How to Train Your Dragon Cake

Katie's How to Train Your Dragon party turned out awesome, and everyone had a good time, but the cake... It deserves its own blog post. Because I gave it over two weeks of late-night work, with fondant sticking to my hands, food coloring gel staining my skin, and more than one broken dragon re-do. But mostly because I'm really quite proud of this cake. It started as this:

And became this:

With all of this in between:

Gronckle/Meatlug. Simplest dragon to make because it's basically a bunch of balls. This was the first time I used 50/50 gumpaste/fondant, which was essential for the wings, especially of the larger dragons. 

Nadder/Stormfly (version 2.0). The first one was the first dragon I made for this cake, but it had trouble balancing, and gravity ripped its feet off its legs. That's when I realized that toothpicks for support would be of the utmost importance. 

Zippleback/Barf & Belch (version 1). I woke up to find their heads detached from their necks, with no hope for repair. This was the most complicated dragon, so I was pretty heartbroken. 

The failure with Barf and Belch prompted me to take a break from dragons and start on Hiccup. I was very pleased with how close I came with the face. The more practice I get sculpting faces, the better I'll be. 

I couldn't make his legs until I had a Toothless for him to ride, so I made all I could. 

Then it was back to dragons. Toothless was actually not too complicated, more of a Gronckle difficulty level than a Nadder/Zippleback. And he has a cute smile too. 

Once I got Hiccup on Toothless, I woke up the next morning to this note from Paul. (And yes, those are gel food coloring pots I used to prop him up). 

The original wings I had made were the 50/50 mix, and they ended up being too heavy, so I had to make new ones with only gumpaste. Then I ran into the problem of discoloration. The black wings turned green! So I ended up painting his body and wings with a thin coat of black, and thankfully, my problem was solved!

My biggest fan/apprentice worked with me on the weekends. 

She made her own Toothless and Hiccup. 

Then it was time for Zippleback 2.0, this time with floral wire for support, and I waited to attach the heads until cake assembly day... Just in case. 

Then I made the Monstrous Nightmare, Hookfang. He didn't cause me any grief, thankfully!

Then it was time to bake the cake, make the Rice Krispy mountains, and put it all together. 

Oh, and I made a Scauldron head to poke out of the water. Kind of a last-minute addition. 

Paul made a stand with isomalt to hold up Toothless as he flew over the ocean. It held up great and looked awesome. And we never pass up an opportunity to play with molten sugar!

Dragon island close-up. I went back and forth on whether I should cover it in blue fondant or icing. I opted for icing, to create the texture of waves in the water. 

It is finished!

Aerial view. Oh, and the letters! I found a Viking-esque font through Google, and I used some Wilton edible paper to cut out the letters with my Silhouette Cameo. Paul really was the one who did it. He likes contributing to all my cakes, even if it's in some small way. But these letters were an excellent touch!

Ready for the party...

It is probably my most photographed cake. 

Time to sing to a little viking birthday girl...

And then it got eaten!