Foodie Friday: Dessert Sushi (Guest Post)

Hi! This is Sarah and Michael, Kristi’s sister and brother-in-law. We live in Japan and are continually impressed by the food we are exposed to here. All food is impressive not only in its taste but also in its presentation. While not up to sushi-chef standards we decided to try our hand at dessert sushi when we had friends over last weekend. We started with a couple of trips to local grocery stores (both American and Japanese style) and a few Google searches.

Here is a picture of our final spread:

While the base of real sushi is rice, we offered a few different bases. A few were simply mini powdered doughnuts cut in half and set up on ends. Some were made with the large marshmallows. Using one box of pound cake mix, we made two loaves that were cut into separate blocks. We also made a few batches of rice crispy treats and a batch of macaroons.

Besides rice most sushi features seafood and seaweed. Ours featured candy, dried fruit and many yards of Fruit by the Foot! Some sushi eaters like a little wasabi on the side; ours featured a little pistachio pudding (with the nuts sifted out before mixing.)

Here are a couple of the easy types:

You guessed it! The sushi on the left was made with Hershey’s chocolate bars broken up into individual pieces topped with mini Swedish Fish. These are the kind of Swedish Fish that come in the bulk 3.5 lb. bag. We used a little frosting to make them stick. The plate on the right is Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls with the ends cut off, cut into thirds.

Onto some of the more detailed types. Starting on the outside we have gummy sharks on top of elongated macaroons. There is also dried mango attached to macaroons with strips of Fruit by the Foot (FBF). The pieces of apricot were cut in half and attached with frosting to the tops of pound cake. It’s a little hard to see in this picture but the apricot pieces with FBF are attached to mini powdered doughnut halves. The ring around the center is made with Twinkies, cut into thirds, wrapped in FBF, with either Yogo Bits (more on those later) or jelly beans stuck in the middle. The center is a true sushi roll. Those also will be explained later.

We’ll start with the four corners on this plate. We were able to find a few bags of the “Sea Life” mix by Swedish Fish (dolphins, starfish, sea horses, and blowfish). These are atop a regular pan of Rice Crispy treats (RCT), cut into appropriate sized blocks or macaroons. We also have marshmallows wrapped in FBF and the mini bulk Swedish fish attached to smaller bits of RCT. There is a little more dried mango here too. This time it’s attached to pound cake pieces.

The last two on this plate we’ll explain in a little more depth. First of all the “shrimp.” These are really candy orange slices. Here is how we turned them into shrimp:

The center sushis are supposed to look like roe sushi. First we made a little cup with a half marshmallow, wrapped in FBF. Then with a dab of frosting we added either half jelly beans or orange Yogos Bits. 

These mostly feature the same ideas with the addition of the actual rolls. We made these in the same way you make a real sushi roll, just with some substitutions. First we made a half batch of RCT. It was a half batch so it didn’t harden too soon. We greased a piece of plastic wrap and made a thin layer out of just part of the batch. It was about 8”x8”. Then we laid gummy worms, licorice, and other bits of candy in a row parallel to one edge. We rolled it like a sushi roll and cut it into slices when it had hardened. For one roll we sprinkled chocolate sprinkles on the plastic wrap before making the roll and filled it with white and milk chocolate chips.

In the end, I’d say we went a little overboard! We are still eating some after taking a few plates each to treat our co-workers the next day. But it was a lot of fun creating these. Kristi is the real baker in the family. This was more like a craft project for us!

Thanks Sarah and Mike! I just wish that we could give you a hand in finishing some of these off. They look yummy!!!