Dragon Cupcake Cake

Ever since I started making cakes a little over a year ago, I've been keeping my friends and family from having to worry about cakes for any occasion. I'm asked so much now, that I have to turn some requests away. Now if I could only get paid to make these cakes...

My first cake last year was for my godchild. It was terrible compared to the cakes I can make today. This year the birthday girl (Isn't she cute in her dragon shirt?) requested a vanilla dragon cake. I racked my brain and was thumbing through my Hello Cupcake! book and I found an alligator cake. I thought that I could adapt it into a dragon cupcake cake. This took me a long time to make—longer than it should have. I should have scrapped the design and started over, but I was too exhausted. I finished it and it was cute, but I'm not so sure that it looked like a dragon. My godchild and her friends thought so, and I guess that is all that matters. Oh well, there's always next year.

Dragon Cupcake Cake
Design: adapted from Hello Cupcake!

Ingredients:
24 vanilla cupcakes (I used a box mix. Still looking for a great white cake recipe!)
1 red fruit roll-up
6 - 10 fruit slices (I used orange.) 
10 marshmallows
batch of vanilla buttercream dyed green (recipe below)
12 - 14 square cookies (I used Lorna Doone.)
tiny batch of vanilla buttercream dyed brown (for snoot)
tiny batch of vanilla buttercream dyed blue (for eyes)

Bake cupcakes and let cool. Meanwhile, make frosting and tint desired shades of green, blue, and brown. Using the leaf tip, frost each cupcake.

For the scales: Press cookies into 12 - 13 cupcakes to look like scales and pipe frosting over cookies.

For the tail: Place one cookie flat on top of one cupcake leaving the point hang off the cupcake. 

For the claws: cut fruit slices in half and press into foot cupcake. I used 3 for each foot.

For the teeth: cut triangles out of marshmallows with sharp knife. I dusted them with powdered sugar to make them less sticky. As you can see, I forgot to add the teeth to the cake when I put it together.

For the tongue: Fold fruit roll-up and slice a V into the tip. Place in the "mouth" of the dragon.

For the eyes: Put a dot of blue icing (or whatever color) into the center of each marshmallow. Place the marshmallows together on top of the "head" cupcakes.

For the snoot: Pipe two circles on each "nose" cupcake to resemble a snoot.

Place cupcakes together to form the shape of a dragon.

Vanilla Buttercream
2 sticks of butter
6 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 - 6 tablespoons water or milk

Cream butter and vanilla until smooth. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time and water until desired consistency is reached. Beat well.