Hibiscus (Roselle) Mochi Cake

Jump to Recipe

Fall harvest season has wrapped up, and Chele and I had been very busy over the past few weeks collecting our late-season crops and clearing out the garden in preparation for winter. The romanesco we planted back in April finally decided to start forming heads, our wild tomatillos kept fruiting until temperatures dipped near freezing, and we even found a few nice purple carrots hiding out there after we thought them to be a bust. But it was one of our more unusual crops that stole the show, both for its appearance and for its uses in the kitchen: roselle. A species of tropical hibiscus, roselle is somewhat popular as a garden plant in southern states like Florida and Texas (where they are often used as a substitute for cranberries), but it seems to be rarely grown up here in Chicago. Chele and I decided to give it a go anyway, and have found that it is a fantastic annual for this region.

While I say that roselle is largely unknown to gardeners around here, it is very popular (and continues to gain popularity) throughout the US and much of the rest of the world… just not under the name “roselle”. As I mentioned, this is a type of hibiscus, and in culinary circles this plant is the hibiscus. If you have ever had a hibiscus tea, or the popular Latin American drink called jamaica, or bought dried hibiscus “flowers”, or had any sort of food or beverage containing “hibiscus”, you have had roselle. Contrary to how it is typically marketed, it is not the flowers that are used for culinary purposes, but the calyxes – the outer covering that initially surrounds the flower buds and parts out of the way as the flowers bloom. Once these bright red beauties have developed, they can be dried, candied, made into syrup or jam, or used fresh in recipes. (The leaves are also edible, with a similar sour kick, but we’ll discuss those in another post).

Now, when most people hear “hibiscus” they immediately think of the massive red tropical flowers commonly associated with Hawaii (and that adorn the packaging of nearly every “hibiscus” product on store shelves). While roselle is not that plant, Chele and I still managed to make a Hawaiian connection when experimenting with our fresh roselle in the kitchen – by adding it to a Hawaiian mochi butter cake! Mochi cake, if you have never had it, is a decadent, chewy confection made with sweet rice flour (aka mochiko flour), coconut milk, and butter. For our version, we mixed soft-candied roselle and roselle syrup to add a distinctive tartness that we found to be incredibly addictive. A pan of this is likely to disappear very quickly after it comes out of the oven! And most importantly for Chele, this is 100% gluten free and completely safe for people with celiac disease.

Getting a hold of fresh roselle calyxes might be a bit of a challenge for anyone not willing or able to grow them themselves. If you don’t have access to them, try looking for jarred hibiscus flowers in syrup in specialty stores or online.