Dragon Scone at Catholic Cuisine

I'm over at Catholic Cuisine today posting about the Dragon Scone we made last year for St. George's Day (April 23rd). I'm planning to make another one tomorrow provided we don't get swept away in the storm outbreak that is threatening us today. What are your plans for the Feast of St. George?

Dragon Scone for Good St. George

I couldn't do it. I just couldn't make a Dragon Cake for today. We still have so many cakes and cookies left over from Easter that the thought of adding to it made me sick. So to celebrate St. George's Day today, I made a Dragon Scone. Never heard of a Dragon Scone? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I just made that up. Oh well. Here it is.

Basically, it's a giant serpentine scone baked and then decorated with whipped cream and sliced strawberries. The head is a slice of (leftover) cake covered in frosting and strawberries. The eyes are two M&M's and those "wings" in the back are an apple turnover pastry. I may or may not have served him up for dinner instead of dessert. (Don't judge.)

Our other treat for the day actually came a little early and was too cute to keep in the box so it's been in our yard for a little while already.

This St. George and the Dragon Whirligig was featured by Miss Cari over on FB and was a huge hit with my BigBoy and Miss Cupcake. We have some storms brewing tonight so it looks like our St. George will have quite the battle on his hands!

St. George, pray for us!

 

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!

 

Almost ready for the slaying...

 BigBoy is so proud of  the dragon he helped decorate this morning. He is busy making swords out of butter knives and a shield to go with it. I was tempted to not do a dragon this year. We don't need more treats in the house and we just had our Garden Party on Saturday, and frankly, I admit it, I only have one child who still gets really excited about the idea of a frosting covered dragon cake. But I wanted him to know that his excitement was worth it. It's different than when I had four children all excited, but it's still worth acknowledging. I guess I didn't want him to feel like we were saying, "Well, if it's just for you, I'm not going to bother." So, call it mommy guilt or just the fact that I love to see that shadow dimple of his when he smiles, but he is worth the effort. His excitement alone is worth my time. It's worth a messy kitchen. It's worth not getting something else done today.

We tried to make him ferocious, but this was as close as we got. Maybe it's a she... those nails look a little too manicured for a boy dragon. That's the last time I use red M&M's for claws. I used all non-dairy cake this year and no ding-dongs....just two round layers and about 6 cupcakes. BigBoy helped with the green spots and the scales on the back. Oh, he also chose and placed the red eyes. I painted the fire with food coloring. It was super easy! There are some more ideas over at Catholic Cuisine for celebrating the day. A dragon cake isn't your only option. And don't forget to link up any celebrating you do with food. We'd love to see it!

Happy Feast of St. George to you and your little knights!

 

Happy Feast of St. George!

I wish we were going to slay our dragon with some friends today but alas, a spring cold has knock us back a bit. I like how he turned out, but I must admit that he didn't get the attention he deserved today. First, the weather played havoc with our frosting. Warm and humid is not good for frosting or queasy pregnant women. And don't even get me started about smelling the sweet stench of that frosting. Let's just say that this dragon should count himself lucky to even have skin! Normally, I would take the time to smooth out all the rough spots, but today, he stays rough whether he likes it or not!

 We used Toblerone for the spikes and gave him a little hoard of treasure. Fruit roll-ups made the wings with Kisses for the eyes and nose. Our dragon slayers are working on their swords and can't wait for the Sir Daddy to come home from work. As for me, this beast is going back in the fridge where I can't smell him anymore!

If you have your own dragon waiting to be slain, don't forget to head over to Catholic Cuisine and share your cake with everyone.

Dragon Cake ~ Putting it together

For the visual people...

Here are all of the cut cake pieces put together.

This is with the Ding Dongs added to make the thighs and feet. Now, please know, this is the only time that you will find Ding Dongs in my house. They are not my idea of good cake or even a tasty snack, but the kids are kind of intrigued by them and so we keep using them, once a year, and then, no more!

Here is a picture of the dragon frosted with the first layer of frosting. This is the layer that seals the crumbs in. It isn't going to look pretty! Pop it in the freezer for 20-30 minutes and then add your second layer which should cover all the crumblies trapped in the first layer.

Next post... the finished product!

Dragon Cake Tutorial

I was looking at the first tutorial I posted over at Catholic Cuisine a few years ago and realized that I don't cut my dragon cakes the same way anymore.  I think those first instructions came from an out-of-print party planning book I used to own. When you make the decision to not use cake pieces for the spikes and use candy pieces or cookies, it frees up some extra cake to use to make the head stand up more rather than just lay flat. I kind of prefer that look to the flat head version over at at Family Fun.

Here is an updated example of how I cut my cakes now (although, every year it's a little different). The first round is always cut in half to form the back. That hasn't changed. The second round gets cut like this:

The bottom two pieces are stuck together to make the head. The longer, pointy-ended piece on top is the tail and the other piece can be shaped for the neck. The next step is assembling and frosting which you can read more about on my post called Frosting the Dragon.

Dragon Cakes Past

I can tell from Sitemeter that it's that time of year when people start looking for Dragon Cake ideas. Here is a round up of posts from past years.

2009:
Happy St. George's Day

with other examples of fiery creativity and a slaying sword

2008:

On our way... with a tutorial here and here.

2007:

Happy St. George's Day!

An after shot with our traditional sword knives which was an idea inspired by an in town friend's question in the combox (who's family participated in our very first St. George's Party). I came up with the "how-to" and the kids have carried it out every year since. It is just as much a part of the celebration as the cake is these days!