Cub Scouts: Dragon Cake

For the annual Blue and Gold Banquet last Wednesday the younger scouts were asked to bring a cake or cupcakes that they decorated themselves. Kara was not excited about this activity so I volunteered to help Bentley. I asked him how he wanted to decorate his cake.

B: "With a dragon!"

me: "How are you going to put a dragon on a cake?"

B: "I'll draw it on the top."

me: "That's going to be difficult. Frosting isn't easy to work with to show fine details like those in your dragon designs. I’m not sure how to do it."

I've never taken any cake decorating classes and as this conversation took place the day of the event, it was too late for me to enroll Bentley and I in a class. Instead I suggested that he make a dragon shaped cake. I googled dragon cakes and easily found a kid friendly one.

Bentley approved the cake design and we got working. First we made the cake. Box cakes are easy to make, so B was able to do most of the work. He does not like cracking eggs, but there were plenty to practice on because we needed six eggs. We made two boxes of cake mix to insure a fluffy cake. (It was a little too fluffy and we had to cut the domed top off!) While the cake was baking I went to the grocery store to buy the supplies needed to decorate it. 

When I returned the cake was out of the oven and cooled, so we got to work. I handed B a knife and showed him the diagram for cutting up the two nine-inch cakes to form the dragon. He did a good job and soon we had our dragon cake ready to decorate. 

The next step was the hardest. Kara took two containers of premade frosting and added green food coloring (lots!) and then heated them in the microwave to the right consistency for pouring. B poured them over the cake and I spread the frosting. We had to keep heating and pouring and spreading. There was a lot of cake to cover.

When we were finished with the frosting the real fun started. B had a little help from his siblings putting sprinkles on the dragon. This was not indicated in the online design, but sprinkles came with the frosting and they were a good match for our frosting color so the kids sprinkled them on. 

Then B added eyes (marshmallows and chocolate chips), claws (orange slices), and spikes (chocolate covered graham cracker cookies). We worked together on the flames out of the dragon's mouth (a fruit roll-up).

I made the wings because B ran out of time. B drew me a design on paper and helped me with the first one and then he left to get changed into his uniform. I had to finish the second wing and mount them on the plastic netting (Gutter Guard). The plastic netting was my idea. It wasn't clear how the original cake designer had attached the wings (made from fruit roll-ups), so when I saw the netting at the store I grabbed it. When B came back downstairs I had him put the wings on the dragon. We weren't sure where to attach them--to the dragon's sides or back? B told me I had the wings curved the wrong direction. He could be right...I am not an expert on dragons. 

B's dragon cake was the most elaborate design at the Blue and Gold Banquet. I'm sure a lot of the parents attending thought some adult had done most of the cake, but other than the wings and spreading the frosting, B did the work. Of course, it helps that we homeschool and had the entire afternoon to work on it! (Viva was quite jealous of B's project. I promised her she could make a bunny cake for Easter.)