Princess Dragon

Our niece, Hannah, will soon be celebrating her fifth birthday. Later this month, for the third year in a row, I will hijack (I say "hijack" because I don't really give Kerrie and Ryan a choice in the matter) the priviledge of designing and creating this precious little girl's birthday cake. As the day of her party approaches I've been trying to figure out how I'm going to improve upon last year's cake specimen.

The Princess Dragon's Castle cake had been in the back of my mind for months prior to Hannah's birthday. I couldn't wait to make it come to life, so to speak. I about drove myself and my very patient husband crazy trying to figure out how I was going to make the castle's torrents. I finally decided to line soup cans with parchment paper and bake the cake batter in them. And it worked. Mostly. Unfortunately, they didn't bake as evenly as I would have liked. Each one ended up being just cone shaped enough that they required adjusting. This ment I would have to cut each one in half and bake four more so I could stack them on top of eachother. After cutting of the corners of the cake to fit the shape of the torrents the fun part started [it's a dang shame sarcasm doesn't easily show through in the typed word]. I cut each and every one of the "bricks" by hand (except for the four or five Ben [my ever supportive spouse] turned out for me. It took me longer to apply the bricks than I would have liked. My original plan called for the roof of the castle to be covered in the fondant tiles, just like the sides. The more work I did on it the less I liked. So I turned it into a rooftop garden. I don't regret the choice.

The best part of the cake, in my opinion (and Hannah's), was the sparkling pink dragon. The picture doesn't do the sparkles justice. She, I think pink definitly says "I'm a girl dragon," was hand shaped out of fondant several days before the cake. This allowed the fondant to firm up.

At the party my husband's eighty-something year old grandmother was admiring the cake (did I mention that I love this woman). She looks over at me and asks, "So, did you bake a sheet cake and use a biscuit cutter to make the round corners? You are so smart and talented. " Oh My Stars! Are you kidding me? You could have knocked me down with a feather. I spent hours working on those stupid things, HOW DID I NOT THINK OF THAT?! Naturally, I just smiled and thanked her.





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