Pirate Cake advice please!

This_Year

Hi

Me and my big mouth! While shopping, I saw some cute pirate edible cake decorations (2 pirates and a treasure chest) and jokingly said to OH that I was tempted to make a pirate ship cake instead of the more usual Santa - Snowmen that most people have at Christmas.

He loved the idea so we bought them.

Now I'm thinking how the heck do I make a pirate ship?

I have a limited set of cake tins, one 8" round, 2 7" sandwich tins and 2 loaf tins. Not really wanting to buy a special moulded tin as it's more for the fun than anything. Just to have DD look at me with that long suffering look will be worth it!

What sort of cake would be best knowing I'll be cutting it into shape? Will a buttercream icing be ok or should I go with a fondant icing?

Any advice would be great! (Yes, I know, keep "clever" ideas unsaid :rotfl:)

iammumtoone

Does it have to be a pirate ship? I have made a pirates chest before (much easier)




EDIT: sorry just just seen you have brought a chest (I'll get my coat!)

Bigjenny

Is this any help http://trulyscrumptiouscreations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/pirate-ship-cake.html

If you google Pirate Cake tutorial there plenty on there.

HTH

krlyr

Rather than a pirate ship, you could make an island? Trim off the edges of regular round cakes to create a rounded shape, yellow buttercream/icing, some blue icing piped around the edge for water, and voila. A few planks of wood made from ready roll icing to indicate a smashed up, stranded pirate boat?

If you do want to go for the ship option, this shows how to create and stack some fairly basic shapes:
http://wizzley.com/pirate-ship-cake/

This one doesn't look too complex either:
http://trulyscrumptiouscreations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/pirate-ship-cake.html

Or these:
http://www.mangoonanapple.com/tag/pirate-cake/
http://cakesbakesandcookies.com/2012/04/18/how-to-make-a-pirate-ship-birthday-cake/

This_Year

Ooh an island does sound a lot easier! Thank you!
I knew asking here would be the best idea

I do like to make work for myself :rotfl:

PasturesNew

I'd just make the top deck.... and about 2" of ship base. That way you're just baking a cake, cutting out the deck shape to a depth of 2", then bunging stuff onto the deck (chest, flagpole, flag).

Downsizing__for_sanity

I use a Madeira recipe if I'm carving it, as it's a bit more solid than your average Victoria sponge. For a short cut, add an oz or two extra of plain flour to your mix to make it a denser sponge. You can also freeze the cake before carving it to make it easier.

DFS