Dragon Cake: Mountain Mama Guest Posts!

A dear friend in Colorado sent these pics and directions for making dragon cake (her little guy just had a birthday) and a description of her kiddo's green birthday party. They were so cool that I just had to share. I am always on the lookout for eco-friendly and flat-out fabulous party ideas.

Mountain Mama: "Mountain Daddy and I stayed up pretty late the night before decorating his cake. I had them baked and cut the cakes earlier in the day but we started decorating pretty late at night and it takes time. But we were both so proud of the cake.

Everyone said the party was great. We held the party at a really neat playground. We reserved a shelter in case of rain. The rain was a close call--it rained all day Friday and all Saturday night. We had a husband-wife team put on a 40 minute interactive show--kind of like Jim Carey doing comedy and theatrics for 6 year olds. It was very interactive--Mountain Boy was sweating from all the jumping around. That went over very well!

The toy exchange went fine. The kids brought wrapped things (mostly used toys). I put all the toys in a duffle bag and just handed each kid a toy as they left. We asked politely but firmly for the kids to open the presents in the car, not at the park (that was key!). At one point, I was surrounded by 8 kids wanting gifts. Yikes. I told them they would each get one when they left the party. So I think some kids went and found their parents so they could leave! Which was fine. After 2 hours...I was used up! One kid didn't want the wrapped gift I gave him--he wanted to pick. I said this was the way we were doing it today.

I also bought compostable plates for pizza and cups for lemonade. We used "Preserve" washable plates for cake and used up old plastic forks. I took all the waste home and sorted it--compost, dishwasher. It was interesting--all that I threw away was leftover pizza and cake. I did take a marker and write their names on their lemonade cups.


This cake was mostly organic, except the fruit-roll-up wings, and some natural candies. We used natural orange dye made from turmeric (smile).

For the dragon cake, we made THREE batches of Fannie Farmer icing. A DOUBLE batch that we tinted with a lot of natural orange dye. We made a THIRD batch that we didn't tint (ran out of dye)--we used this white frosting as the "glue" to hold the legs, tail, head and belly together.

Decorations - we used natural raspberry licorice for claws, chocolate covered almonds for nostrils, natural fruit chews for eyebrows, Paul Newman's organic chocolate cookies that we cut into triangles for back scales, marshmallows w/chocolate chips for eyes, fruit roll-ups for wings (you have to wash scooby-doo printing off with wet paper towel). Put wings in cake at party.

1st Tip - Cut cake into dragon pieces. Then put on wax paper and freeze. Ice after frozen. Crumbs weren't a problem during icing.

2nd Tip - Cut scraps of wax paper to slid under all cake parts. Then ice cake. Remove wax paper. Voila! Clean cake board.

3rd Tip - We don't have a big fridge. So we put the dragon's body on our big cutting board (dragon's butt right up to edge of board). Then we put the tail on a smaller cutting board (tail base right up to edge of board). When we presented the cake, we put the two cutting boards together--tail base to dragon butt. Voila! Full dragon.

Cake Mix: Whole Foods organic yellow cake mix

Frosting: Confectioners' Frosting II (The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham)

* makes about 1 cup
1/3 cup vegetable shortening (we used butter)
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups confectioners' sugar, approximately (I sifted--better results, no lumps)
2 tablespoons cream or milk, approximately

Cream the shortening and the salt together, then add the sugar and stir briskly. Stir in the cream or milk and beat well, adding more sugar or more milk if necessary to get an easily spreadable consistency. This is enough to frost an 8-inch two-layer.

*Here's the recipe for the dragon cake--read comments if you make it (we bought a yellow cake mix from Whole Foods--tasted great! We made 3 batches of buttercream frosting from Fannie Farmer's cookbook--awesome too: butter, powdered sugar, milk, cream of tartar).

* Slightly bigger photo of the same cake."

Thanks, Mountain Mama! You and Mountain Daddy rock and I bet your little guy was so thrilled with his cake. Give him a birthday hug from us.

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Eco-Baby Birthday: Edible Flowers

Here's a birthday cake fit for our five year old Girliest of Girls: purple frosting with pink dragee lettering and edible flowers! I broke my April Buy Nothing Challenge when I got some viola seedlings at the farmer's market. But the results were spectacular, our plants are blooming again so I can make more...and I'll teach you how to make candied flowers, too, as penance.

EGirl wanted a chocolate cake with purple frosting. This was easily accomplished with items we had in the house. And by that I mean I scavenged around for what we had, trying not to buy anything, aside from indulging my flower obsession. (I decided that using up what we had trumped fair-trade chocolate issues or the strange verbiage on the India Tree sprinkles website indicating that they were for decoration only despite being glittery and made of 90% sugar, and that the colors I have in my possession are not available for purchase in the health-conscious state of California - WTF?!). We had both cocoa powder and purple frosting tint, the faaancy kind with the most artificial of dyes, in the house from failed prior frosting rose creation efforts. La-la-la-la...that is me blocking out all but making my kid a birthday cake and trying not to waste too many resources.

The coolest part was, of course, the edible flowers! They were super easy. (And no, I don't recommend dropping $40 for 25 flowers.) First, choose a flower to grow (or buy some seedlings like me, just make doubly sure they are organic). Then, whip up some meringue powder (again, you can find this at a highbrow baking store) unless you have your own chickens and have no fear of salmonella. If you are trying to steer clear of raw egg whites then meringue powder or milk are the way to go. Follow the meringue instruction and use it or some milk to moisten your flower. Dip the flower in some superfine sugar. If you are lazy frugal like me, you can just send your sugar through the food processor for a bit. I might recommend using parchment paper instead of foil; ours stuck to the foil which made for difficult flower removal. Anyhoo, put your oven on the lowest heat you can and let the flowers dry for about 20 minutes. They should keep for a bit (tightly covered during this, ant invasion season) in a cool, dark place. Some recipes say they'll keep for up to a year! We candied mostly violas, and a couple chive flowers that had just come out in our window herb boxes (onion cake, anyone?).

Here's a couple recipes for candied flowers and lists of edible flowers for your reference. Maybe for Mother's Day?!

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