The Cake That Started It All...

My little boy and his 5th birthday cake

Last August my son specifically asked for a dragon cake for his birthday.  I was thrilled, intrigued and mortified at the same time.  I just didn't want to do a picture of a dragon, I wanted to do the real thing (or as close as possible).   About a week before his birthday I started doing some research on dragon cakes and tried to form my own idea of what I wanted to do for his cake.  I saw many incredible cakes made with fondant and sugarpaste but that is just not my medium, I really like using buttercream icing, it in my opinion is edible and more pleasing to the palate.  I gathered the information in my head and the morning before his birthday I started the process.  I first baked 2 round cakes, divided one in half to make the body, then I used the other to cut feet.  I then baked a regular 9x13 cake that would soon become the head and tail.  I had to piece together the head to get it to the look that I wanted, the tail was also pieced together with left over cake.  I used white buttercream to stick the pieces together, it worked great.  Believe me, by this time in my cake process I was starting to doubt myself and how this would actually turn out but I kept going using my best judgement and pastry bag!  Once I got the cake to the "look" that I was attempting I started in with the green colored icing, I honestly cannot recall the tip I used for this lizard skin effect but I was pretty happy with the turn out.  His spikes were a chocolate covered graham cookie and his wings and tongue were fruit rolls.  Those wings were the most difficult part of the cake, but I give credit to my husband for taking the time to sit and work on them until we both thought it looked decent.  I have to say that this cake was probably one of my favorites that I have ever created.  My son loved it and it tasted pretty good too.  I'm a little worried about what he will ask for next year!