Dragon's Attack - Castle Cake

I completed this cake for one of my younger brothers. My siblings and I love fantasy and adventure (Narnia's a favorite!), and often used to play that we were kings, queens, and knights. As a result, it wasn't too surprising that he requested this cake. Having never done a castle before, I looked up various ideas on the internet and then designed my own from there. The towers are ice cream cones: two flat bottom ones on the bottom and a waffle cone on top. I would suggest using sugar cones which are smaller than waffle cones. My small town store didn't sell them, so I had to break down waffle cones. Also, to glue the cones together I would suggest using royal frosting (sets up harder, makes a perfect glue, can find mixes at cake shops or recipes online). I used regular frosting and toothpicks. The waffle cones I covered in fondant tiles glued together with a little water. To make the tiles, I cut out fondant circles using the large end of a decorating tip.

The cake itself is 8in. round chocolate with gray frosting. Since I did not have a very small cake pan, the lower part of the middle tower is a plastic container covered in grey fondant. I used halved marsh mellows painted grey with food coloring for the top edge of the cake. The door, windows, and stones are all made of different shades of grey fondant. A graham cracker worked perfect for the draw bridge. One could always cover it in fondant, though, if they wanted to disguise the cracker. The chains for the draw bridge was the tricky part. Fortunately, one of my brothers had plastic Lego chains that worked great. I added the path with my leftover stones and added a green border and grass for some color. Finally, I used some of my brothers' knights and a dragon to make the scene come to life. I let the birthday boy and my little sister help with this cake, and I believe they were a little sad when it came time to cut the cake.


Tip of the Week: If you don't have black fondant and need to mix some, start out with chocolate fondant and then add black food coloring. The result will taste less of food coloring, unlike if you would start out with white.