Ann Reardon

Pet Dragons & Castle Cake Tutorial

dragon castle cake reardon how to

The best pet is one that sheds no hair, makes no mess and is not too noisy.  Meet my pet dragons.  They live inside the castle cake but will be just as happy residing anywhere in your home.

To make the Castle Cake with Dragons you will need to:

* Download the Surprise Cakes App from
or Get it on Google Play

* Print the surprise cakes app markers (allow time for the pdf to open as it is a large file so that it is print quality)
* Make 2 quantities of american buttercream I used this chocolate buttercream you can choose a different frosting recipe here
* Bake 2 quantities of the rich chocolate cake recipe baked onto 4 trays, the trays I used were 25cm (9.84 inches) x 38cm (14.96 inches) x 1.5cm (0.59 inches) tall. When baking in trays it takes 15-20 minutes per tray to bake.

* Fondant – NOTE amounts listed are the actual amount that is on the cake, allow extra for rolling out
Brown fondant for the door 100g (3.53 ounces)
Black Fondant 50g
Light Grey Fondant for walls 800 g (28.22 ounces)
Dark Grey Fondant for top of cake 320g (11.29 ounces)
Green fondant for grass 50g (1.76 ounces)
tiny amount of yellow and red fondant for flame

* 6 Chocolate Bars, the ones I purchased were 11.5 cm (4.53 inches) long boost bars
* half a packet of oreos to crush for ‘soil’
* Small square or rectangle cookie cutter, you can make your own see the twitter cake video for instructions

Bake your cakes and make your frosting. The fresher the better but parties can be busy times so you can make 2 days before the party and decorate the day before. If making this far ahead use some simple syrup to keep the cake extra moist (see the princess cake video for how to use simple syrup)
Cut each tray cake in half and then stack with a thin layer of frosting between each layer, making sure your cakes are completely cooled before you do.
Trim the stack of cakes to make a neat rectangle the trim off each corner.
Cover the whole cake in a smooth layer of frosting and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

See the video for instructions on how to decorate the cake.

how to cook that surprise cakes app dragon
With thanks to Brendan Votano who came on board to help turn my app idea into reality.  You can buy the app from

 or Get it on Google Play

2014

by Ann Reardon How To Cook That

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

49 Comments View Comments

  1. p.s. here is a picture of my creation!

    • Wow Rachel, That is amazing!

  2. Dear Ann, I just wanted to say a massive thank you for your castle cake tutorial. I made your creation for my 3 year old son’s Dragon birthday party, and was so glad I did. I must admit your seven or so minute video did make it look easy enough for me to try it, and although in reality I spent 2 days on it, I think it was worth it to see my son and my husband’s reactions, as well as the guests! I even took up my brother’s challenge of a moat and crocodile, although perhaps I’d allow more time to smooth that out if I did it again. The guests all loved the flavour of the chocolate cakes to, which stayed moist for days. Thank you again for sharing your amazing creativity – I learned heaps and had a great party as a result.

    • Well done Rachel. Your persistance and determination paid off and the results are impressive. Well done!

  3. Thank you for posting these how to cook that videos to you tube man hours of watching your posts and planning went into making this cake for my daughters 12th birthday if it wasn’t for your videos I wouldn’t have found the help needed to put it together

    • Hi Karen,
      I hope your daughter loved her cake and appreciated all the effort you put into it.

  4. How much is the app in your country Ann? In dollars please.

    • Hi RWL, The app usually retails for around $3-$4 (AUS) depending on the format you need.

  5. Hi Ann, great app! Question though I could only take pictures of the fireworks .. does the app also allow video? It would be awesome if it does.. thanks!

  6. Only just discovered you and addicted now to your videos -going to try the castle cake for my grandson and have just bought the APP it’s amazing
    How about a Christmas one with a beautiful tree rising up out of the cake
    Or Santas grotto and Santa flying in onto the roof ?
    Well thank you for your great instructions and inspiration you are amazing Mrs Reardon

  7. Thank you sharing this video.I love it God bless you and your family. Have great week.

    • Thanks Christie for the feedback.

  8. Thank you for sharing this video. God bless you and your wonderful family. Have a great week.

  9. Please give me a link for the ginger man bread house. Your works are great Thanks .

    I will be glad to have recipe for royal icing. I live germany cos of the measurements.

  10. baeutiful.
    Thank you

  11. Hi Ann,love watching ur videos all the ideas n everything u tell loved the recipe of it sponge cake too but my biggest problem is being a hard core vegetarian I CNT even think of touching egg .so is it possible if u suggest me wat to add wen not using egg to make a perfect sponge cake like urs.thanks pavas

    • Thanks Pavas for the feedback. Unfortunately, Ann hasn’t tried many egg alternatives with this recipe. If you experiment let us know how it goes.

  12. Cool cake and cool pet dragon!

  13. Kindly guide me the names of accessories for 3D flowers jelly designs to order online from website and if possible, names of websites as I am staying in India near Bombay.

    • Hi Lizan, Ann doesn’t have a link for these items, though she got the syringes and ‘dommed cup cake lids’ from Ebay. We have seen similar lids on amazon and at Cake decorator stores. If you search under dommed cake cake lids in your region, it should give you a local supplier.

  14. Dragon Marker doesn’t work. What to do? Other markers work well.But the Dragon Marker on the knight party is necessary

    • Hi Natalya, I have just tested our markers at home and they are working fine, including the dragon marker. Maybe re-print your marker. In the mean time, I will forward your comment to Tech support for assistance.

  15. Hi Ann. Do you have any suggestions if if want to make a strawberry choclate cake for this creation instead of just the choclate.because my sons birthday is coming up and I’m stuck between just making it this way or attempting to make changes and possibly screw up

    • Hi Alex, Ann suggests just making chocolate cake and using a strawberry ganache for filling. It will be much easier than making changes.

  16. can you send the app link .
    I can’t find it on the app store I’m not from USA so I don’t know if that change something ! sorry my English language is weak

  17. I love this!!! You said in your above video that the dragon can be changed but I do not have icons to press to go back to home page or to take a picture or change dragon. Can you please let me know what to do?? Thanks so much!

    • hi paula, please close the app, click on the round button on your ipad or iphone to see what is still open or running in the background and close the app, then reopen.

  18. Just bought your app – it’s great! Can I color the markers?

    • Thanks so much Ilse, Im glad you like it. Yes you can colour in the markers in pencil (just ensure that the black outlines are clearly visible as that’s how the augmented reality technology works).

  19. love this app

    • thanks Fun

  20. can you make the app free if you do i’ll subscribe to your chanell i promise 😉

    • sorry javeria, watch to the end of the video I explain why it is not free 😀

    • Is that really all there is to it because that’d be flriteagasbbng.

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