Sushi cakes are a relatively new "thing" in Japan. The idea is fairly simple: make sushi into a sharing experience by using a cake tin to create a cake using sushi rice layered and topped with other sushi ingredients like salmon, tuna, Japanese omelette etc. They make a great "cake alternative" for people who don't have a sweet tooth but like the idea of a cake to celebrate a special occasion. Here, I thought I would use a heart shaped mould to create a Valentine's Day sushi sharing plate for two. The ingredients are all quite easy to obtain - Japanese rice, sushi vinegar, fresh salmon, smoked salmon, miso and egg. The top is decorated with some little avocado hearts created using a small heart-shaped cookie cutter and some mini tomato hearts. (See below for how to create these - it's really easy and makes for a nice effect.)
You will, of course, need a cake tin / cake mould. I bought the heart shaped mould I used here online at Amazon UK - it's about 10cm / 4 in wide and about 5cm / 2 ins deep. There's quite a selection available but remember if you buy a bigger size, you'll need to increase the ingredients below accordingly.
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So if you want to try something a little different to share with your significant other on Valentine's Night, you can find the Youtube tutorial by clicking Valentine's Day Sushi cake or by scrolling to the bottom of the page. The written recipe is just below.
Happy Valentine's Day! Kurumi XXXX.
ingredients:
(makes 1 sushi cake for 2 small servings)
170g / 6oz cooked Japanese rice
2 tsp sushi vinegar
1 medium egg
1 tsp sugar
130g / 4.5oz, 1 fillet salmon
2 tsp Japanese mayonnaise or any mayo will do.
2 tsp miso
2 tsp sunflower oil
for the topping;
3 baby plum tomatoes
1/2 avocado
some rocket leaves
10cm / 4inch heart shaped cake tin
1 small heart shape cookie cutter
how to:
first, prepare the sushi rice:
in a bowl, gently mix the freshly cooked rice with the 2 tsp of sushi vinegar using a folding motion
next to make your omelette:
break the egg into a bowl and add the sugar. mix well. next, heat 1 tsp of oil in a small frying pan, pour the egg mixture in and cook over a medium / high heat until the bottom of the omelette is firm. use a slice to carefully lift the edge of the omelette and flip it over. turn off the heat and leave the omelette to stand for 1 minute before transferring to a plate
now, take the base of your cake tin and lay it on the omelette. using the base as a template, cut out a heart shape using a kitchen knife. don’t discard the leftovers of the omelette, just roughly chop these into shreds and set aside
next, heat another 1 tsp of oil in the frying pan. place the salmon fillet skin side down in the pan. fry for about 3 minutes with the lid on over medium heat. when the time is up, flip the fillet over and cook for a further 2-3 minutes with the lid on
when the salmon is ready, transfer it to a bowl. remove the skin and then use a spoon or fork to break the fillet into flakes. add 2 tsp of mayonnaise and 2 tsp of miso to the salmon flakes and mix together well until blended
now to assemble your sushi cake:
place the cake mould (without the base) on a plate. spoon half of sushi rice into the mould. press the rice down lightly using the back of a spoon or fork until you have a uniform layer
next, spoon the salmon flakes over the rice. gently form the flakes into the mould again in an even layer. add the rest of the rice over the salmon and gently firm again. add the omelette shreds in an even layer and then lay the heart shaped omelette over the top. gently firm the top into sushi rice cake. set aside
next, to create your Valentine’s Day decorative hearts:
cut the baby plum tomatoes diagonally. reverse one of the halves of each tomato and push them together again to create little tomato hearts (I said it was easy!)
using a small heart shaped cutter, press out 3 avocado hearts from the half avocado. trim the bottom to make the hearts flat, then gently push them out of the cutter
remove the heart shaped mould from the sushi cake. decorate the sushi cake with the tomato and avocado hearts. add some rocket leaves around the cake as a garnish