Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate Cake For Me!

Well, the cake wasn’t for me…but I had a blast making it!!! My friend came to me Wed. and asked if there was any chance, if I wasn’t too busy getting ready for Halloween, that I could make a pirate birthday cake for her son. I lied and said “No, I could probably do that”. With her assurance that it was OK if I didn’t finish, and the fact I was already making cake for the Halloween party, I jumped in head first.  

I baked a 10" round butterscotch cake Friday morning. I chose the butterscotch cake because it bakes up quite like pound cake in density, which makes it easy to sculpt.

Now for the shape. I cut the back flat, rounded the sides, then went back and angled the back corners. The only thing left to carve was the top.  Torteing first!

 

I use 3” pans for my cakes, then I torte them. Torteing is when you slice the cake and put a filling in. When you do cakes this way, instead of putting two separate layers of cake together, you get a much more moist cake. I get asked a lot why my cakes are so moist. There you go...the secret! I actually torte twice. Just the right amount of filling in every bite! 

Shave a deck into the boat...

I mixed blue frosting and frosted the cake board to look like water.

Now to introduce Mr. Boat to Mr. Water :0)

I frosted the cake plank-like with Basketweave tip no. 2B.  I used the ridge side for the planks and the smooth side for the trim.  I tinted the bag first with coloring before putting the icing in.  It makes the frosting multi-colored to give it that wood look. 

 I tinted the frosting for the water also. I piled up waves in the front.  Don't you just love star tip no. 21!!!  It's my FAVoRITE!!!

Here is the treasure chest I made the night before.  I took a butter box, cut the end off at an angle, and covered it with fondant.  I sculpted the top out of a roll/log shaped piece of fondant.  I brushed on corn syrup and attached the black trim, lock, and coins in the trunk.  The beach was tan frosting covered in brown sugar.  The little coins were made by rolling a small ball of fondant, squish it flat, dimple the middle, then brush with gold luster powder.

TaDAH!!!  I guess I skipped a couple pictures.  I tend to get too into my work to remember to take pics along the whole way :0)  I made the cannon, side cannons, scroll, treasure map, and anchor out of fondant the night before.  The stuff could have used another day or two to dry (the scroll cracked) but they all turned out SO AWESOME!!!

Here is a close up of the trunk...

The sail of the ship was made out of paper.  I printed out the skull and cross bones, distressed paper with distressing ink and sprayed with tea, dried, tore the shape out, burned the edges, and hot glued it onto the pole. 

Here is a back view...

Back side...

And a close up of the deck!

I was so totally thrilled with how totally awesome this cake turned out!!!  So fun to do and even more fun to see the end product!

I was feeling in the mood to Cake :0)  Thanks for the opportunity!