Homemade Gifts to Make with Kids: Candy Sushi

Want a fun activity to enjoy with your kids? How about an activity that will teach them some valuable cooking skills? Try baking. Kids love to eat desserts and baking is similar to making crafts, except in the end you get to eat the finished product. There are many sweets to choose from such as easy to make cookies, cupcakes, but today we will try something that will really get our kids' creative juices flowing: candy sushi.

It really does look like actual sushi and that's the best part to the kids: playing make believe. Just like playing "house" they can pretend to make actual sushi rolls. They'll want to take the candy sushi to their teachers. They'll want to show it off to grandma and grandpa. They'll phone all their relatives and announce to the world about their culinary adventure. This will begin a tidal wave of opportunity of more fun things for you and your kids to make and do together. And let's face it.

Isn't it getting harder to find new activities to do at home with the kids?

As our kids get older they easily get drawn to play with all the high-tech games and devices that are available now. Cooking with kids provides more face-to-face, human interactive activies.

So what exactly is candy sushi?

It's a combination of rice crispy treats that represent the real rice, gummy worms (you could also add red string licorice) to represent the fish, and all wrapped in a fruit roll up (or fruit leather) which represents the seaweed. It is the candy equivalent of makizushi rolls.

How do you make it?

The technique of making candy sushi is not complex. There are only a few ingredients and no baking involved. Just a little prep work, mixing melted butter and marshmallows with crisped rice cereal, adding some gummy worms, making some rolls and wrapping them in fruit roll up. Sushi candy rolls are colorful, fun to make for your kids and the taste is addictive. Don't forget to take a ton of pictures to send to your friends and family.

Don't let them sit too long in the fridge or the gummy candy will begin to harden and crack. Give them away as gifts or eat them yourself. Find a decorative Japanese dish on which to serve them. And for added taste set aside some chocolate dipping sauce to represent soy sauce. Pretend that you and the kids took a night out at a local sushi bar.