This Bundt Cake–Style Crab Dish Looks Retro But Tastes Totally Modern

There is a long history of Bundt-shaped seafood dishes that, while sometimes fun to revisit on the internet, are not likely to grace many modern dinner tables. The ornately molded dishes were certainly visually striking, like the 1970s trend of fish-shaped tuna mousse, but the contents of the recipe were often quite questionable. One such recipe, for example, included lemon gelatin, canned tuna, and condensed chicken noodle soup alongside diced vegetables, mayonnaise, and cream. The rich history of Jell-O salad is also likely better left in the past, but this spicy crab sushi Bundt cake recipe from Ksenia Prints takes the impressive look of those dishes and applies it to a modern meal that you'll actually enjoy eating.

The concept is actually quite clever. After lining a Bundt pan with plastic wrap to ensure a smooth removal, it is packed with a thick layer of sushi rice, followed by all of the fillings of a spicy crab roll — crab salad, avocado, scallions, and tobiko, among other ingredients — and then another layer of sushi rice to close off the bottom. It's packed together until nice and compressed, chilled, and then inverted and popped out onto a plate. At this point, the recipe is already a creative way to serve sushi, but colorful garnishes turn it into a real show-stopper. With vibrant green sliced scallions, bright orange roe, and black and white sesame seeds sprinkled over the elaborate rice sculpture, it's a dish that's as beautiful to look at as it is delicious to eat.

As is, this sushi Bundt offers an interesting (and striking) new way to present a much-loved combination of flavors. To complete the melange, diners can enjoy a slice with pieces of nori. But much like traditional sushi preparations, there are many directions that you can take this concept. For starters, it's incredibly simple to change the fillings in this recipe. If crab isn't your thing, swap in your favorite protein, like salmon or tuna, or take inspiration from our vegetarian sushi rolls recipe. You could even use mini Bundt pans for individual servings, or to craft a variety of different sushi Bundts. It's an endlessly versatile dish that can easily be tailored to your tastes.

Another customization to try is meeting in the middle with the baked sushi trend. You'll want to skip the plastic wrap lining, so it might be harder to use an intricately-detailed Bundt pan, but a baked sushi cake delivers a creamy, decadent dinner that's perfect for sushi cravings in chilly weather. Another big plus is that, because it's baked, you don't need to worry about buying sushi-grade fish. If a warm dinner sounds like it better fits the bill, have a look at our salmon sushi bake recipe.

Tall, jiggly Jell-O salad, suspended with various floating bits of seafood and vegetables, is likely one of the worst vintage dishes of all time, but there was one aspect that deserved to live on: the savory use of the Bundt pan. Prints' spicy crab sushi Bundt cake recipe salvages that stunningly retro look and gives it a modern flavor makeover that we can all be excited about.