Marbled Red Bean Cake

Marbled Red Bean Cake

The recipe for this Marbled Red Bean Cake can be found on our bags of Adzuki Beans. It’s a Chinese New Year celebration treat and offers a wonderfully unique blend of flavors and textures.

The cake is made with a mix of Adzuki Beans, water, brown sugar, Sweet White Rice Flour, baking soda, salt, butter, sugar, orange zest, eggs and milk. The frosting keeps things simple, with a delicious mix of powdered sugar and orange juice.

If you’ve yet to try making a red bean cake, you’re in for a real treat! The bean puree is what creates the magical swirls throughout the cake batter to give this treat its quintessential look.

We absolutely love the addition of Adzuki Beans, which have a firm texture and a rich, nutty flavor. They’re high in fiber and easy to digest, which makes these legumes a fantastic addition to your diet, particularly a macrobiotic diet. These diets are organized on the principles of yin and yang, and devotees aim to eat seasonally and locally with a focus on fewer animal products. 

Dried adzuki beans are also the main ingredient in anko, a sweet red bean paste that’s used in Japanese desserts. If you’re curious about making your own anko at home, see this tutorial on Anko Red Bean Paste from Nami of Just One Cookbook. She’ll guide you through the process and and also shares recipes for creative dishes made with her sweet red bean paste. 

Adzukis are known to be wonderful in sweet dishes like red bean cake, but they’re also excellent in savory dishes! They can be added to rice, grain bowls, curries, red bean flower bread, hummus and more. You can use them for refried beans or soak them in water to sprout them for salads, dips and spreads. 

Whether you’re using adzukis for a beautiful red bean cake, a creative Japanese confection or a red bean hummus, we hope you love this legume as much as we do! 
Servings
20 servings
Prep time
75 minutes
Cook time
45 minutes
Passive time
30 minutes

Ingredients

Cake
  • 1/2 cup Adzuki Beans
  • 1-1/2 cups Water
  • 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
  • 3 cups Sweet White Rice Flour
  • 2 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1/4 tsp Salt
  • 1/2 cup Butter soft
  • 1 cup Sugar
  • 2 tsp Orange Zest
  • 3 Eggs
  • 2 cups Milk
Icing
  • 1 cup Powdered Sugar
  • 3 Tbsp Orange Juice

Instructions

Cake
  1. Sort and rinse Bob’s Red Mill Adzuki Beans. Combine in a small pot with water, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until soft, about 60 minutes. When beans have softened, drain and reserve cooking liquid.
  2. Place cooked beans and brown sugar in a food processor and puree, adding reserved cooking liquid 1 tsp at a time as needed, until smooth. Set puree aside.
  3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9 x 13-inch cake pan with parchment paper.
  4. In a small bowl, combine Bob’s Red Mill Sweet White Rice Flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
  5. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or by hand, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Add orange zest and eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions.
  6. Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the milk and scraping down the bowl often, until a smooth batter is formed.
  7. Mix ½ cup of cake batter with the bean puree to lighten. Pour the remaining cake batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth top. Drop large dollops of the bean puree along the top of the cake batter. Run a butter knife though the bean puree, creating swirls in the cake batter.
  8. Bake until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 – 50 minutes. Let cool completely before icing.
Icing
  1. Whisk together the powdered sugar and orange juice until smooth. Drizzle and smooth the icing over the top of the cake. Let set before serving.

Seasonal Favorites

See all
Organic Coconut Flour
Golden Corn Flour Masa Harina
Gluten Free Organic Quick Cooking Rolled Oats
White Chocolate Chip Strawberry Pancake & Waffle Mix
Gluten Free Steel Cut Oats
Cornbread Baking Mix
00 Flour