Sushi Cake

Sue and I have been friends for 35 years so of course I wanted to make her a cake for her birthday but I struggled to come up with an idea for her cake, so I started thinking about what we have done together the last few times we met up and every time we shopped, we drank, and we ate Sushi!

So the sushi cake was born. It turns out that on her birthday, her nieces Julia and Jennifer were flying into Atlanta from Maine. Sue, her husband Mike, and their boys, Travis and Matthew were headed to pick them up, and then were going to Myrtle Beach straight from the airport.

This presented a fantastic opportunity to deliver the cake and surprise her with it. Atlanta is a 4 hour drive, but they have to drive through Columbia to get to the beach....and Columbia is only 1.5 hours away.

I contacted Mike and Jen secretly to organize the surprise. We planned to meet up off an exit and surprise Sue with the cake.
To get started, I created some California rolls with fondant. I used my potato ricer to create rice out of fondant.

Funnily enough I saw a professional make a sushi cake on television afterward and she used white chocolate sprinkles to mimic rice and mine was so much better looking!

I also made some shrimp sashimi over rice, wrapped with a piece of black fondant to look like the nori.


Next I used gum paste to create a bowl that would be solid enough to hold a liquid that looks like soy sauce.
Once the bowl was dry, I added food coloring gel for soy sauce.

I added a little pile of wasabi out of fondant, and used my petal cutter to make some super thin pieces of ginger.

I used gum paste to make chop sticks and couldn't forget the little piece of fake grass to keep everything separate!

During our last sushi outing, Sue introduced me to edamamme, which I now cannot get enough of, so I had to make that too.

Once I put it all together, I used edible markers to write happy birthday on the chopsticks, and I dug out my old college textbook and wrote it in Japanese characters on the other one.


Once I was finished with the cake, I took the afternoon off and drove to Columbia. I found a Lowe's Home Improvement right off the exit we had agreed upon. I parked where I could see them get off the highway and enter Lowe's.

Jen kept texting me to let me know where they were and how long it would be until they arrived. It was very hot, so I sat in the car, with the dog, with the A/C on high, listening to a book on CD....for about an hour and half.

Suddenly my phone rang and it was Sue. I thought for sure that they messed up and told her the surprise or she figured it out. It was very funny....but she just called to chat. I asked where they were and she said they were getting off an exit so that Mike could use the bathroom. She asked me if I thought Lowe's had good bathrooms! Of course, I said yes, I think they have great bathrooms and they should definitely go there. Then Mike couldn't see me, so he grabbed the phone from Sue and asked me where I was parked, which really got her confused, and then she saw my car.

I took the cake box out of the car and let her open it and she was very surprised and all the hard work was worth it....until I tried to leave and my car wouldn't start. Mike had to jump my battery before we could go. It was hilarious. I had to drive home without stopping so that my battery would charge...but even with all of that, it was still worth it. I hadn't seen Jen since she was about 4 or 5 when we played Barbies during Tricia's yard sale...and I'd never met Julia. Cindy was pregnant with her when I moved to Charlotte....so it was good to see them and Travis. Matthew was konked out in the back of the van....but I'll see him in a couple of weeks when he comes to visit.

Thanks again to Mike and Jen. I couldn't have done it without you and I truly think she was pleased.