Photo/Illutration A cake modeled after “unaju” (grilled eel on rice) is made with Western and traditional Japanese sweets. (Takashi Takizawa)

AKITA--As part of its summer “Fake Sweets” campaign, Japanese confectioner Kaorudo here is pitching an exclusive treat that it hopes will help people beat the heat and raise a smile or two in the process.

The company came up with a cake modeled after “unaju” (grilled eel on rice) to mark the midsummer day of the ox that falls on July 24 and Aug. 5 this year.

The offering is made with Western and traditional Japanese sweets.

Eels are recreated with “nerikiri” sweetened bean paste formed into fillets.

After being browned, they are placed over a sponge cake covered with fresh cream containing rice crackers, representing steamed rice.

Caramel jelly is poured in place of a soy-based sauce, with “matcha” green tea-blended chocolate sprinkled over it to express powdered Japanese pepper, or “sansho.”

The fake eel treat is the seventh installment in the confectioner’s “Fake Sweets” series initially introduced five years ago.

The cake was introduced on June 8. Sales hit 1,000 in just about one month.

The special dessert sells for 540 yen ($3.40), including tax.

“If it can give you a little chuckle, you will feel uplifted” like when you are eating eel, a representative said. “We hope the cake version of unaju will help people get through the hot summer days this year, too.”

The unaju cake is on sale at all six Kaorudo outlets in Akita and Yurihonjo in Akita Prefecture until early August.

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