Let's bake a cake

So I'm a cake decorator. Have I mentioned this before? I honestly can't remember haha. But yeah, I have this little business

(my side hustle as I like to refer to it) where I bake for people. I've done weddings, baby showers, many birthday honestly you name it I've probably baked for it. And as for what I bake? Well think tasty desserts and breads and anything that is going to cause you to let out that waistband just a bit more. Haha. 

But specifically for this post I want to talk about cake! Did you know that I design my cakes on paper before I make them? Yup ots a thing. Sometime the designs are hyper specific

and sometimes they're more vague. But it always helps me to figure out what I need to do if I start out on paper. 

My latest adventure was just that an adventure from start to finish. It all started with a request for a birthday cake from a very loyal customer and close friend. A dragon themed birthday cake. Oh boy oh boy! After a few days of searching on Google, drawing and dreaming I'd decided on my design 

 (see sometimes it's pretty vague). Once I'd gotten an A-OK from the client it was time to start creating the different elements, specifically the wings and the tail. 

First the wings:

I started by following a printed wing design with wire and then covering it with floral tape. It was tedious, it was annoying, in the end it was worth it. Then after some deliberating between whether I should use gumpaste, fondant or modeling chocolate I decided to go with modeling chocolate. Basically a playdough, no more clay, like mixture of melted white chocolate, corn syrup and a little corn starch. (Hey I never said my baking was healthy) I rolled it out thin as I could and covered the wire outline,

Yeah, like that. After a few tries I'd figured out all the tricks. First leave a bit of a edge when you trim it. You can use that to create the slight lip that goes around the wing. Think larger along the top and thin on the bottom. Then roll some little snakes and place them like the... veins? In a dragon wing add some claws and ta-da! 

Dragon wing! Now do the same thing for the other one, but remember it needs to be an opposite wing if you're not careful you'll end up having to do a redo after realizing you've made to left handed wings. Oops! 

Now for the tail! 

Start by making a big o'l snake. Think large to small (that's usually how tails work). After you have a shape you like decide how it's going to lay around the base of your cake. For this I used my 8" cake pan and just designed it for that. 

Then add a little strip down the middle, like a rib or something. Idk how exactly to describe it. Then after a few different attempts and failures I found a method that worked for me to get the little spikes. Simply use a clean pair of scissors to cut little triangles along the top. As you go down the tail towards the end make the triangles smaller. 

There you go! Now we simply wait. Let them kinda dry out. And pro tip (learned this the hard way) go straight to airbrushing so you have time for them to dry again. 

Airbrush time!! 

First mix the color. I used a custom color combination. Part purple, part metallic silver and part pearlescent. 

I actually started with the wings and (this is important) on the back side! This way when you flip 'em over they'll still look great. 

Then I added a little accent colors (black and silver) on the tail I colored the spikes black and the edges silver. On the wings I colored the "veins" and claws black with a slight silver tip. Then let it all dry!! 

Now for the cake assembly! 

First layer the cake layers with whatever filling in between. Do a solid crumb coat and refigerate. Step two cover in frosting purple was the color choice! Then pop her in the freezer. We need this frosting super cold! 

Next add the wings! This was tricky. They ere heavy and kinda awkward. But if you place them in at an angle it worked out. Then add skewers behind the large parts of the wing in the cake to support them. Next add the ti to the base of the cake. I used some extra frosting to "glue" it in place. 

Then add some "scales" take a large straw and remove the top edge. So it's a slight "U" shape. Begin adding scale sections, I didn't want to cover the whole cake so I just did random areas. Pipe on the nose and eyes.

And ta-da! You have a glorious dragon cake to make the dreams come true for every dragon lover in your life!