Bacon Maple Mochi Cake - Ba-Ma-Chi Cake: Split personality

For the ever brilliant and hip KJ and JJ who suggested I try this combination

Of course when you have three kids, it's easy to assume that they'll share some characteristics and you'll have to parent them more or less similarly. The nitty gritty reality of parenting is that no two children are alike, and often times you have contrasting personalities that make you parent one child entirely differently from how you parent another. When the kids are little and the personalities are in flux it's not as obvious, but once a child is old enough for independent thought and action and speech, suddenly you realize that your life is not simple as a parent, and sometimes you feel like you're coaching three different sports simultaneously.

With #1 now in middle school, with more demanding homework, and #3 with daily homework assignments that he has to do, and #2 with the most challenging year of elementary school, 4th grade to manage, suddenly homework time has become a bit crazy. All three children are required to come home and work independently on their work, and when I'm done with my work, I can take a look and answer any questions they might have. Most recently, there was a single day when I came out of my office and walked into the fray of my own children to be blasted in three different directions on all three sides.

One child was fiercely dedicated to coloring something with such detail and precision, veins in her neck were popping out. Another child sat gripping her pencil tightly, with the timer set at 20 minutes, madly scribbling in her notebook. Still another child sat on the ground, homework papers scattered everywhere with the world's most illegible handwriting on the paper. In a single minute, the following three sentences flew out of my mouth.

"You. Stop. Coloring. Enough. Go to bed."
"You. Don't worry about the time. You wrote enough. Go to bed."
"You. Come here. Erase all of this and start over."

The responses were as follows.

"NO! I have to finish this so it's perfect!"
"NO! I HAVE to write for a full 20 minutes. The teacher SAYS so!"
"NO! I don't care about my handwriting!"

I sat down on the ground and fanned myself. I took a moment to breathe, then calmly glared at coloring child and told her to put it away. I turned off the timer on writing child and told her to put it away. I grabbed eraser for illegible writing child and made him erase his work.

And that is like most days in my house, the type of schizophrenic parenting that I'm required to do as a mother of three children. Not a single one of them is like the other, although both daughters like to remind me that their perfectionist, self-demanding streak actually comes from me. (Their opinion. And mine.) Son's creative free spirit drives my demanding perfectionist streak to exhaustion while the daughters' streak of perfectionism makes me constantly worried that I've built two crazy robots that I cannot reprogram. And this is why I parent with a split personality.

Sometimes this kind of dichotomy of personalities can be played out in food, and that is probably why I connect so strongly to this Ba-Ma-Chi cake. It's simultaneously savory and sweet, chewy and crunchy and your mouth gets so confused the only thing that can come out of it is the word, "Delicious." Ba-ma-chi cake is slightly reminiscent of cornbread that might have bacon in it, but texturally different. The two times I've made it people made a face when I explained what it was, and then they proceeded to shove several pieces in rapid succession into their mouth. Don't knock it until you try it. It sounds like it can't make sense but it really does.

If I can parent all the different personalities that I do, you can certainly try and make a cake that is both sweet and savory. It is an hour baking time, so plan accordingly.

Bacon Maple Mochi Cake - Bamachi Cake
Makes 9x13 pan

Ingredients
10 -12 slices, thick bacon, the best you can buy

1 lb box mochiko (sweet rice flour - equivalent to 3 cups)
¾ cups of sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks of butter (1 cup) melted
1 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup whole milk
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Additional maple syrup for drizzling

Method
Preheat oven to 400. Place bacon on a roasting pan in an even layer. A rack that allows the bacon to drain is ideal as you want to remove the fat. Place in oven and cook for 10 to 12 minutes until golden on one side and then flip bacon and cook for an additional 5 to 7 minutes until bacon is brown and mostly crispy. Remove from oven and allow to cool. (Can be prepared the day before. Place strips in plastic bag and refrigerate until needed.)

*NOTE oven temperature change for baking cake.*

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 pan well, using cooking spray or your choice of grease.

In a large bowl whisk together mochiko, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl (or microwaveable large cup) whisk together melted butter, maple syrup, whole milk, eggs, and vanilla extract. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and using your strong bicep muscles whisk and blend until batter is uniform.

Using a large knife and a stack of bacon, carefully slice small even pieces of bacon. The smaller pieces distribute much better into the batter. Add bacon pieces to batter and gently fold in pieces.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minute. Slice and serve, with an additional option of a maple syrup drizzle if a bit more sweetness is desired.

Printable recipe