Theme Recipe: Green Dragon's Breath Cake

THE GREEN DRAGON'S BREATH CAKE

Unlike the exploding volcano cake from the above cookbook, there are really no photographs of homemade dragon cakes with real smoke on the web.  I guess people just aren't that much into making one of these at home.  The cake does, however, show up on the cover of the cookbook that the recipe was originally published in (see above).  Personally I think it's pretty cool looking; more work that the volcano cake, but worth it.  In order to make this particular cake, you will need an actual copy of the above cookbook, because it contains pattern that needs to be traced, and it is not on the web as yet.  So for the Fantasy genre theme:  Dragon Cake it is!

1 sheet cake of your favorite flavor that is 13 " by 9" (homemade or bought)

2 Sheets racing Paper that is 8 1/2" by 11"

A Pencil

Tape

Scissors

Sharp knife

1 Card board base that is 15" by 11", covered in foil

1 five inch high cardboard "coat box", at least 13 by 9 inches

1 Plastic round "deli" container with a tight fitting lid, 3 or 4 inches around

Plastic drinking straw

Green Frosting*

Red Frosting bought in tube

1/4 lb. dry ice

Some hot water

1.  Place the sheet cake on foil lined base.

2.  Tape together two sheets of tracing paper, trace the dragon pattern found in the book on pages 14-15.  With scissors, cut out the pattern, then lay this pattern over the cake and cut out the shape with the knife. Save the cake cuttings, and clean up the base.

3.  Frost the cake with green frosting*.  Use the tube of red frosting to form an eye ball, nostril and any scale patterns that you like to make the cake look reptilian.  (Note:  you can get more elaborate with this if you like, see variations below).

4.  Carefully remove one narrow side of the card board coat box so you can reach into it from the side.  Then place the base with the cake

*you  do not need to find already made green frosting.  Simply purchase a tub of white vanilla flavored frosting and turn in green with some green vegetable food coloring. Take a sharp skewer or knife and poke a big hole through the nostril through the card board.  Now take the straw and poke it all the way down into the box, making sure it can't be seen on the surface of the cake, just see if you fits.  Remove.

5.  Take the deli container and poke a snug hole in the top of that and fit the straw to that hole as well.  

6.  When ready for the effect, place a few chunks of the dry ice in the container and add the hot water.  Replace lid, and slip this under the cake nostril and run the straw down through the nostril into the container.  Presto, a smoking dragon!

A NOTE ABOUT DRY ICE:  Do Not handle this with bare hands!  It will cause burns on bare skin.  Use gloves AND kitchen tongs to be safe.  And always be sure to keep it out of the reach of children!  

VARIATIONS:

You can get more detailed with the icing.  If you want a really special cake for a really special occasion, buy some white icing in a tube and some decorating tips that screw onto the the tube, along with some tube icing that is yellow and some that is chocolate.  Use the red and yellow to create dragon claws and use the yellow to make the eye, with a red pupil in the middle.  Use the white to outline the cake and create the scales and the chocolate to create the nostrils and some eyebrows.  Use the decorating tip to pipe a nice decoration around the bottom of the cake.  Buy some cardboard and cut it to look like a flame pattern, paint that with various shades of red, yellow and orange to look like fire--then press the base of this into the dragon's mouth to look like fire breathing.  If you want to get even more elaborate; mix a little red food coloring into the green icing to make it darker, then use this to decorate the large scales on the back of the dragon that are part of the cake that you have cut out.  This creates a two-tone green skin color effect.

You can use any color that you like for the skin icing; if you notice below in other types of dragon cakes, it doesn't really matter what color the icing is.  If the cake is for a particular person, use their favorite color.

A similar cake, with not dry ice involved can be made from a round cake.  The cake cuts out look like:

Then you just frost and decorate.

Even if you do follow the cut away cake from the book recommended, you don't need to use the special effect of dry ice.  Just frost and decorate.  Add candles if you like.

OTHER CREATIVE DRAGON CAKES FROM AROUND THE WEB

DRAGON CAKE TOPPERS