• I used a large round (about 8” diameter) soufflé dish, lined with saran wrap extending up past the sides, to mold it in. You could also use a springform cake pan, but the finished cake will then be bigger in diameter but shorter in height.
  
  
• Start making this midday before eating it in the evening, so it will have time to compress; I went to a fish market around 10:00 in the morning, cleaned and sliced the fish, then assembled the cake around noon and chilled it until the evening. You don't want to use traditional sushi-seasoned rice because it doesn't chill well (it gets very hard), so just cook basic white Japanese rice (as you would for sushi) and leave it plain rather than seasoning it with sushi-su.
  
  
• Finally, you can modify the ingredients below to your taste, as long as you remember that you're assembling the cake from bottom of the soufflé dish up, so what you're putting into the pan first will be the top of the cake.

For decorations:

1 Japanese or European cucumber, very thinly sliced

For frosting:

8 oz sushi-grade salmon sliced as for large nigiri

For rice layers:

Cooked Japanese rice (start w/6 c raw rice and cook; depending on the size of your pan, you’ll have some rice left over, but that’s better than running out in the middle)

1⁄4 c orange tobiko or masago (if you have extra tobiko, use for garnishing top of cake just before serving)

1⁄4 c wasabi tobiko

1⁄4 c finely chopped tamago (omelet—sometimes Japanese groceries or sushi suppliers sell the omelet already made)

Finely chopped greens from 2 scallions

For spicy filling:

6 oz chopped cooked shrimp OR chopped sushi-grade tuna

1-2 tbsp good-quality mayonnaise

1 tbsp Chinese chili paste

1 tbsp sesame oil

Dash of sugar

Dash of salt

For creamy filling:

2 avocados, mashed

Juice from 1⁄2 lemon

Finely chopped greens from 2 scallions

1. Arrange slices or half-slices decoratively in the bottom of the prepared soufflé dish. Do not cover the entire bottom; just arrange them in an attractive pattern.
   
   
2. Layer salmon on top of cucumbers in the bottom of the dish. Arrange them like spokes of a wheel for easy slicing later.
   
   
3. In a small bowl, mix some warm rice with orange tobiko (or masago); layer some of the tobiko rice over the salmon evenly.
   
   
4. In another bowl, make a spicy shrimp (or tuna) filling, mixing ingredients to taste, until the filling holds together but isn't too liquid. Spread this mixture over the rice.
   
   
5. In another small bowl, mix more warm rice with wasabi tobiko; layer some of this over the shrimp.
   
   
6. In another small bowl, make the creamy filling, mashing together avocados and finely chopped scallions with a lemon juice and a dash of salt. Spread this mixture over the wasabi rice.
   
   
7. Top with a layer of plain rice.
   
   
8. Top with a layer of chopped tamago and scallions.
   
   
9. Top with a final layer of more wasabi tobiko rice.
   
   
10. Fold the overhanging ends of saran wrap back over the cake, and then cover well with additional saran wrap. Compress with a small plate and then cans or a brick on top of the plate. Chill well, fully wrapped and weighted, in the refrigerator for 2-8 hours.
    
    
11. When ready to serve, fold back saran wrap and turn out cake onto a plate. Garnish top of cake with additional tobiko. Cut slices, as of a layer cake, with a cake server with a serrated edge. Serve with a soy-wasabi-aioli drizzled over each slice, or just put out traditional sushi condiments to let guests help themselves. As heretical as it may seem, this cake is best eaten with a fork and knife.

 

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Created: 7/21/06. Last Modified: 7/21/06.