rice).