Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)

Perusing the Threadless catalog looking for inspiration produced Wishless, which I somehow missed seeing up to that point. :\

A basic chocolate cake recipe was used for this beast, using my go-to substitution of applesauce for oil. And copious amounts of buttercream. Some of it was cocoa-fied for frostings between layers. The rest was colored (or not) for cake coverage and decoration. The shirt color was swapped with the original frosted white for some visual interest and to add a bit of the dragon back into the cake.

Fondant was used for the dragon-proof candles.

I was hoping to get away without internal supports in this cake but halfway through the build, the sheer weight of its chocolatey awesomeness caused the bottom layers to swoon, crack and collapse under the pressure of high expectations.

Salvaged the top half, baked another recipe's worth of cake and dropped the number of layers from eight to six, which ended up making a more aesthetically pleasing aspect ratio, I think. Was hoping for it to be a tad more off-center though...

This cake was created (and later devoured) concurrently with my Kyoto cake. Frosting and cakes were made throughout the week after work. Construction, destruction, emergency baking, reconstruction, and decoration took place on Saturday.

Non-edibles: cardboard cake bases below layers one and four, plastic tubes to support the top three layers and base, toothpicks for support and the "wick" in the candles.

Thanks again to all the people who squeezed into my apartment to eat the cake. And for the people at work who polished off the leftovers. :D

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)

Perusing the Threadless catalog looking for inspiration produced Wishless, which I somehow missed seeing up to that point. :\

A basic chocolate cake recipe was used for this beast, using my go-to substitution of applesauce for oil. And copious amounts of buttercream. Some of it was cocoa-fied for frostings between layers. The rest was colored (or not) for cake coverage and decoration. The shirt color was swapped with the original frosted white for some visual interest and to add a bit of the dragon back into the cake.

Fondant was used for the dragon-proof candles.

I was hoping to get away without internal supports in this cake but halfway through the build, the sheer weight of its chocolatey awesomeness caused the bottom layers to swoon, crack and collapse under the pressure of high expectations.

Salvaged the top half, baked another recipe's worth of cake and dropped the number of layers from eight to six, which ended up making a more aesthetically pleasing aspect ratio, I think. Was hoping for it to be a tad more off-center though...

This cake was created (and later devoured) concurrently with my Kyoto cake. Frosting and cakes were made throughout the week after work. Construction, destruction, emergency baking, reconstruction, and decoration took place on Saturday.

Non-edibles: cardboard cake bases below layers one and four, plastic tubes to support the top three layers and base, toothpicks for support and the "wick" in the candles.

Thanks again to all the people who squeezed into my apartment to eat the cake. And for the people at work who polished off the leftovers. :D

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)

Perusing the Threadless catalog looking for inspiration produced Wishless, which I somehow missed seeing up to that point. :\

A basic chocolate cake recipe was used for this beast, using my go-to substitution of applesauce for oil. And copious amounts of buttercream. Some of it was cocoa-fied for frostings between layers. The rest was colored (or not) for cake coverage and decoration. The shirt color was swapped with the original frosted white for some visual interest and to add a bit of the dragon back into the cake.

Fondant was used for the dragon-proof candles.

I was hoping to get away without internal supports in this cake but halfway through the build, the sheer weight of its chocolatey awesomeness caused the bottom layers to swoon, crack and collapse under the pressure of high expectations.

Salvaged the top half, baked another recipe's worth of cake and dropped the number of layers from eight to six, which ended up making a more aesthetically pleasing aspect ratio, I think. Was hoping for it to be a tad more off-center though...

This cake was created (and later devoured) concurrently with my Kyoto cake. Frosting and cakes were made throughout the week after work. Construction, destruction, emergency baking, reconstruction, and decoration took place on Saturday.

Non-edibles: cardboard cake bases below layers one and four, plastic tubes to support the top three layers and base, toothpicks for support and the "wick" in the candles.

Thanks again to all the people who squeezed into my apartment to eat the cake. And for the people at work who polished off the leftovers. :D

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)

Perusing the Threadless catalog looking for inspiration produced Wishless, which I somehow missed seeing up to that point. :\

A basic chocolate cake recipe was used for this beast, using my go-to substitution of applesauce for oil. And copious amounts of buttercream. Some of it was cocoa-fied for frostings between layers. The rest was colored (or not) for cake coverage and decoration. The shirt color was swapped with the original frosted white for some visual interest and to add a bit of the dragon back into the cake.

Fondant was used for the dragon-proof candles.

I was hoping to get away without internal supports in this cake but halfway through the build, the sheer weight of its chocolatey awesomeness caused the bottom layers to swoon, crack and collapse under the pressure of high expectations.

Salvaged the top half, baked another recipe's worth of cake and dropped the number of layers from eight to six, which ended up making a more aesthetically pleasing aspect ratio, I think. Was hoping for it to be a tad more off-center though...

This cake was created (and later devoured) concurrently with my Kyoto cake. Frosting and cakes were made throughout the week after work. Construction, destruction, emergency baking, reconstruction, and decoration took place on Saturday.

Non-edibles: cardboard cake bases below layers one and four, plastic tubes to support the top three layers and base, toothpicks for support and the "wick" in the candles.

Thanks again to all the people who squeezed into my apartment to eat the cake. And for the people at work who polished off the leftovers. :D

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)

Perusing the Threadless catalog looking for inspiration produced Wishless, which I somehow missed seeing up to that point. :\

A basic chocolate cake recipe was used for this beast, using my go-to substitution of applesauce for oil. And copious amounts of buttercream. Some of it was cocoa-fied for frostings between layers. The rest was colored (or not) for cake coverage and decoration. The shirt color was swapped with the original frosted white for some visual interest and to add a bit of the dragon back into the cake.

Fondant was used for the dragon-proof candles.

I was hoping to get away without internal supports in this cake but halfway through the build, the sheer weight of its chocolatey awesomeness caused the bottom layers to swoon, crack and collapse under the pressure of high expectations.

Salvaged the top half, baked another recipe's worth of cake and dropped the number of layers from eight to six, which ended up making a more aesthetically pleasing aspect ratio, I think. Was hoping for it to be a tad more off-center though...

This cake was created (and later devoured) concurrently with my Kyoto cake. Frosting and cakes were made throughout the week after work. Construction, destruction, emergency baking, reconstruction, and decoration took place on Saturday.

Non-edibles: cardboard cake bases below layers one and four, plastic tubes to support the top three layers and base, toothpicks for support and the "wick" in the candles.

Thanks again to all the people who squeezed into my apartment to eat the cake. And for the people at work who polished off the leftovers. :D

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)

Perusing the Threadless catalog looking for inspiration produced Wishless, which I somehow missed seeing up to that point. :\

A basic chocolate cake recipe was used for this beast, using my go-to substitution of applesauce for oil. And copious amounts of buttercream. Some of it was cocoa-fied for frostings between layers. The rest was colored (or not) for cake coverage and decoration. The shirt color was swapped with the original frosted white for some visual interest and to add a bit of the dragon back into the cake.

Fondant was used for the dragon-proof candles.

I was hoping to get away without internal supports in this cake but halfway through the build, the sheer weight of its chocolatey awesomeness caused the bottom layers to swoon, crack and collapse under the pressure of high expectations.

Salvaged the top half, baked another recipe's worth of cake and dropped the number of layers from eight to six, which ended up making a more aesthetically pleasing aspect ratio, I think. Was hoping for it to be a tad more off-center though...

This cake was created (and later devoured) concurrently with my Kyoto cake. Frosting and cakes were made throughout the week after work. Construction, destruction, emergency baking, reconstruction, and decoration took place on Saturday.

Non-edibles: cardboard cake bases below layers one and four, plastic tubes to support the top three layers and base, toothpicks for support and the "wick" in the candles.

Thanks again to all the people who squeezed into my apartment to eat the cake. And for the people at work who polished off the leftovers. :D

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)

Perusing the Threadless catalog looking for inspiration produced Wishless, which I somehow missed seeing up to that point. :\

A basic chocolate cake recipe was used for this beast, using my go-to substitution of applesauce for oil. And copious amounts of buttercream. Some of it was cocoa-fied for frostings between layers. The rest was colored (or not) for cake coverage and decoration. The shirt color was swapped with the original frosted white for some visual interest and to add a bit of the dragon back into the cake.

Fondant was used for the dragon-proof candles.

I was hoping to get away without internal supports in this cake but halfway through the build, the sheer weight of its chocolatey awesomeness caused the bottom layers to swoon, crack and collapse under the pressure of high expectations.

Salvaged the top half, baked another recipe's worth of cake and dropped the number of layers from eight to six, which ended up making a more aesthetically pleasing aspect ratio, I think. Was hoping for it to be a tad more off-center though...

This cake was created (and later devoured) concurrently with my Kyoto cake. Frosting and cakes were made throughout the week after work. Construction, destruction, emergency baking, reconstruction, and decoration took place on Saturday.

Non-edibles: cardboard cake bases below layers one and four, plastic tubes to support the top three layers and base, toothpicks for support and the "wick" in the candles.

Thanks again to all the people who squeezed into my apartment to eat the cake. And for the people at work who polished off the leftovers. :D

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)

Perusing the Threadless catalog looking for inspiration produced Wishless, which I somehow missed seeing up to that point. :\

A basic chocolate cake recipe was used for this beast, using my go-to substitution of applesauce for oil. And copious amounts of buttercream. Some of it was cocoa-fied for frostings between layers. The rest was colored (or not) for cake coverage and decoration. The shirt color was swapped with the original frosted white for some visual interest and to add a bit of the dragon back into the cake.

Fondant was used for the dragon-proof candles.

I was hoping to get away without internal supports in this cake but halfway through the build, the sheer weight of its chocolatey awesomeness caused the bottom layers to swoon, crack and collapse under the pressure of high expectations.

Salvaged the top half, baked another recipe's worth of cake and dropped the number of layers from eight to six, which ended up making a more aesthetically pleasing aspect ratio, I think. Was hoping for it to be a tad more off-center though...

This cake was created (and later devoured) concurrently with my Kyoto cake. Frosting and cakes were made throughout the week after work. Construction, destruction, emergency baking, reconstruction, and decoration took place on Saturday.

Non-edibles: cardboard cake bases below layers one and four, plastic tubes to support the top three layers and base, toothpicks for support and the "wick" in the candles.

Thanks again to all the people who squeezed into my apartment to eat the cake. And for the people at work who polished off the leftovers. :D

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)

Perusing the Threadless catalog looking for inspiration produced Wishless, which I somehow missed seeing up to that point. :\

A basic chocolate cake recipe was used for this beast, using my go-to substitution of applesauce for oil. And copious amounts of buttercream. Some of it was cocoa-fied for frostings between layers. The rest was colored (or not) for cake coverage and decoration. The shirt color was swapped with the original frosted white for some visual interest and to add a bit of the dragon back into the cake.

Fondant was used for the dragon-proof candles.

I was hoping to get away without internal supports in this cake but halfway through the build, the sheer weight of its chocolatey awesomeness caused the bottom layers to swoon, crack and collapse under the pressure of high expectations.

Salvaged the top half, baked another recipe's worth of cake and dropped the number of layers from eight to six, which ended up making a more aesthetically pleasing aspect ratio, I think. Was hoping for it to be a tad more off-center though...

This cake was created (and later devoured) concurrently with my Kyoto cake. Frosting and cakes were made throughout the week after work. Construction, destruction, emergency baking, reconstruction, and decoration took place on Saturday.

Non-edibles: cardboard cake bases below layers one and four, plastic tubes to support the top three layers and base, toothpicks for support and the "wick" in the candles.

Thanks again to all the people who squeezed into my apartment to eat the cake. And for the people at work who polished off the leftovers. :D

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)

Perusing the Threadless catalog looking for inspiration produced Wishless, which I somehow missed seeing up to that point. :\

A basic chocolate cake recipe was used for this beast, using my go-to substitution of applesauce for oil. And copious amounts of buttercream. Some of it was cocoa-fied for frostings between layers. The rest was colored (or not) for cake coverage and decoration. The shirt color was swapped with the original frosted white for some visual interest and to add a bit of the dragon back into the cake.

Fondant was used for the dragon-proof candles.

I was hoping to get away without internal supports in this cake but halfway through the build, the sheer weight of its chocolatey awesomeness caused the bottom layers to swoon, crack and collapse under the pressure of high expectations.

Salvaged the top half, baked another recipe's worth of cake and dropped the number of layers from eight to six, which ended up making a more aesthetically pleasing aspect ratio, I think. Was hoping for it to be a tad more off-center though...

This cake was created (and later devoured) concurrently with my Kyoto cake. Frosting and cakes were made throughout the week after work. Construction, destruction, emergency baking, reconstruction, and decoration took place on Saturday.

Non-edibles: cardboard cake bases below layers one and four, plastic tubes to support the top three layers and base, toothpicks for support and the "wick" in the candles.

Thanks again to all the people who squeezed into my apartment to eat the cake. And for the people at work who polished off the leftovers. :D

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)

Perusing the Threadless catalog looking for inspiration produced Wishless, which I somehow missed seeing up to that point. :\

A basic chocolate cake recipe was used for this beast, using my go-to substitution of applesauce for oil. And copious amounts of buttercream. Some of it was cocoa-fied for frostings between layers. The rest was colored (or not) for cake coverage and decoration. The shirt color was swapped with the original frosted white for some visual interest and to add a bit of the dragon back into the cake.

Fondant was used for the dragon-proof candles.

I was hoping to get away without internal supports in this cake but halfway through the build, the sheer weight of its chocolatey awesomeness caused the bottom layers to swoon, crack and collapse under the pressure of high expectations.

Salvaged the top half, baked another recipe's worth of cake and dropped the number of layers from eight to six, which ended up making a more aesthetically pleasing aspect ratio, I think. Was hoping for it to be a tad more off-center though...

This cake was created (and later devoured) concurrently with my Kyoto cake. Frosting and cakes were made throughout the week after work. Construction, destruction, emergency baking, reconstruction, and decoration took place on Saturday.

Non-edibles: cardboard cake bases below layers one and four, plastic tubes to support the top three layers and base, toothpicks for support and the "wick" in the candles.

Thanks again to all the people who squeezed into my apartment to eat the cake. And for the people at work who polished off the leftovers. :D

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)

Perusing the Threadless catalog looking for inspiration produced Wishless, which I somehow missed seeing up to that point. :\

A basic chocolate cake recipe was used for this beast, using my go-to substitution of applesauce for oil. And copious amounts of buttercream. Some of it was cocoa-fied for frostings between layers. The rest was colored (or not) for cake coverage and decoration. The shirt color was swapped with the original frosted white for some visual interest and to add a bit of the dragon back into the cake.

Fondant was used for the dragon-proof candles.

I was hoping to get away without internal supports in this cake but halfway through the build, the sheer weight of its chocolatey awesomeness caused the bottom layers to swoon, crack and collapse under the pressure of high expectations.

Salvaged the top half, baked another recipe's worth of cake and dropped the number of layers from eight to six, which ended up making a more aesthetically pleasing aspect ratio, I think. Was hoping for it to be a tad more off-center though...

This cake was created (and later devoured) concurrently with my Kyoto cake. Frosting and cakes were made throughout the week after work. Construction, destruction, emergency baking, reconstruction, and decoration took place on Saturday.

Non-edibles: cardboard cake bases below layers one and four, plastic tubes to support the top three layers and base, toothpicks for support and the "wick" in the candles.

Thanks again to all the people who squeezed into my apartment to eat the cake. And for the people at work who polished off the leftovers. :D

Submitter's Comments: (High Res Image)

Perusing the Threadless catalog looking for inspiration produced Wishless, which I somehow missed seeing up to that point. :\

A basic chocolate cake recipe was used for this beast, using my go-to substitution of applesauce for oil. And copious amounts of buttercream. Some of it was cocoa-fied for frostings between layers. The rest was colored (or not) for cake coverage and decoration. The shirt color was swapped with the original frosted white for some visual interest and to add a bit of the dragon back into the cake.

Fondant was used for the dragon-proof candles.

I was hoping to get away without internal supports in this cake but halfway through the build, the sheer weight of its chocolatey awesomeness caused the bottom layers to swoon, crack and collapse under the pressure of high expectations.

Salvaged the top half, baked another recipe's worth of cake and dropped the number of layers from eight to six, which ended up making a more aesthetically pleasing aspect ratio, I think. Was hoping for it to be a tad more off-center though...

This cake was created (and later devoured) concurrently with my Kyoto cake. Frosting and cakes were made throughout the week after work. Construction, destruction, emergency baking, reconstruction, and decoration took place on Saturday.

Non-edibles: cardboard cake bases below layers one and four, plastic tubes to support the top three layers and base, toothpicks for support and the "wick" in the candles.

Thanks again to all the people who squeezed into my apartment to eat the cake. And for the people at work who polished off the leftovers. :D