Mock Nisshido Mochi Recipe

Does this chichi dango mochi look familiar? Okay, I put a tad bit too much katakuriko (potato starch) on it, but I think it looks almost like Nisshido's chichidango mochi.  

Regular red food coloring does not result in the bright fluorescent pink mochi that Nisshido sells. But Wilton's "Rose" color gel results in a nice pink colored mochi.

Here's the mochi prior to cooking it in the oven.
Here's the recipe that I used:
1 box (1lb) mochiko (rice flour)
2.5 cups +1 T granulated sugar
1 t. baking powder
3 cups water
1/2 can (~1 cup) coconut milk
1.5 t. vanilla extract
Rose colored gel

**Katakuriko (potato starch) for dusting and cutting the finished mochi.
Preheat the oven to 350F, grease a 9"x13: pan.

Mix all the wet ingredient (water, coconut milk, vanilla extract) together.  Add all the dry ingredients except for the katakuriko in to the wet ingredient and combine. Add colored gel until mixture is a dark pink color.

Pour mixture into pan, cover the pan with foil and then bake for 1 hour.

Cool mochi. Then cut mochi into desired piece size (I cut it into 1.5" by .75" pieces), and dust with potato starch.

**As a sidenote, I used a plastic knife to cut the mochi.  Not the disposable type, but a more heavy-duty plastic knife that doesn't cut a metal pan.