Clever Cake Studio

This little fella was for a young man’s birthday. It’s a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. For a tastier result, I used marzipan (a sweet almond paste) rather than fondant for the scales, which were just individually shaped by hand and applied. You can get a more refined look by rolling out and cookie-cutting smaller circles, but I didn’t mind the more imperfect cartoony look for this one. I made little wings as well, probably the only thing distinguishing it from a dinosaur. The eyes and claws are fondant, simply because I wanted them to be very white, and marzipan is that light beige-almond color.

I brushed on silver luster dust to give it that fantasy shimmery look. If you mix luster dust with a tiny bit of grain alcohol, you get an edible metallic paint, which would be another way to go for a bigger wow.