Sushi, anyone?

I made this cake early in 2009, when our postdoc visiting from Japan was going back home. He was coming back to the lab in a month, but I figured it was still a good occasion to make a cake.  So I made a cake to look like a piece of tuna cucumber roll with a side of wasabi. Again, this cake was made with a box mix and canned frosting. If I were to do it again, it would be easy enough to make it with homemade cake and buttercream icing.

To get the shape, I used the Betty Crocker Bake ‘n Fill tall pan. The same effect could be achieved by making two 8-inch round cakes and placing them on top of one another (with a layer of either frosting or jam between the two cakes). For this cake, I decided to use chocolate frosting, since it is easier to get a nice deep black when starting with a brown base. I added some black coloring and a touch of green to get the color of seaweed. Once I frosted the entire cake, I made the tuna and cucumber pieces out of marzipan that I bought at my supermarket. I used food dye drops to get the correct colors. This is a somewhat tedious process. You add a few drops and kneed it in, and add more coloring until you get the color you want. Then I shaped the pieces by hand. The wasabi piece was made the same way. Once those were placed on the cake, I topped the rest of the cake with sweetened coconut for the rice. Not only does it look cool, but the coconut goes surprisingly well with the chocolate frosting.