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Updated on December 7, 2021 by · This post may contain affiliate links ·

Dragon Wedding Cake Tutorial

Skill level: Intermediate

I have been asked over and over to make a classic red dragon on a cake and when this Dungeons and Dragons die-hard couple approached me about doing a dragon-themed wedding cake, I jumped on the chance to make it.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create the artistic painted design on the wedding cake tiers, along with the sculpted classic red dragon out of edible materials. Learn how to create the unique structure that will support the dragon, how to sculpt the muscles and facial features, how to add edible teeth and an edible fireball. The wings in particular turned out amazing and have a show-stopping quality to them that will surely impress your nerdy guests.

There's a lot to cover in this tutorial, so let's get our tools together and let's get started!

2:22:41 Minutes of Instruction

What You Will Learn

  • How to make a red dragon cake sculpted out of edible materials
  • Learn how to create the internal structure to support the dragon
  • How to paint the cake tiers using edible oil paints
  • How to arrange real flowers onto a cake

Tutorial Chapters

  1. Making the wings 0:55
  2. Measuring the dragon 10:55
  3. Shaping the PVC pipe 16:17
  4. Making the cake dummy 19:21
  5. Adding the straws and foil tape 25:34
  6. Adding the armature wire 28:31
  7. Coloring the modeling paste 35:40
  8. Adding bulk to the dragon 36:37
  9. Adding muscles part 1 41:49
  10. Detailing the abdomen 48:06
  11. Prepping the cake boards 52:21
  12. Stacking the cakes 56:21
  13. Making the water ganache 59:37
  14. Painting the cake 1:01:01
  15. Attaching the dragon 1:07:52
  16. Making the head 1:11:43
  17. Adding the wings 1:24:14
  18. Adding the tail 1:25:43
  19. Adding chocolate to the wings 1:28:50
  20. Building up the arms 1:33:40
  21. Adding the legs 1:40:29
  22. Torching the wings 1:47:21
  23. Adding scale texture 1:50:06
  24. Carving and texturing the face 1:53:11
  25. Adding claws 1:55:57
  26. Painting the dragon 2:00:10
  27. Making the isomalt fire 2:13:24
  28. Adding the eyes 2:14:32
  29. Making the fireball 2:15:13
  30. Adding teeth 2:18:50
  31. Making and adding bouquet 2:19:37

This is the preview

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About Liz Marek

Liz Marek is a professional cake artist and recipe developer who has been teaching baking and cake decorating since 2008. She founded Artisan Cake Company in Portland, Oregon in 2009 and now runs Sugar Geek Show, where she publishes kitchen-tested recipes, food science explanations, and step-by-step tutorials.

Liz is best known for sculpted and hyperrealistic cakes. She won Netflix's Is It Cake? Holiday 2 in 2025 with a hyperrealistic Santa cake, and has competed on and won Food Network cake competitions. Cake Masters Magazine named her one of the top 10 cake artists in 2017. She is the author of Artisan Cake Company's Visual Guide to Cake Decorating and a graduate of the Oregon Culinary Institute.

Her focus is on explaining not just how a recipe works but why it works, so bakers can troubleshoot instead of guess. Every recipe on this site is tested before it's published.

Liz teaches full-length cake tutorials, including sculpted and hyperrealistic cakes, at Sugar Geek University.