My youngest son's birthday landed on Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year) this year. And as you may know, it is the year of the dragon, so what cake is more fitting than a red (color of celebration) Chinese dragon cupcake cake for the occasion?
My middle son was born in the year of the dragon, so this is his year too! Quite a serendipitously special year for our family since we are living in China, to boot! And this is supposed to be the best year of the dragon as well as the best year of the 144 year cycle (12 cycles of 12 years). Not bad!!
I'm especially proud of those chocolate pretzel wings that I came up with an hour before we had to leave the house to take the dragon to school. My original idea was a horrible failure, in fact, I knew as soon as I opened the package of the fruit tape that it wouldn't work, so I didn't even try. When in doubt, turn to melting chocolate - it is so easy and you can make anything you want.
I drew the outline and bones of one wing, put the drawing under waxed paper, I traced the three bone areas with a thick line of chocolate and then placed the pretzel sticks down, Then I filled in the wings and coverd the handle pretzels with a lot of chocolate. Then I flipped the drawing over, traced it through to the other side, followed the same steps as above to make a new wing that was the mirror image of the first wing. Then I placed them in the refrigerator for around 30 minutes and they were done! I did have to saw off the ends with a serrated knife because the handles were too long to stick into a cupcake. But otherwise they worked perfectly! PHEW!
And here he is with the goodie bags he made for his class. (I'll post more details about these in a future post.) That is his drawing of a dragon dance complete with lanterns. THe back side says Happy New Year inside a latern surrounded by fire works. I did not coach him on these drawings but based on the amount of detail they include, there is no mistake he has spent half of his seven years in China!
There's nothing like making a cool dragon cupcake cake (special cakes made by mom are one of our family traditions) and putting together some homemade goodie bags to make a little one smile! It is all about the simple things, isn't it?
If you are interested in tips on how I made this cupcake cake, feel free to email me.
To see my other cake & cupcake creations, click HERE.
I'm linking up at Simple Things Sunday today.
Your cakes are absolutely amazing - I love this one and no wonder you were so proud of the wings.
Posted by: Joanne | February 05, 2012 at 03:57
Oh my goodness. Your cupcake dragon is SO absolutely incredible. WOW. I love creativity.
Posted by: Life with Kaishon | February 05, 2012 at 04:21
What an amazing birthday cake -- so creative! And I love the birthday boy's dragon drawing too. Happy Year of the Dragon!
Posted by: Lisa Grande | February 05, 2012 at 05:40
That is amazing!
Posted by: Kelly | February 05, 2012 at 06:16
Thank you!
Posted by: Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie | February 05, 2012 at 08:16
that is A-MAZING!
Posted by: Tiaras & Tantrums | February 05, 2012 at 09:17
Amazing how creativ you are! The dargon is so amazing looking
Posted by: TL | February 05, 2012 at 09:41
I LOVE this! Those wings are amazing. I want to try something like that for Halloween.
Posted by: Brooklyn | February 05, 2012 at 15:36
Wow!!!! Totally and completely amazing! I am envious of your son....I would love to have that dragon "cake"! Those wings are the best!
Posted by: Astrid | February 06, 2012 at 04:01
this is AMAzING Margie!! Sooo fun! What a fun mom you are....and the pretzel wings are top notch! WTG! :) Thanks for linking up!
Posted by: Rebecca Cooper | February 06, 2012 at 20:32
Thanks, Rebecca! Its definitely fun for me too. :)
Posted by: Nihao, Cupcake! by Margie | February 07, 2012 at 03:44