Dragon’s Tail Cake

–from Farmer Giles of Ham

You will need:

3 boxes of cake mix and the ingredients listed on the box (eggs, oil, water).
2 to3 cans of white frosting
green food coloring
1 round biscuit cutter 4-5" across
1 bag of multi colored gum drops or spice drops
1 bag of gumdrop-like fruit slices
1 box of tooth picks
2 rectangular baking pans (13 x 9)
1 long wooden board covered with foil

A lot of space and time to work!

First, grease and flour the cooking pans unless they are non-stick pans. Then, make the cake batter in a huge bowl or several smaller bowls. Pour one and a half cake batters into each baking pan and bake following the instructions. Allow the cake too cool. Leave the frosting out on the counter so it softens up in room temperature.

When the cake is cool dump it out of the pan onto a cutting board. If it breaks a little, no biggie. Use the biscuit cutter to cut out round slices. Put them aside in a bowl or on a clean surface. Save all of the extra pieces that are not round in another bowl. You will need them.

Mix the frosting with green food coloring until it is the desired shade. Take a knife and use it to stick the round pieces together on the flat edge. Place the tube you are forming out of round pieces on the long board covered with foil. As you form the tube out of circles, make it undulate like a wiggly dragon's tail. Lop part of the circles off to make the segments get smaller as you near the end of the tail. When you get to the very end, use some of the smaller cake scraps I told you to save in a bowl. They are also good for filling in gaps. You can also use them to sculpt a triangle on the end of the tail.

Cover the tail in green frosting. Put the gum drops and gumdrop fruit slices on toothpicks. The toothpick should go in the bottom of the piece of the candy, but not stick out the top. Alternate fruit slice candies and gumdrops on the larger end of the tail and graduate down to just gumdrops on the smaller end. Be sure to alert moms that there are toothpicks in the candy. If you're feeling really nutty, sprinkle it with that cake decorating glitter and decorate it with garnishes. Be careful when carrying it in to a room. Round things have a tendency to roll. Baby steps, baby steps...

 
P.S. I actually made one of these things for a birthday party in a forest preserve. Not only is it possible to make one, but it can survive a car trip and bees if handled correctly.

P.P.S. Read Farmer Giles Of Ham. Smith of Wooton Major also has a cake in it, but I
haven't tried that one yet.

P.P.P.S. Read Leaf by Niggle as well. It's not got much cake in it, but it is a touching story.

LUV,

–SINDARINELFMAIDEN

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