Every year on March 3rd, the Japanese celebrate Girls’ Day or Hinamatsuri (雛祭り, Dolls’ Festival) to wish for the health and happiness of their young daughters and granddaughters. During this time, we display Empress and Emperor dolls called hinaningyo at home and host parties with festive foods, including Chirashi Sushi Cake. When my daughter was almost 4 years old, my Japanese mommy friend gave me the idea of making this sushi cake out of Chirashi Sushi ingredients. My young daughter loved anything pretty, so the cake made her Girls’ Day a little more special! Let me show you how easy it is to make this colorful and adorable sushi creation for any party or special occasion.
What is Chirashi Sushi Cake?
Chirashi Sushi Cake is a modern take on traditional chirashizushi (scattered sushi). We mold the seasoned sushi rice like a round or square cake. Then we add colorful tiers of pink, white, and green ingredients to represent the traditional spring colors of Girls’ Day. The more colorful, the better!
Ingredients You’ll Need
You can customize this dish with your favorite sushi toppings and ingredients. For today’s recipe, here’s what you’ll need:
Japanese short-grain rice – white rice works best for making sushi rice chirashi sushi mix – a packaged powdered seasoning mix to make sushi rice; it’s faster than making homemade sushi vinegar with rice vinegar, salt, and sugar sakura denbu – pink-colored fish flakes to make the pink rice salmon sashimi – about 10–12 salmon slices; you can use your favorite sashimi like hamachi (yellowtail) or maguro (tuna); or try smoked salmon shrimp ikura (salmon roe) kinshi tamago (shredded egg crepe) – see how to make it using my recipe Japanese or Persian cucumbers snow peas – or use small pieces of avocado, shiso leaves, or another colorful vegetable
How To Make Chirashi Sushi Cake
With the leftover ingredients, I made Temari Sushi using thin egg crepes. You can see my Temari Sushi recipe for other beautiful toppings you can use. I hope you give this beautiful Chirashi Sushi Cake a try. It makes a sweet and adorable personal-size sushi for a birthday party, bridal shower, and Mother’s Day. Or, let your guests make their own at your next DIY sushi party! Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
