This dense, chewy cake has all the flavors I want in late summer. Just like with Spanish flan or French tarte tatin, caramel lines the pan, so every springy piece of mochi cake has a sticky topping with big lobs of peaches.

Mochi cake isn’t a cake in the same way as a fluffy angel food or a buttery pound cake— because there’s no worrying about precise leavening, measuring, whipping, or folding. I think of it more as a pudding thickened by glutinous sweet rice flour.

This means there’s a lot of room to groove. Check out my off-script guide to mochi cake, then riff to your heart's content. Don’t know where to find glutinous sweet rice flour? Check your local Asian grocery or online.