Uguisu Mochi (鶯餅)

Uguisu Mochi is a Japanese traditional sweet made from gyuhi (kneaded rice flour with sugar or starch syrup; by being kneaded for a long time, it becomes a translucent paste) and an (a sweet red paste made from red azuki beans); an is lapped by gyuhi which is shaped like an uguisu (Japanese bush warbler).

Originally it had been dusted with uguisu-ko (sweet soybean flour made from green beans which color is similar to uguisu) as a finish, however, recently it is colored by mixing gyuhi with mugwort (green) or by dusting with sweet soybean flour (yellow or yellow green). Since it is a kind of mochi (rice cake), it would become hardened little by little, so it should be eaten early. It is usually made in spring when uguisu sings.

[Original Japanese]