How To Make Dragon Birthday Cakes
Having been born in the year of the Dragon I love these cakes! I am making the one from Family Fun for a Cub Scout cake contest this weekend. 1 Well the Dragon Cake Pans seem to be hard to get so a lot of people use the Dinosaur and go from there. I like just building the Dragon like the illustration shows - I think it is easy enough for anyone to do and looks very cool.
It is always hard to eat a cake masterpiece. Wow, I would never have known they made dragon cake pans, but of course, it makes perfect sense. There seems to be no end to the adorable cakes I see. Love them, but it seems a shame to eat them. These dragons are cool!
You will also need a kitchen scale and a stick blender. Note: You may want to weigh your crock, empty and removed from the outer heating pot, before you start. Weigh the oils and place in the crock pot on Low. Prepare the lye solution. Weigh soft or distilled water in a large bowl.
ALWAYS ADD LYE TO WATER. NEVER ADD WATER TO LYE. Add the lye gradually, stirring constantly. The mixture will appear cloudy at first. It will quickly clear. Pour the lye solution slowly into the warm, melted oils. Your crock pot remains on Low. The mixture will darken and not look very appealing.
Place the stick blender in the crock pot, making sure the blade is completely immersed in the mixture to avoid creating splatters. The mixture will turn opaque and become thicker and smoother as you blend it. To avoid burning up your stick blender, blend with it on for a few minutes, then turn it off and just stir with it. Then on, then off, as you watch for the mixture to come to trace. Trace is the stage in soapmaking where you can draw a line across the mixture and it will remain visible for several seconds before disappearing.
Trace is even easier to recognize in a liquid soap recipe than a solid soap recipe. In fact, you can’t miss it. And it will go from starting to thicken to trace so fast, you will be lucky to get your stick blender out in time. A minute later, so thick I can’t shake the mixture off the stick blender, I have to scrape it off.
With the crock pot still on Low, put on the lid and begin the cook. Check it a couple of times during the first 30 minutes to be sure there’s been no separation of the oils. If you see any liquidy oils at the bottom of the crock pot, stir them back in.
The mixture will quickly become so thick, a spoon will stand up in it. The paste will become very difficult to stir during the cook. Do your best. You can try a potato masher. It’s nearly impossible to stir at some points. Check the mixture about every 30 minutes during the cook and stir/break up/move it around the best you can to continue to mix the mixture as you watch for signs of finished paste.
Finished paste looks like thick Vaseline with a translucent quality. How do you know if your paste is finished, Aside from looks, you’ll need to dilute a sample to test. Dissolve 1 ounce of soap paste in 2 ounces of boiling distilled water. If it tests clear, your paste is done. If it tests slightly cloudy but you’ve cooked for the expected period of time, that’s okay, you’re done.
