I Want to Make It

A little while back, Bunz' coworker asked me to make a cake for her darling dear. Of course I was more than willing. She expressed some interest in a "dragon" cake, but decided instead on a basic chocolate mousse cake. Which is all well and good, but then I had the idea of a dragon cake stuck in my head. So I decided to do it anyway and surprise her. FYI she was happy, and so was I. This is one of the coolest edible decorations I have made, and I was very happy with how long it took as well as how it turned out. 

I started with my basic chocolate cake, and made a dark chocolate mousse to frost it with.  Let me tell you this was a chocolate lovers dream. Borderline too chocolaty, no seriously, that can happen. Th mousse is super simple. check it out

Dark Chocolate Mousse

400g whipping cream

340g good quality dark chocolate

60g butter

85g coffee liquor 

melt the chocolate, butter and liquor together, just until smooth

bloom the gelatin in 1/4 cup of the whipping cream for 10  min

whip remaining cream to medium peaks

then gently heat the gelatin and cream until the gelatin dissolves. do not boil!!!

stir the gelatin into the chocolate mixture

fold 1/3 of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. 

once incorporated add another third and fold in gently

add final third and fold gently,it doesn't not have to be perfectly uniform

throw it in the fridge to set up

SO far before i did any baking i molded the basic shape of the body out of rice krispie treats and covered it in fundant. Then I let it set for abit, and began the wonderfully tedious.... I mean zen like process of cutting out hundreds of scales, flattening each one and applying individually.

this was fun?

it took a long time, but the effect was worth it. 

I was really nervous about working on the head.I had no idea what to do!

But after afew trials, I was inspired and it went really smooth. 

I did learn afew things in the process, like i would have liked if i made the neck taper more so it was thinner at the base of its head. and i should have used some other colors of fundant to make it more realistic.

At this point i was still really nervous that it wasn't going to look right. there was alot of pressure on its facial features to look more like a grown up slightly menacing  creature, and not all cartoony and fun.

And after i did all the shading and detail work I finally relaxed, when i stepped back i was really happy. As usual i could see all my mistakes first, but overall i was quite proud of my little mythical creature. Kind of reminded me of the dragon from Shrek! super cute and awesome with just a hint of spook.

I wrapped the cake up all snug in the rich but light mousse, and then placed my piece on top. She came the next day to pick it up, and i raced home to be here to see her face. She was happy, but she felt bad. I told her not to be silly, I really wanted to make it, and someone might as well get some joy out of it. I learned alot, and if i do say so myself, it is a nice addition to my portfolio!

Thanks for listening... stay tuned for more nerdy baking adventures!