Café Mochiko in Cincinnati, OH

Elaine Uykimpang Bentz, Chef & Co-Owner

Origins

Cafe Mochiko started as a pop-up between my husband and me in 2019. We originally had plans to make it a full-service restaurant featuring Japanese comfort food and an extensive dessert menu. When the pandemic caused all restaurants to shut down for a period of time, it really made us rethink our concept. When everyone was told to stay home, we decided to pivot our pop-ups to something I knew I was able to do with the most reach, which was to turn it into what was essentially a bakery delivery service and deliver straight to people’s homes. While I never intended for us to open a bakery, we ended up getting quite the following here in Cincinnati and it eventually led us to the brick and mortar we have now and are so grateful to have. We still do Japanese comfort food for dinner service, but daytime is all pastries and desserts. 

Company Mission

Cafe Mochiko is still at the very heart of all things a mom-and-pop shop. We’re a small business within a very supportive community and while our space is small, we’re able to do so much with what we have while utilizing good, local ingredients and crafting items that can be both unique and nostalgic at the same time. 

Signature Products

Our most popular item is our Ube Halaya Croissant, a traditional croissant that is split in half and filled with a bit of our house-made ube halaya, a Filipino purple yam jam, and then filled with a fluffy ube-flavored cream. It’s finished with a dusting of purple sweet potato powder, and is just so visually stunning as well as delicious. My personal favorite is our Sweet Corn Bibingka, a tender, rice-based corn cake that is both sweet and savory. The cake is sweet and has a cream cheese filling. It’s topped with shredded aged white cheddar and has a savory aroma after being baked with banana leaves. 

Equipment ‘Must Haves’

A mini rolling pin! We make a lot of filled bao for our bakery, and each bao is hand-rolled with a mini rolling pin the same way you would fill a dumpling. It’s one of the first skills we train new bakers on, and each baker has their preferred pin.

Production Tip

Hire people with a good attitude and streamline your production to make it as fool-proof as possible. I love being at work, but there will come a time when you can’t show up due to life or unexpected emergencies and you should be able to trust that your team can carry things while you’re gone. 

Secrets of Success

I would say a secret to success is to just be kind — kind to your employees and also to yourself. I think when many people start small businesses it can be so personal and it’s easy to be hard on yourself after making mistakes — and there will be many — but it can be difficult to break that way of thinking. For example, you can work hours and hours in a day on a new item and still be frustrated with the results, when it may be more beneficial to take a break from it and give yourself time to rethink it. And as for employees, it’s far easier to retain employees if you treat them with the kindness you would want for yourself: share staff meals, talk about each other’s lives, and make a connection rather than dismissing them out of frustration when something doesn’t happen perfectly. Remember that we’re all human and we’re all capable of mistakes or missteps.

Future Plans

Our menu is always changing with weekly seasonal specials and we’re always looking at ways to improve our standing menu. Our goal is to be constantly trying to improve things, big or small, whether that’s a new method of cooking something to enhance its flavor or streamlining production of our doughs, etc. 

Photos Courtesy of Café Mochiko

For more info, visit www.instagram.com/mochikocincy

(This article appeared in the Fall 2025 issue of Pastry Arts Magazine)