"How to Train your Dragon" Cake

My oldest turned 6 today. Time flies so fast once those precious little souls are born! 

He has been planning his party ever since this time last year (and already has his theme picked out for next year). He chose "How to Train your Dragon." I find it funny because he has never seen the movie! Boys just love dragons I guess! I finished his cake last night. He was very pleased with it this morning when he saw it. (He liked the cupcakes too.) I took step by step photos this time, so you all can see how I do my cakes. So, here we go!

Step 1: Bake the cake & crumb coat it. Daniel's cake is a 3-layer chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream icing.

Step 2: Cover in fondant. I used to think I liked Utah's summer weather, but after last night the baker side of me  hates Utah's dry summer heat! My fondant dried out so quickly! Twice I rolled it out & put a cobblestone texture on the fondant and it  tore apart when I put it on the cake. So, it was supposed to have a marbled look & a cobblestone texture, but instead it was just flat and gray. And it had a big ol' crack in the back. Had it been for a customer I would have taken it off & rolled it out again, but I was tired of that so I just camouflaged it. I'll bet you can't even see it in the pictures.

Step 3: Buttercream details & chocolate rocks. One of my local grocery stores sells chocolate rocks in their bulk foods section. They are awesome. Far and away better than the jelly bean candy rocks. The images in red are viking "glyphs" I copied from my boys' HTTYD coloring book.

 

Step 4: The finished cake! I got the dragon figure at Walmart. 

Lessons learned: Two year old's like to taste. Mine tasted the cake while I had it cooling (and got a timeout). 

He also tasted the black food coloring while I was working the fondant. Ay, ay, AY!

Also, don't forget to leave space for the writing! I almost didn't have room for the "Happy Birthday Dan"!