Pirate Ship Birthday Cake!!!

Weeks and weeks of planning and internet research finally got me up to speed on pirate ship birthday cakes! I looked at dozens of images from quite a few sites, some even with directions to get me started. This was a labor of love for my little man, and it was a challenge - a fun challenge - but it had me doubting myself right up to the very end! Here's the play-by-play:

Earlier in the week, I baked off four 9x13 marble layer cakes and froze them, but only ended up using 3. I used Duncan Hines Supreme mixes, and spiffied them up a bit with pudding mix, milk instead of water and an extra egg - moist and delicious! (Thanks for the tip, Anne!) Baking the cakes early and freezing them was a must - being partially frozen made them easier to stack and carve, and easier to frost. I didn't notice any difference in the taste or texture.


I started with 2 layers - leveled them off then began building up the ship. The bottom layer is one whole 9x13 and an additional 3 inches from the second layer cake. Before assembling, we whipped up a big old batch of chocolate buttercream and a smaller vanilla batch for piping work.


I used the remaining bits of the second and third layers to build up the bow and stern portions. I always stack cakes with the cut-side down to make frosting them a bit easier. Less crumbs that way.


An additional cut piece on the stern end to give some height and another layer of deck - more "pirate-ship-like" in my opinion. I'm sure there is a technical term for it, but my research only carried me so far.


Once the layers were stacked and fairly even, I used two dowels in the stern end to keep the ship from falling over. The front was fairly sturdy, so I skipped them. I carved the front end into the bow shape with a smaller serrated knife. Semi-frozen cake very helpful here.


This is the crumb-coat or, as my good friend* Buddy Valastro says, it's "dirty iced". I used a small offset spatula to make the grooves in what would be the decks - I wanted it to look different than the sides.
I used a basketweave tip to pipe on the ship's planking for a wood look, varying the length of the piping to mimic the wood. Covered the entire outside of the ship this way.

I used a larger round tip to pipe over the seams of the ship. It tidied it up and gave it a more finished look, in my opinion.

I used orange-tinted frosting to make windows (portholes?). The frosting was supposed to be golden colored, but copper and golden yellow tints apparently make orange when mixed together, so I went with it. Meh. I wasn't thrilled, but 2 1/2 hours into the project and something had to give. Turned out fine - I didn't hear anyone exclaiming about the scandalous orange windows/portholes I had made, so all is well in cake land.

I added Pocky and Twizzler constructed railing along the back of the ship, held together with buttercream. We attempted to do the same railing on the front, but the carved cake was threatening to give way around the edges, so we just skipped it. Slapped down some chocolate Twizzlers and declared it a masterpiece! By the way - chocolate Twizzlers? A new fave! Yummy! Who'd a thunk it?? And Pocky? Thank goodness for Pocky - I had NO idea what this stuff was, but apparently it's an Eastern (as in Asia--maybe Japanese?) treat. Little shortbread sticks dipped in chocolate. I went on a hunt for those candy reception sticks with which to build my railing, but couldn't find any in a store around here. World Market and Pocky to the rescue!

To dress up our ship a little, I added Rolo gunpowder barrels (just stick two of them together with a little frosting), pretzel M&M cannon balls, a Kit-Kat plank and some cannons made with rolled-up wafer cookies, also purchased at the World Market. That place has some neat stuff, and it saved me from having to sculpt gigantic Tootsie Rolls into cannons! Yippee!! Up on top of the very top deck, I made a little treasure box from some cake scraps and plain old frosting. Piped a little bit of detail on it and it was almost done.

This is the finished version at the party. I added sails made from plain old paper and chopsticks. The pirate flag was a serendipitous Joann's Fabrics clearance bin find for 10 whole cents the week before the party. If not for the little wooden flag, I would have just printed out a jolly roger from the good ol' internet. Add a few pirate figurines, a "4" candle and some icy blue buttercream waves and Voila! or Ahoy! or Whatever! = Pirate Ship Birthday Cake!!!

*I do not personally know Buddy Valastro. I do love his show, though. That makes us "friends" right?

**The pink shirt in some of the pictures belongs to my good friend, also named Cindy, who helped me with the cake and with keeping my sanity whilst building said cake, and who also saved my life by loaning me her KitchenAid for a whole week. Dramatic much, nah, not me! :)MUAH Cin!!