Sushi Cupcakes!

The Project: Sushi Cupcakes...and they are oh so good!

The Cost: ~ 30.00$ (Boxes of cake mix at shoprite 2 for 5$, Icing 2/5$, Fruit by the foot from Costco 8-10$, gummy candies of all kinds ~3$)

The Story:
Seeing as I am a DIY bride, I thought it was only suiting to do the cake myself as well! I originally was going to make a cake but since they were favors, I thought cupcakes would be cute. I googled "asian style cake" and scrolled through all the images when I came across a cupcake that looked like a sushi roll. I immediately knew I had to do it. I youtubed how to make one and to my surprise there are alot of videos on this. I got my ideas and headed off to the food store to do a trial bake. My MOH came to help me and we were on our way to our first batch of sushi cakes. Needless to say, it was a good thing we did a trial run because we did not do so well! I was so upset that they came out so badly but I calculated my mistakes, thought of a new plan, got some new materials and I knew I could do a better job on the final run, which I did. Loved these! They were a hit!!

First Things First:
1. Decide on a size you want the cupcake to be and how many you need. Depending on how many you need to make will depend on how many boxes you use. I used 4 boxes and got 48 cupcakes out of it. Too big of a cupcake and it looks not so realistic but too small and it becomes difficult to get all the candy in. I used a 3-3.5" circle cutter.
2. Get a cutter!- I had one, lost it, and thought using a cup would be good but it wasnt! The cake got stuck inside and it made a mess. I had to go and get a new cutter and it made all the difference (I found the other cutter the next day, figures! lol)

What You'll Need:

1. Cake mix, preferabally something not dark so no chocolate or red velvet, just vanilla is good.
2. Icing, make sure its white
3. Fruit by the foot *Dont get the ones with the cut designs in them, they fall apart. It must be solid!*
4. Gummy candies red, pink, white, yellow or anything that can be sushi colored like red would be the "salmon" etc..
5. Cupcake caddy
6. Smaller circle cutter for inside of the cupcake. This makes it easier to apply the center candy. If you dont use one, when you press in the candy you risk ruining the cupcake itself because of all the pressure you add.
7. Wax paper
8. White sprinkles (ordered them off amazon) or coconut but I didnt like the coconut.
9. Scissors and Knife
10. Circle cutter

Step by Step Directions:
1. Make your cake mix by following the recipe on the back. Do this as many times as you need depending on how many cupcakes you make and what size. We used 4 boxes. We also did 2 boxes at a time just in case as to not waste any cake if we really didnt need it.

*Fill the pan only half way through! The cake should not be larger than the fruit rollup which is really not that thick* This is important!

2. When cake is done and taken out of the over, let it cool fully.
*This may not seem important but I got too excited once and tried to pull the cake out before it was cooled and it literally crumpled in my hands...sooo mad*
3. Lay wax paper on the table to help the cake not stick.
4. Flip cake over onto the wax paper.
5. Take your cutter and start at the very edge of the cake as to not waste any and get as many cuts as you can. Start cutting away!
6. Place cakes to the side as you poke them out.

7. When you made all you need, take the middle cutter and cut out part of the cupcake. This is where your candy will go.

8. Take your icing and ice only the tops of the cakes, including the center hole so candies stick and stay. Do this as many times as you need

9. Place iced tops into a plate of white sprinkles.

10. Place candies in the centers in any way you want and any colors.

11. Once completed, take your fruit by the foot and before taking it off the paper, wrap it around a cupcake to see how big you need it.

11. Leave a little overlap so you can stick the candy to itself to stay better.
12. Cut your candy strip

*Do this each and every time to every cupcake. I know it sounds dumb but you have to because each cut is alittle different in size and if you cut first you may have cut wrong*
13. Before taking the fruit by the foot off its paper, lay it down with the fruit side facing up.
14. Take a knife and ice the whole strip.

15. Take the strip off the paper.
16. Wrap the strip around the cupcake. Make sure its up pretty high because you dont want it sticking out the top. Everything is suppose to look flush. Sometimes its impossible but try.

17. Do this as many times as you need to and store in the caddy in the refrigerator.

If you are doing this for fun, than def. just roll with it and have a good time but if you are making these for an event or a party, definitely do a trial run. Itll be well worth it in the end. Also, give yourself enough time. When all is said and done, it takes several hours to do these (Well it did for us because we did 48 of them letting them sit in the refrigerator for half hours at a time to keep icing from melting)

Hope you enjoyed this cupcake. It was alot of work but like I said, it was well receieved and well worth it!

Because these were our favors, we then added these to our lined takeout boxes. See the post before this for project ideas. Heres a pic of the open boxes and the doily inside as well as some pics from our first trial run!