My daughter just had her 19th birthday.
How does that even happen. Seriously. She cannot be 19.
Gaaah.
Anyway. Let's not dwell too long on how old that makes me.
Let's move on to cake.
Cake is good.
I made her a gluten free banana bundt cake as she is currently gluten free but to make this cake you could make any flavor - you just have to bake it in a bundt pan.
Jo and I got the idea from a pin on Pinterest that lead us to Parents.com.
Be sure to pop over there for more photos of the step-by-step and different ideas of what you can use to make the cake. (Link HERE)
Dragon Cake
(Inspired by Parents.com)
Ingredients
1 bundt cake (any flavor)
2 small donuts
2 large donuts
6 to 8 round, mounded cookies
1 - 2 cans of vanilla frosting
food coloring
8 - 10 sugar wafer cookies
chocolate melting wafers
2 - 3 red Starburst candies
2 - 3 orange Starburst candies
6 - 7 yellow Starburst candies
1 regular sized marshmallow
2 m&m candies
Directions
I would really advise you to click HERE to see the how-to on cutting the bundt cake. It is super easy but, unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it. Parents.com did though so pop over HERE.
FYI - You will need a large jelly roll pan or a similar sized tray to place the cake on.
Then you want to cut the small donuts in half. These will be the legs.
The large donuts will be the head.
The round/mounded cookies will be the snout. (FYI - Parents.com used "2 long chocolate covered snacks, such as Yodels or Ho Hos") See photo below for how to assemble.
You can use a bit of frosting to stick things together if you need to. Once you have these pieces in place you can cover the entire thing in a coating of frosting. We bought vanilla frosting and used food coloring to tint it purple as Kenzie loves purple. Don't worry about making it smooth - it's a dragon, it's supposed to be bumpy.
We also decorated the cookie tray with a little green frosting for grass and some Oreo crumbs for dirt. (In order to get the Oreo crumbs to stick to the pan and not slide right off when it was moved, we very lightly sprayed a paper towel with cooking spray and dabbed it on the places we wanted the crumbs to stick. Of course, this is optional!
Claws - You will notice the yellow claws in the photo below. Those are made by microwaving a yellow Starburst for about 5 seconds - just to make it pliable - cut it into 3 equal pieces and roll each piece into a banana shape. You need 1 Starburst for each leg - so 4 in total.
Wings - To make the dragon's wings you will need to melt the candy melts in a ziplock baggie in the microwave. (We did 20 second intervals, squishing the bag after each interval until they were smooth) Draw 2 wing shapes on a piece of parchment paper then flip the paper over.
Trace the outline of the wing by snipping a small corner off the bag and piping the melted chocolate around the outline. Fill in the wing with the remainder of the chocolate. Repeat with the second wing.
Place wings in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to solidify and become firm.
Once the wings are firm you can finish decorating your dragon. Gently press the wings right behind the dragon's head.
Eyes - cut marshmallow in half. Place a small bit of icing where you would like the pupil to go. Press an M&M candy onto the icing. Place the marshmallow at the front of the dragon's head.
Eye Brows - Cut a sugar wafer cookie in half. Then cut one half on the diagonal so you have 2 short triangles. Dab a bit of icing on the back of each triangle and press onto dragon head above the eyes.
Spikes - cut wafer cookies on the diagonal so you have a triangle. Place along dragon's back as spikes, starting with on the head and working your way back. You want about 6 - 8 spikes.
Fire - Heat Starburst candies, one at a time, in the microwave for about 5 seconds or so. Just enough to make pliable. Roll the Starburst into a long "snake" then wrap it around a chopstick or something similar. Chill in fridge for about 5 minutes, until hardened. Carefully slide off chopstick and place in front of dragon's snout. Repeat with yellow, orange, and red Starbursts until you figure you have enough "flames".
There is the top view.
You can make your dragon any color you like with any color wings that you like.
You can also decorate the tray any way you like... or not decorate it at all.
Be sure to stop by Parents.com (link HERE) to see their dragon!
Along with the icing we used some store bought icing flowers and some caramel "rocks" so everything on the dragon and tray was completely edible.
It helps to have a few extra wafer cookies and a few extra melting wafers in case you break a few of the spikes or in case the wings break.
It may seem a bit complicated but it really is fairly simple. Just be patient and take your time.
Kenzie loved it.
Yeah, she is wearing a tiara and funky glasses and a "birthday diva" pin. That may have been at my insistence. Although the girl does like bling.
Happy Birthday Kenzie. You may be officially an adult now but you will always be my baby.
Looking for some fun and fabulous linky parties?
Be sure to check these out - Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons,
