Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Dragon Cupcake Cake for St. George


 It's part of my job, as mommy around here to remember that just because I don't feel great (still hacking up the occasional lung) and the littlest doesn't feel well (ear infections) and the biggest kids have kind of moved beyond fun food and celebrating feast days with crafts and games that the middle kiddo, who straddles the line between big kid and little kid because he looks so big but is still little at heart, might still want to stab a dragon.
I thought these candy melts were too big for a nose but the white chocolate chips were too small. I should have piped some circles of in between size, but I was too lazy.
With a cold front blowing in dropping our temps by 20-30 degrees, I did not want to head to the store with the baby to get supplies to make one of our traditional Dragon Cakes, so I decided to see what we had in the pantry. We had a gluten free chocolate cake mix, candy melts and the makings of this frosting which tasted good but could have used more powdered sugar to set up better.

I drew out a quick sketch of what I had in mind. This gluten free cake mix only makes one round, or 12 cupcakes, but I managed to get 15 out of mine. I don't know how. The only thing I changed was substituting greek yogurt for the water to make them more moist.
I used the candy melts to make eyes, spikes, claws and a nose. Total decoration time: 30 minutes (not counting the time it took to bake the cupcakes and let them cool). It's not what I'd call pretty, but my BigBoy can't wait to hack into it, and that's really what counts!

 

12 comments:

  1. It turned out so cute!! I love it! Happy Feast of St. George!

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  2. Oh it's so cute! I'm sure Mr. dragon was a hit.
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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  3. I just love it, Charlotte! I so appreciate a gluten free cupcake idea! For one son it's wheat, dairy and egg free cake, and they do NOT take any kind of decorating well. Cupcakes are the best approach, and this is genius!

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  4. I forgot to say I'm praying you all will recover soon!

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  5. I think I might make these Friday. Snap is being confirmed (they do it in 2nd grade here now!) and he chose St George as his confirmation saint.

    I've never thought to replace water with Greek yogurt! Does it work to make the cakes moist?

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    1. Oh, yes. They were very moist but not falling apart. And I also added a little almond extract for extra flavoring.

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    2. BTW... it was a Betty Crocker Devil's Food mix.

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    3. http://my-extraordinary-life.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-doctor-gluten-free-cake-mix-part.html

      This adaption to the Betty Crocker mix will extend the batter to get 2 rounds or 24 cupcakes. It taste delicious too.

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  6. When my daughter saw your photo she immediately began asking me to make this cake. Looks like we will be joining the St. George party next year, it is one that sneaks up on me every year so I'm adding it to my phone reminder list.

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  7. Cute! We started making a dragon cake for St. George's feast a few years ago because of your inspiration. Every year looks different (mostly because I forget what I did the year before) and I almost forgot about it this year until my husband mentioned the feast at breakfast yesterday. Not being prepared, I too wanted to make it from what we had on hand and put my artistic daughter on to the task. She managed a tasty, artistic and very green dragon which my two youngest boys joyfully slew. They did wonder why the insides were white cake and not chocolate this year. It was suggested that next year we have a red cake or a chocolate with red layers of frosting so it would be more realistically gross.

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