I made this Pirate ship birthday cake for my youngest’s 3rd birthday.
I took two 9″ round devil’s food cakes…
… and cut them into equal halves.One of them I sliced off the top to make it flat…
…and sandwiched the layers together with buttercream frosting (you’ll need 3 x the quantity given in the devil’s food cake recipe for the whole ship). Keep the thinner layers in the centre. The rounded layers on the outside give a more rounded ship shape.
I then sliced the top off all 4 layers of cake to make a smooth base for the hull of the ship.
I rolled out half a package of ready-to-roll white icing and painted water on it using a paintbrush and green and blue food colouring.
I positioned the ship so that there would be room to pipe a message on the water and frosted the ship using an edging nib (I’m unsure of the correct term for the one with the straightish bottom and curved ridged upper edge – it’s the nib you use to pipe fancy edges on cakes). I left a little space between each ‘row’ to give the illusion of wooden planks. Rollos were used for portholes/ cannonholes and Quality Street Matchsticks were made into a ‘fence’ around the edge of the ship. I used thin dowel rods and black sugar paper for the sails and glued a skull and crossbones to the front (use Google images to locate one you like).
Tip: freeze the cake for an hour before you start decorating it – this helps keep crumbs from falling off and ruining your icing.
Mum of three, daydream adventurer, OU Life Sciences graduate, occasional crafter, ex-pat Canadian & quite possibly Britain's most northerly food blogger.
Laura says
August 6, 2014 at 6:06 pmOh how clever! This is the sort of thing one of my nephews would love. Come to think of it, it’s the sort of thing I’d love being a massive PotC fan and an even bigger chocolate fan =)
Laura recently posted…Mini Blackberry Bakewell Tarts
Jason Puddephatt says
July 20, 2013 at 8:33 pmMade this for my sons birthday. The instructions made it so easy. Did cheat a bit by using Betty Crockers Devil Food Cake Mix and her Chocolate Fudge Icing. Piccie here: http://t.co/L0rAIDOoQA.
Codec says
March 5, 2012 at 1:29 pmBrilliant – particularly the step by step pictures!
Anonymous says
March 4, 2012 at 3:29 pmLooks fabulous 🙂 Vxx