Soft, springy and yummy, the mochi mochi rice-flour roll cake (Swiss roll) is in the spotlight this month at Daimaru Tokyo department store. Until Feb.22 the store is hosting Japan’s first rice-flour roll cake championship. The competition features 15 different types of roll cakes battling it out each day to win a place on the list of top five roll cake role of honor.
Mochi mochi means springy in Japanese and is used to describe the charms of bread or cakes made from rice flour. The rising popularity of rice-flour products, a option that is particularly attractive to people who are allergic to wheat flour, has largely been fueled by the runaway success of Sanyo's Gopan “home bakery” machine. The device, which launched in November 2010, was so popular that Sanyo couldn’t meet customer demand and the company has had to stop taking orders until production can be increased in April.