Saturday 12 March 2011

Sushi Cake!



I don't normally like to say I'm particularly good at baking, but I'm going to make an exception. This is epic...unless you don't know what sushi is.

But for those who do, well, hello world, I have arrived ;)

I was trying to think how long this took me compared to my meringue brownie cake, but then I decided I couldn't compare them. This is bigger. This was better. And it was definitely not blander.

Oh, and if you really don't know what sushi is (?!?!), then head over here for some good old rice lovin' and here for sushi photos!





So yesterday, when I decided to do this little project, I embarked on a quick trip to Sainsbury's and stocked up...you know, just to cover all bases:


I did use the majority of them in the cake, and have discovered a new found love for strawberry pencils :D 

Also because I had a £2 off voucher if I spent over £20, so I got the jaffa cakes and squares things to make that amount. And then when I scanned the coupon it told me that it expired the day before. 

As well as being dense because I can't read the small print on French websites, clearly I am also blind.

BUT ANYWAY, I woke up this morning, and spent the two 5 hours in the kitchen. This is how the magic happened...

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I used an adapted version of a madeira cake recipe from my Great British Cookbook. And then I went a bit crazy with the filling, mostly because I didn't think the cake would be big enough so wanted to bulk it up a bit, and had to use whatever was in my fridge, which was...


Raspberry jam...


...marzipan grapes bananas marshmallows and oranges!

And then I topped it up, iced it and began the sushi platter.


First thing was bourbon biscuits as the wooden tray thingy. Glued together with chocolate icing, obviously :)









The salmon nigiri (is that right?) is two bits of marshmallow stuck together with icing suger, a pink wafer stuck on top and all rolled in dessicated coconut. Then I piped some white icing on it. 

The maki (is that right?) is more marshmallow, more dessicated coconut and, of course, JELLY TOTS! I got so excited about this, I had to eat some to calm myself down.

Feeding myself with extra sugar didn't really do the trick. But this is the psychology of a Cambridge student, so you have to be nice.


The california rolls are the product of: strawberry laces, green jelly tots, yellow rolled icing, black rolled icing, marshmallow, all rolled in desiccated coconut with bits of cut up butter fudge for the sesame bits.


Almost done! I then rolled blue icing with white icing (to lighten it up a bit, but it just ended up staining my fingers blue), to make the soy sauce bowl, which I filled with melted chocolate.


I made the grass (why they have this on sushi plates is beyond me) but rolling out green icing and painstakingly cutting it. Yes, this did take me ages. But by this point I was so hyped up on fudge and chocolate and marshmallow I was just surprised I didn't cut myself ;)


And then I assembled!!!!! I assembled like I have never assembled before!

Oh, and the ginger bits are the orange jelly cut off the middle of the jaffa cake:


And the wasabi is made from the creme from my green-ice-cream-oreos (that I bought from China...therefore you probably shouldn't eat that because it's been in my drawer for about a month).


Annnnnddd...

WE ARE DONE!

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Recipe to come tomorrow, but for now, more photos :)


I also tried to write Pudding Pie Lane on my mikado-come-chopsticks, but my writing pen kind of exploded halfway and now it looks a bit like dripping blood. Not the look I was going for, but hey ho, you can't have everything ;)



I would love to hear from you if you have also made something similar!

Lesson learned today: I love sushi. I love love love love love love sushi.




Sushi Cake

Takes 5 hours at least. Serves about...20?

Cake base: Maderia cake

375g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
300g butter, at room termperature
300g caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease an 23cm round cake tin, line the base with greaseproof paper and grease the paper.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating the mixture well between each one and adding a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg to prevent the mixture curdling.

Sift in the remaining flour into the mix and using a large metal spoon, gently fold the ingredients together. When thoroughly combined, with no visible streaks of flour, transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and spread it out evenly.

Gently bang the tin down on the work surface to dislodge any air pockets, and bake in the preheated oven for 50 mins to an hour, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and set aside to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Cut in half, and fill with strawberry jam, marzipan (rolled out into a circle) and various fruits.

Topping and decorations

This is a rough guide, you can improvise with whatever sweets you find!

What I used was:

(Sushi type – cake replacement)

Rice – two bits of white marshmallow stuck together with made up icing, with some more icing smeared on the outside of the marshmallow and rolled in desiccated coconut

Salmon – Pink wafer

Egg – yellow ready to roll icing

Cucumber – green jelly tots

Carrots and fish roe – strawberry pencils/lances

Black/white seasame seeds – Chopped up chocolate chips and chopped up butter fudge

Nori seaweed – black ready to roll icing

Wasabi – the cream filling from green tea ice cream oreos

Ginger – the orange jelly from jaffa cakes


Sushi board – chocolate bourbon biscuits

Soy sauce bowl – light blue ready to roll icing

Soy sauce – melted dark chocolate

Chopsticks – milk chocolate pocky sticks
Grass - green ready to roll icing 

32 comments:

  1. The only thing I can say is dot dot dot... this is amazing

    Eve

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  2. The only thing I can say is dot dot dot... this is amazing

    Eve Yan

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  3. OMG Xinmei, this is amazing :D I really enjoy your blog, and the pics are always so tortuously amazing-looking :D Enchi

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  4. This is incredible! The funny thing is I am planning to do a sushi cake as well next week for my friend who is off to Japan. I'm glad I can grab some inspiration from here. I'm not sure if mine will make it up to 'blog' standards :D Yours however, is cookbook standards!!

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  5. That is pretty unique! I can't wait to see the recipe..

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  6. Gosh this is sooo creatively delightful Xingy , ur amazing babe.
    LOve all u used.
    And bdw , bourbon is my fav cookie.

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  7. Wow...this is amazing...this must have taken you forever! It is so creative, i love it!

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  8. This cake is amazing! Love the detail of every part and how normal sweets and baking goods were perfect for each ingredient. A work of art :)

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  9. This is so ridiculous, I absolutely love it!

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  10. Wow! That is quite a cake! I'm impressed with all of the detail in your sushi. I love sushi and this cake would be no exception! :)

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  11. This is colossal! What an achievement! I may love sushi, but I seriously don't think I'll ever come close in making these ;) I can't stop admiring this~~ ♥

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  12. Wow! What a brilliant piece of imagination! Have you been able to bear to eat any of it...?

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  13. Thank you for all of the lovely comments! I would love to see your creations and versions, it's really worth the time and effort :)

    And haha yep, it's all gone now ;)

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  14. How cute is this cake?! I love it! I don't know what I am craving more right now, sushi or cake! ;)

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  15. Wow, what a lovely cake...love the decoration and the pictures are great. Absolutely gorgeous! Have a great week ahead :-)

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  16. Gorgeous cake! Looks just like sushi. I love how you filled this cake too with all of those yummy ingredients:)

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  17. Yum! And five hours in the kitchen...impressive! It sounds delicious, and looks absolutely stunning.
    p.s. I noticed that you said you were studying economics, which is what I studied too :)

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  18. That is absolutely brilliant! I had to do a double take! I love the minute detail that you've got there and thanks for the step by step :)

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  19. Ahh this is so great :) love it ♥ brilliant...

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  20. It looks brilliant! I love the pink wafer salmon---genius!

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  21. so creative!! love your sushi cake, so painstaking but I bet fun to make :)

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  22. Speechless.... You have an amazing talent and I can't believe you are not a professional in this field! I found your site from other blogger and I'm happy I found you. I don't bake, but I LOVE sweets and enjoy checking your yummy collections.

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  23. OMG, woman...you're CRAZY! But in a very good way ;-). I loved how you documented your steps. I do the same (not sushi cake, of course), and it drives me nuts how many times I have to wash my hands to do that! You should just skip the economics classes and open up a bakery, because that's where it looks like your passion lies.

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  24. Oh my LORD this is INCREDIBLE!!!!! I love this cake so much. So much. It's genius. You're a genius.

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  25. This is brilliant, I love it. x

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  26. holy cow, this is pretty amazing

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  27. WOW so amazing! I love sushi! Very creative!

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  28. Wow what a amazing cake, i wish i get this to my birthday :-( wow wow wow it is so cute, and creativ, brilliant! I love it! My mouth is watering this looks so good.^^

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  29. WOW!!!!! This is just tooooooo AWESOME!!!
    Me too am a sushi lover! I ♥♥♥♥♥ Japanese cuisine and so are both my gals!! ;D

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  30. This is brilliant and very creative!

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Like it? Love it? Hate it? Rate it! I'd love to hear what you think :)