Craving sushi? Just eat cake

December 19, 1996

From Correspondent Carolyn O'Neil

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Before you say no to chicken or sushi for dessert -- make sure you're not missing a dish that takes the cake.

Indeed, some would say Frank Melodia, test kitchen director at McCall's magazine, is pushing cakemanship to the brink. Chicken drumstick cake, sushi cake, cappuccino coffee cake....The list is endless and so it seems are the ideas.

How does Melodia do it? The trick is to think of cake making as sculpture, he says.

"People like to have a fun theme cake...If you know someone who's a sushi lover, it's a great gag....Actually it's a tasty cake!" said Melodia.

He says the cake should be firm in texture. "If you don't want to bake, then buy a frozen pound cake, they sculpt beautifully," he says.

And then it's time to get creative: Melodia suggests using ingredients like fruit leather instead of seaweed for sushi and pink grapefruit in place of raw salmon.

And if you dip icing-coated lady fingers in bread crumbs and oatmeal cookie crumbles, what do you get? Chicken drumstick cake!

Melodia, who develops many recipes for serious food, says there's plenty of room for comedy in the kitchen.

For his cappuccino coffee cake, Melodia poured batter into a pie plate and a mixing bowl and used them as molds for a saucer and cup. "I put a marzipan handle on it, served it with real biscotti and a real spoon . . Don't eat the spoon," he warns.

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