Japanese Dragon for the amazing Japan – An International Cake Collaboration hosted by amazing artist Raquel Garcia!

Japanese dragons are very different from the western dragons, being a mixture of several mystical animals: tiger eyes, snake body, eagle legs and claws, deer horns, ox ears, carp whiskers, crocodile head, lizard scales and legs, salamander nose, lion’s mane. Japanese dragons have three fingers. The best way to distinguish dragons is to look at their toes, the Japanese believed that when dragons started to leave Japan they gained fingers. The farther the dragons went, the more toes they got, which is why the other dragons have more fingers, (Korean dragons have four and Chinese dragons have five toes).

The dragon is the chief among the ideal creatures of Japan. It often appears carved in graves, temples, residences and shops.

This project measures 52 cm in height and 30 cm in width, modeled in chocolate paste with sugar shapers from the Innovative Sugarworks brand, each scale was placed individually. The entire dragon was hand painted.