Happy Birthday Gabriel!

One thing about Gabriel's birthday is very predictable: dinner. We always eat at Todai; the Mother of all Seafood Buffets. He not only gets a free meal but,... he gets to eat all he can, wants, or cares to, and for Gabriel that is like landing on the mothership.

I love this man!

I admit, it's my mothership too.

Since sushi is not only a given but an absolute must for Birthday festivities, I thought it would be a fantastic idea to double the fun!


For this endeavor I enlisted the help of cake maker extraordinaire, Linda Pedersen. She's incredible; this venture was an amazing learning experience for me, she has a first rate attitude, and I just love her.

Everything on this cake is edible, from the wasabi to the chopsticks. I watched, but credit goes to Linda for everything except the part that you can't see; the cake.

Cake: Chocolate Dew Marbled
Frosting: Lemon Swiss Meringue Buttercream
(I made this blind, but I think I remember everything)

1 cup butter
1/2 cup oil
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
Cream until smooth

Add:
4 egg yolks (separately, mix well after each addition)

Add:
1 1/2 cups Mountain Dew (this is also a Birthday tradition and lends a wonderful quality to the cake)

Separate the batter into 2 bowls making sure to keep equal amounts in each

In bowl one, add:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Mix well

In bowl two, add:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
4oz. chocolate melted with 3/4 cup water (2oz. milk, 2oz. dark)
Mix well

Whip 4 egg whites to stiff peaks
Fold half into yellow batter, other half into chocolate batter

Pour into a fancy cake checkerboard cake pan, like I have, but I can't figure out how to use, or scoop integrating spoonfuls into a regular 9" round and swirl around a bit - simple.
Bake at 350°F for 25-30, or until cake springs back at the touch
Invert on wire rack, let cool

Frosting: Lemon Swiss Meringue
Recipe & Instructions

I used 2 cups sugar
8 Egg Whites
20 tablespoons butter
Enough for middle and covering two 8" cakes, and filling and frosting 12 cupcakes

*Also I will add: While mine was not curdling, I was still freaking out because it was super runny. I thought maybe my kitchen was too warm so I put it in the fridge and milled around a bit. About 15 minutes later I thought, "Maybe I stopped too soon?" So, I put in back in the mixer - and approximately one minute later... it was perfect. So, lesson learned - whip, whip, whip.

Time for fun!

Frost cake as normal
Cut out a divot in the center about 3" across for the sushi fixins
As I'm no expert, I can only simply tell you what I enjoyed watching Linda create - which will do no justice to the process or the creator

First, she covered the cake in a beautiful white satin fondant
I helped color and create the seaweed!! - that she rolled into one long piece, textured and smoothed, and affixed to the side of the cake
We used the meat grinder attachment on her kitchen aid, to create rice, it took a half hour and it was really fun


Color and mold wasabi, carrots, crab and avocado - and chopsticks
Linda created these amazing chopsticks a few days in advance and hand painted the exquisite Chinese lettering along the tops
Such detail!


This was all a secret from Gabriel, and it was well worth it. His reaction was priceless! Last year I planned a surprise party for him, (which his guests did not really keep a surprise, but only because he's so snoopy!) so when I was telling him at dinner I didn't really have anything "special" planned I loved the goofy grin he kept giving me, indicating, "Sure you don't...".