Sushi for Dessert?!

Thursdays are our usual date night.

Dash goes to Doggie Funland every Thursday for the entire work day, which means that when we pick him up, he's completely exhausted. This is efficacious, since it means that Ashley and I get an entire evening of peace. We can watch an entire movie without being interrupted by random barking at neighbors walking by. We can eat a meal without whining or begging. We can play a board game without a Kong being dropped in our laps (with the implication being that we should fill it with a treat).

Thursdays are our date night.

Some time ago, A and I came up with a list of date night activities that we can pull from when we want to do something a little different. There's things like bowling night, roller skating and wearing as much neon as possible, doing a simple science experiment together, etc. The one we chose this time was based upon a YouTube show we both like called Nerdy Nummies. It's a cooking show started by a girl who makes nerdy/geeky themed treats, and we were inspired by a particular video she did where she made sushi cupcakes.

I should note, that these are not fish-flavored, nor do they contain any fish (well, that's not entirely true, but I'll get to that in a minute). They are matcha cupcakes with white buttercream frosting. The idea is to make them as flat as possible, so that when you frost them and put coconut on top to look like rice, they have the general shape of a sushi roll. Then you top them with a candy treats of your choice (like Swedish Fish -- see not real fish, but they do contain fish of a sort), and voila! Sushi cupcakes.

You are also supposed to use black wrappers (to look like nori), but we couldn't find any at our local store, so I just picked gold, since it looked cool. You'll just have to pretend it has a normal nori-like outside. Oh well!

The recipe we used was meant for several mini-cupcakes, so when we filled a normal, 12-piece tray with the entirety of the batter, the cups were pretty full. They rose beautifully, but like I said, it's important to keep the flat-topped shape so it looks more like sushi. If the cupcakes end up a little too domed, you can just cut the top off, and not wanting to waste anything, we made what we affectionately call "Shrek-aroons."

All in all, it was a really fun date night, and after making late-night deliveries of these treats to two sets of friends who live nearby, we settled in and called the endeavor a success!

So, to my dear wife who is game to try out an unusual recipe with her strange husband -- here's to you!