Osaka Patisserie Creates Cakes That Look like Rice Balls, Dubs Them Omusubi Cakes

Posted on November 26, 2019

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Omusubi Cakes aren’t jelly doughnuts but they’re awfully close.

Tsukiichi isn’t your run-of-the-mill cake and pastry shop. Located in Osaka, the shop is known for their luxurious cake buffet, which they hold only once a month and requires customers to reserve a table ahead of time. However, recently Tsukiichi has been making headlines not for their buffet, but rather their onigiri (rice balls).

Why would a top class French-style pastry shop be selling rice balls? That’s because even though they look exactly like a rice ball, they are actually little cakes.

These fake rice balls are called “Omusubi Cakes” (omusubi is another word for rice ball) and since going on sale this past August they have turned out to be a huge hit with customers who have been purchasing them both in-person and via the shop’s website.

Everything about the Musubi Cakes is designed to look like an actual rice ball. This includes the plastic wrapper, which is modeled after the packaging used by Japanese convenience stores for their rice balls. The wrapper even features the same tab that when pulled allows you to effortlessly tear open the plastic packaging without tearing the nori (seaweed) or getting your hands dirty.

As for the “nori,” it’s not made out of seaweed. Itstead this fake nori is made using a crepe pancake and black cocoa powder.

The rice ball itself is made of sponge cake and inside the cake you’ll find some delicious sweet cream filling.

The Omusubi Cakes come in a variety of flavors, including cookies & cream, chestnut, tiramisu, cheesecake, Earl Grey tea, grapefruit, green tea, chocolate, and strawberry.

Omusubi Cakes sell for around 350 yen (~$3.50 USD) each. They can be purchased at Tsukiichi in Osaka or via their online shop (where they are sold in packs of three).

Although Tsukiichi has yet to announce plans to open any other permanent locations, they have begun running limited-time Omusubi Cake stands across Japan. Currently, there are three Omusubi Cake pop-up shops in operation. One is located in the basement of the Lumine shopping center in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. This one will close on December 12. The other two can be found at the Marui department stores in Kobe and Kyoto. The one in Kobe will close on November 30 and the one in Kyoto will operate until March 31 of next year.

To get further updates on the opening of other pop-up Omusubi Cake shops, you may want to check out the official Omusubi Cake Instagram page (@omusubi_cake).

If you’d like to see some footage of the Omusubi Cakes, check out the video below.

Unfortunately, Tsukiichi has not disclosed in their press materials or on their website whether they sell Omusubi Cakes at times other than their once-a-month reservation-only cake buffet. However, if you’re going to be in Osaka and would like to find out, or just try to get a reservation for their buffet, you should contact them. Phone and website information can be found below.