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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Green Birthday Party

I promised a lowdown about EGirl's party last weekend and I may now be close enough to recovered to actually write about it! We were unbelievably lucky since it was supposed to rain, and I stubbornly refused to have an indoor backup plan (our house isn't big enough for a kid party and I really wanted to be outside!). Fortunately, the 50% showers that were forecast? Pfffft. Not a drop.

My favorite party activity was the singing of Happy Birthday. We have a cherry tree in our front yard, and every year it blooms just before EGirl's birthday. She's long heard the tale of how the tree shook down a pink petal carpet to welcome her to the world. We came home from the hospital, carrying her in our arms in a tiny bundle (to be sniffed by her wagging dog), and the tree rejoiced. She knows it blooms just for her. Well, PapaBird secretly collected a duffel bag of fallen petals, and when the children were singing, spirited the crowd over to him and had EGirl's friends throw giant handfuls of petals in the air like confetti for the last bars. As everyone sang, "Happy Birthday to you," it rained pink petals all over EGirl and her cousin TGirl (they are exactly one year apart and share a birthday).

Most people writing in wanted to know about party favors. I'll go there first. I got all intensely absorbed in figuring out how to work my Freecycled sewing machine in the week before the party and made beanbags (thanks to the Artful Parent for the idea! it was actually supposed to be a great project for a child learning to sew so I figured correctly that it was about my speed).

I used old blue jeans, some lovely rose-patterned canvas fabric I bought about 3 years ago when I was daydreaming about making doll clothes for EGirl's Waldorf mini-me, and some of EGirl's crib sheet fabric from an old ripped one I've been hanging onto. Yes, I am a packrat. And now? Fuel to my fire. Everything can be upcycled! Ahem. Anyways, we used them to play hopscotch (brought sidewalk chalk to the park) and the kids got to pick one beanbag out and bring it home. I am going to go out on a limb and say that the children may not have been as backflippingly excited about the beanbags as I was (I figured out how to make my sewing machine work!!), but they did enjoy the hopscotch.

Other party favors? We used our hoard of baby food jars to house jelly beans (bought in bulk at Costco). We made homemade playdough (with glitter!) in several colors and put it in a huge bowl. The kids ripped hunks off of the mound and stuffed it into wax paper bags, adding more glitter if they felt the urge. We made paper coupons that said, "Ticket To Tickle Town!" And, instead of presents, we had a book swap. Everyone brought a book (some wrapped, some not, some used, some new -- we brought a bunch of backups just in case) and I put them all out in a pile for the kids to choose from en masse. Everyone ended up with a book they liked to take home. (This idea, btw, worked out much better than the "no presents but your presence" tactic that we've used in years past).

Activities? We played with a parachute, hit a thousand innings of T-ball, blew bubbles (pack rat alert: I have saved every wand from every bottle we've ever gotten, plus you can use pipe cleaners if you're running low). We actually tried a bunch of homemade bubbles (glycerine + dish soap) the day before, which was very interesting for CBoy but not so effective on the bubble blowing front. We actually (gasp! siren alert for infraction of Buy-Nothing April) bought a couple giant bottles of bubbles for the party (mea culpa, our only purchase besides food!).

My mom made us a homemade soccer ball pinata which we filled with Hershey's kisses (food?! should have been fair trade too, alas). Our intent was to a)avoid the interminable whacking we've endured at most every party wherein the poor birthday child wigs out because there is no way a small person can enter Pinata Innard Heaven without turning into a whirling dervish and b)to devise a non-violent, non-competitive pinata. Usually, pinatas are pretty freaking resilient, inspiring tiny person steroid abuse. Oh, how the pendulum swings. Our pinata? Not so sturdy. We'd envisioned swift kicks passing the pinata from child to child. It split on the first kick! Note to self: listen to your mother (she questioned the pinata's structural integrity early on and urged multiple applications of newspaper and flour paste over the course of several days, for those of you trying this at home. 'Awhich we did not do).

Our party took place at a park next to a rockin' playground so we spent a bunch of time on the swings, carousel horses, and climbing giant ladders.

For the final event (drum roll please) we had a treasure hunt. Each kid (parent assistance needed) got a frame made of 2 pieces of glass (Clips from IKEA - 99 cents for a 4-pack but we already - ahem, packrat - randomly had 20 in the art supply closet so HAH! no purchase there). Treasure hunt! Treasure hunt! Squeeaaallll! We handed out construction paper backgrounds in assorted colors cut to fit the frames. Husssh. I explained that the treasure hunt directions were to go find a treasure in the field. A beautiful flower, a leaf they particularly liked, a special piece of grass. They scampered in all directions. Then the children pressed their treasure into their frame and wa-la! Party favor and activity all in one.

Random green birthday tips? We skipped juice boxes in favor of a big cooler of lemonade (used assorted paper cups from old birthday parties, but might supplement our stash of IKEA plastic cups for the future -- we already have enough for the soccer team and wash/reuse them every week). Used up random paper goods (Winnie the Pooh meets rainbows!) but will probably go for a set of easily stored reusable plates in the future. Used old plastic forks/knives -- some IKEA, some takeout, some old birthday party utensils -- and saved them to rewash/reuse.

All in all, the lesson was simple. Kids have fun easily. They don't need much to enjoy one another's company. Building on their curiosity and active play is key. Hope some of these ideas are helpful!

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