Sushi Cupcakes for Dad and Mom (and me)

Well, as always, may is quite the busy month. It's my dad's birthday, then my birthday, mother's day, my best friends birthday and in addition to all the celebrations I have to hunker-down and study like crazy for my final RN exams! Man, trying to condense 4 years of nursing knowledge into one month is quite the stressful experience.

With all the celebrations going on (and my need for some major study/stress relief) I decided that the best thing to do would be to bake and decorate a couple cupcakes! I thought long and hard about what type of cupcakes I wanted to make... and for some reason I was craving just an old fashioned vanilla cupcake. I also knew I wanted to use fondant to decorate the cupcakes... but the tricky part was figuring out what theme I wanted the cupcakes to take on!

After scouring google for a solid half-hour I decided that since my dad and mom both love sushi (and we always go out, just the three of us, to all-you-can-eat late-night sushi once a month) that sushi-themed cupcakes were most definitely the way to go! So, I got to work baking the cupcakes, allowing them to cool, rolling out the fondant (I used Wilton's pre-made white fondant and simply dyed it into the colors I wanted) and slapping the cupcakes together. Ooooh, I simply love playing with the fondant! It's like making sculptures with play-doh... brings back such fond childhood memories ^_^

Vanilla Cupcake
Yields 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup milk

Method:
1. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2. Cream sugar and butter until soft and fluffy. Add in eggs one and a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small bowl.
4. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Stir until just moistened.
5. Add in the milk mixture and continue stirring, only until just combined (do not over-mix).
6. Add in the final half of the flour mixture; again, stir until just combined.
7. Pour into a prepared muffin tray and bake at 350degrees for 24-28minutes, until golden.
8. Allow to cool completely and then decorate.

Ahi tuna nigiri and an Akagai (red clam) nigiri

Your classic sushi roll

Ebi (shrimp) nigiri

Ikura (salmon roe) roll and a Toro (fatty tuna) nigiri

Well, when I unveiled these cuties to my mom and dad (and my sisters) they were so surprised at the intricate details... namely the tiny blobs of ginger and wasabi. However, since these cupcakes had so much effort put in to their decoration, my mom didn't want to touch them for fear of "breaking" them, my dad was busy taking pictures. and my sisters didn't want to eat them because they were "too cute". Alas, why did I make them so adorable that everyone was scared to take a bite?? Oh, well... I wasn't scared, so I dug in... and they were just as delicious as they were well-decorated!