Birthday Party: Dragon Theme

I was so excited when my four year old told me he wanted a dragon birthday party.  I was excited for the party as a whole, but the thing I was most excited about was this smoking dragon cake! The cake may look difficult, but I actually didn't do any baking. All I did was buy a bundt cake, cut and formed it, and frosted it. As things were coming together at 3 AM in the morning (one of these days I'll be in bed at a decent hour before a birthday party) I was jumping up and down alone in the kitchen, because I couldn't wait to show my four year old his dragon cake. And I couldn't believe I made it!

Let's take a look at the decorations and activities first:

I cut out dragon footprints from pieces of blue paper and taped them onto the walkway to the house. 

Station #1: Decorate a Shield. 

I wanted our party to have different dragon themed stations for the kids to choose from. The first stations was decorating a shield. The shields are cake circles I found at Michaels. The kids decorated with crayons, dragon stickers and star stickers. On the back of the shield is a handle made from duct tape. To make the handle, you stick a 10 inch piece of duct tape to a 6 inch piece of duct tape. The kids took the shields home as a party favor.

Station #2: Dragon Play Area.

On the window sill, the kids had the option to make towers with Magnatiles (you could also use legos or blocks) with this mini Knights & Dragon Set. In the dragon sensory bin, there is colored rice, scoopers, stacking cups and mini dragons. The kids loved playing with the rice, but it will most likely get all over the floor. I figured it was all on a laminate floor and would be easy to sweep up afterward, so the mess was expected and didn't bother me. 

Station #3: Archery Training

The hula hoops and streamers I found at the Dollar Tree. I found a 20 pack of bow and arrows for only $9.95 on Amazon! Before the party, my husband hot glued the suction tips of the arrows as mentioned in the reviews. This set is nice, because there is a hole in the bow for the arrow to go through. This is so helpful for little ones. The kids also took a bow and arrow home as a party favor.

The kids played at these different stations for about 45 minutes until the doorbell rang. All the kids ran to the door to find a sparkly blue box. The birthday boy got to open the box and inside was a real dragon egg! Each of the kids got to look and touch the egg. Then, the birthday boy got to put the egg into a pot of hatching potion (vinegar). The pot bubbled so much that it overflowed! Once the bubbles died down, a mini dragon appeared! The kids absolutely LOVED this. Afterward, all the kids got to find two dragon eggs in the back yard and put them in hatching potion. Here's how to make the eggs:

You'll need to make these eggs two days before the party, in order for them to dry. They are really simple to make. All you do is add baking soda, water and food coloring together in a large mixing bowl. You want the mixture to be just wet enough to hold a ball shape (not too dry and not runny). Hidden inside the eggs were these mini dragons. I added food coloring swirls around the eggs and put a dab of food coloring on each egg for the jewel to stick to. Just before the party, I hid the eggs outside for a dragon egg hunt. Once the kids found an egg, they'd drop it in a bowl of "hatching potion" (vinegar). The pots would bubble and out would appear a mini dragon. These were the HIGHLIGHT of the party. Each kid got to take home two mini dragons as a party favor.

After the dragon egg hunt, we came inside and ate delivered pizza and some watermelon. If you're interested, check out this watermelon dragon. Once everyone was done eating, we brought out the grande finale... the DRAGON CAKE. The cake was a combination of three different blogs..

Blog #1:

I mentioned the cake was easy! This genius idea is from Parents.com where you can find a detailed tutorial. TIP: Before frosting the cake, put the bundt cake, ho ho's and donuts in the freezer for about an hour or two. It will be SO much easier to frost. You'll need:

• Bundt Cake
• 3 Cake doughnuts
• 2 long, chocolate-covered snake cakes (such as ho ho's or yodels)
• 2 (16 oz) cans white frosting
• Teal gel food coloring
• 12 yellow candy Runts (claws)
• 1 Large marshmallow (eyes)
• 5 vanilla sugar wafer cookies (spikes)
• 12 oz. package candy melts (wings and pupils)

Blog #2:

The idea for a smoking dragon came from Wikihow. The picture above is the basic idea, other than our straws were on top of the dragon snout (ho ho's or yodels), so the candles would fit in the actual snout. Here's what I did:

• Wrap the top of a pizza box with tinfoil. 
• Place the cut bundt cake and the remainder dragon cake pieces (including the snout) on the pizza box, so you'll have a good idea of where the nostrils need to be.
• Use a pen to poke a hole through each ho ho and make a mark onto the pizza box. Remove the ho ho's and use the pen to poke a hole through the lid of pizza box. 
• Lay the ho ho's back on the pizza box and use a bendy straw to make the nostrils. The top of the straw will go through the ho ho and into the pizza box. Bend the straw down, so the remainder of the straw lays flat on top of the ho ho's and out the snout. Cut the straws as needed. 
• Wrap the ho ho's and straws with a small sheet of fondant (I rolled fondant and cut it into a rectangle long enough to wrap around the ho hos) to keep the straws in place. Frost the snout. 
• Before the party, we placed dry ice and water in a bowl that fit snug inside our pizza box. Place the bowl right underneath the straws. Voila!

For a moment, we got both the nostrils to puff and the candles lit. Our dry ice was running out of juice, so we decided to sing and have our four year old blow out the fire candles. He said this was the best birthday party EVER!

After eating cake, we opened presents. My two gave the birthday boy this Melissa & Doug Fold and Go Castle and one of our favorite dragon books, The Knight and the Dragon. We loved spending the morning with wonderful friends and celebrating our favorite four year old!