Cooking spray
1 box chocolate cake mix, plus ingredients called for on box
2 c. (4 sticks) butter, softened
5 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. heavy cream
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Pinch of kosher salt
Teal food coloring
Black food coloring
Black gel icing
Blue sanding sugar
Step 1
Make cake: Preheat oven to 350°. Line three 8" round cake pans with parchment and grease with cooking spray. Make cake mix according to package directions and divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean, 15 to 17 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Step 2
Meanwhile, make frosting: In a large bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and beat until no lumps remain. Add cream, vanilla, and a pinch of salt and beat until combined. Set aside about ⅓ cup of frosting and dye it with teal food coloring. Dye remaining frosting a dark gray with black food coloring.
Step 3
Add about ¼ of the gray frosting to one layer of cake and spread into an even layer. Top with a second layer of cake and frost with another ¼ of the frosting. Top with the third layer and frost the top and sides with a thin layer of gray frosting. Place remaining gray frosting in a piping bag fitted with large round tip.
Step 4
Pipe an even row of dots vertically down the side of the cake. Use an offset spatula to gently smear each dot horizontally. At the edge of each smeared dot, pipe a new row of dots and repeat until you’ve reached all the way around the cake.
Step 5
Using an offset spatula, spread a thin layer of teal frosting into some of the dots. Scattering them to look like dragon scales.
Step 6
On the top, use black gel to pipe the outline of an eye in the center of the cake. Pipe a black oval in the center as the pupil, then fill in the rest of the eye with blue sanding sugar.