How To Make A Dragon Cake That Kids Will Love

A dragon birthday cake makes an awesome addition to any special themed birthday.

If you want to make one but are worried it will be overly complicated, fear not. We've got the best dragon cake ideas, which are super simple, with trickier variations.

With children's dragon characters ranging from Toothless to fire breathing dragon Smaug, small wonder that a dragon birthday cake is so popular! Read on for recipes for a Toothless birthday cake or a fire breathing creation.

For more cake inspiration for adventure-lovers, check out our guides to a pirate ship cake and a treasure chest cake.  

For The Cake:

225g self-raising flour, 225 g caster sugar, 225g room-temperature unsalted butter, 2 tsp baking powder, 4 eggs, 6 drops vanilla extract, 2 tsp milk, Buttercream (pre-bought or homemade), Jam.

For The Toppings:

Buttercream, ready-to-roll icing in your desired colours, sweets if needed.

9 inch round baking tins, large mixing bowl, spatula, rolling pin, sharp knife.

We estimate it will take at least 2.5 hours to prep your ingredients, bake the cake, let it cool, decorate and clear up.

This is how you make two-layer vanilla sponge round cakes, though you could swap for chocolate, fruit, or any other version.

Whether you do one layer or two may also depend on how you decorate your dragon cakes, so decide on that first!

1) Preheat the oven to 160C/140C fan.

2) Line two baking tins with parchment paper.

3) Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl.

4) Beat in the remaining ingredients by hand or with a mixing machine until thoroughly combined.

5) Pour into two tins and cook for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

6) Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool for another 10 minutes.

7) If the tops of both cakes are very uneven, use a knife to even one out. Spread one layer of buttercream and one layer of jam on the flat surface, and place the other cake on top.

Here are three dragon cakes ideas your child will love!

A How To Train Your Dragon Cake:

The How To Train Your Dragon franchise has been a huge hit with kids. A Toothless dragon cake, resembling its adorable lead dragon, looks great on a cake and is fairly easy to make.

1) Make three sponges per the recipe above (scale up to 340g flour, butter and sugar, and five eggs.)

2) Create a two-layer cake and set one sponge aside. Flatten the top of the two-layer sponge using a knife, and add a layer of buttercream on top.

3) Now pull up a picture of Toothless on the internet for reference. Take your third sponge and use a sharp knife to cut out facial features to go around the main face - ears, and little flaps either side of the face.  

4) Roll out pre-bought ready-to-roll black icing and drape it over the entire cake, using a knife to cut off any excess and using your hands to smooth out any awkward gaps or lumps.

5) Roll out green icing and use a sharp knife to cut out two "eye" shapes. Add black and white icing on top for the pupils. Place these on top of the cake. Use a knife to score in marks for the nose and mouth.

A Fire Breathing Dragon Cake:

This recipe is great for making a 3D dragon cake with a more realistic look. You will need a few biscuits and sweets for this recipe.

1) Bake your two sponges, but don't turn them into a two-layer cake with jam and buttercream in the middle!

2) Cut one sponge down the middle and place both slices upright (along the flat side), side by side. This will be your dragon's curved back.

3) Cut up the second sponge to form the shape of a dragon's tail, four legs, and face. Search for images so you have something to copy.

4) Cover the entire cake in your desired colour buttercream, so it appears to be one cake.

5) Cut biscuits of your choice in half, and place them along the dragon's back and tail for scales.

6) Add chocolate buttons for the nose, orange gummy sweets for feet and eyes, and then slice up a selection of red, orange and yellow sweets to place coming out of the mouth as the 'fire' for the fire breathing dragon cake.

A Welsh Dragon Cake:

Shw’mae! For a birthday party or a themed party, this dragon cake is simple yet effective.

1) Create a two-layer sponge.

2) Roll out ready-to-roll white icing and drape it over the entire cake, cutting and smoothing over any gaps or lumps.

3) You could use piped icing to create the iconic Welsh red dragon, but it is far easier to buy an edible Welsh dragon icing sheet. Even out your frosting, brush it evenly with a little water, gently remove the icing sheet from its package and carefully place it on top of your cake.

4) Complete with a red ribbon around the base.

- If you want a gluten free cake, just swap out self-raising flour for gluten-free self-raising flour. You can also make it dairy-free by swapping the eggs, butter and milk for 115ml sunflower oil, 400ml almond or soya milk and 3 tbsp golden syrup, and using 400g flour. Vegan buttercream can be pre-bought or made with dairy-free butter.

- If you're making the cake a few days ahead of time, a frosted or iced cake will be fine at room temperature for 3 days as long as you cover it with an overturned Tupperware.

- If you want to keep the cake for more than 3 days, place it in the fridge for 15 minutes, then cover it with plastic wrap. Before serving, let it adjust to room temperature for 30 minutes.

- If you want to freeze any of these cakes, it's best to freeze the undecorated layers (wrap them in foil) and do the decorating closer to the time.

- If you're short on time, make any kind of cake, ice the top, and finish with a dragon cake topper. There are lots available online.

- Or for a super easy dragon head cake, simply bake the sponge, cover with icing and add in a face using piped icing following any design you like!

- Search for "Toothless cake mould" online to find cookie cutters and other moulds that do some of the work for you.