A Song of Rice and Fire

sugar, spice, and everything nice

sip your way into the season with our Mulled Spiked Apple Cider recipe in Brave New Meal

Not sure how the fuck it’s halfway thru December already. Rescuing Ginger (who is still available for adoption through our friends at LA Animals Rescue) kinda derailed our holiday content for the last couple weeks. This year it feels like the season snuck up on us- more than usual.

No matter how you’re acknowledging (or avoiding) this holiday season, our Beastless Feast page is loaded with recipes that’ll give your taste buds something to celebrate. What you WON’T find on there is our new take on an old favorite: Holiday Rice Pudding Cake. This dish lets you turn off your brain, then stir and bake your way to a comfort food classic. And we’re sharing it with y’all, our most precious subscribers, as a Broiler Room Exclusive.

Serve it at room temperature with a dusting of powdered sugar and some fresh fruit and people will think you are some kind of holiday miracle worker. Accept the compliments and take your secrets to the grave.

Holiday Rice Pudding Cake

Makes one 8 inch cake

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup arborio or other starchy, short grain rice

½ cup raw or light brown cane sugar

1 thumb sized slice of lemon peel

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or an old dried up vanilla bean like we used)

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cardamom or more cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

4 cups nondairy milk

12 ounces soft, silken tofu*

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons nutritional yeast

1/3 cup nondairy milk

Topping:

1/3 cup bread crumbs, plus more for dusting

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons olive oil 

To serve: powdered sugar, fresh fruit

Warm up your oven to 350 and grease up a standard 8 inch cake pan. Sprinkle some breadcrumbs in there and shake the pan around until the crumbs stick all over the sides and bottom. This will help the cake not stick to the pan.

In a large pot, warm up the olive oil over a medium heat. Toss in the rice, sugar, lemon peel, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamon, and salt and mix everything up so that all the rice looks coated. Let this all cook together for about 2 minutes. It should smell delicious as the spices start to warm up. Now pour in the 4 cups of nondairy milk and bring the pot to a boil, stirring frequently. Once its boiling turn down the heat to medium-low and let the rice simmer for about 15-20 minutes until it’s just tender. This is going to get softer in the oven so don’t make this shit mushy from the start. Stir it every couple of minutes and you’ll be fine.

While that’s cooking, throw the tofu, cornstarch, nutritional yeast, and remaining milk in a blender or food processor. Run that shit until it looks smooth as fuck in there. When the rice is ready, turn off the heat and pour the tofu mixture into the pot. Make sure it’s all incorporated then pour the batter into your prepared cake pan. In a small bowl, mix together the remaining breadcrumbs, sugar, and olive oil then sprinkle that mixture over the top of the cake.

Bake this for 25-35 minutes or until the side starts to pull away from the pan and the middle no longer jiggles around. LET THIS COOL COMPLETELY BEFORE SERVING. The starches in this cake need time to stiffen up so if you cut into it while it’s warm, it’ll slowly fall apart. Have some damn patience and you’ll be rewarded.

Store in the fridge and it should last you at least a week.

*the kind in the aseptic pouch on the shelf, not the fridge.

Hope you guys enjoy the cake and thanks again for joining us here in The Broiler Room. Your support means the world to us.

Michelle and Matt