Coolest Pirate Ship Birthday Cake

This Pirate Ship Birthday Cake has a large yellow sheet cake as it’s base, made from scratch. I then made a batch of buttercream icing and dyed it turquoise for the sea, leaving the colour a bit swirly in the icing.

The pirate galleon is made using a Nordic Ware pan. The idea with this pan is that the cake is left bare because the pan is really detailed. But I made two cakes and they each turned out so dark that in the end I had to cover it with fondant (sugarpaste) which actually turned out much better.

I mixed some chocolate fondant with white the get the light brown colour on the top of the ship. Then I covered the base with chocolate fondant. Using a ruler I made marks on the sides to look like timber. I then iced in the windows and all the little details, like the stairs, wheel, including the birthday boys name using black royal icing. I made a coil of rope and two barrels using chocolate fondant.

For the cannons I used 4 liquorice rolls with red skittles stuck on. I rolled up small balls of black fondant to make the cannon balls on the deck. The anchor is also made from black fondant. The bowsprit at the front is a chocolate covered pretzel stick and I stuck a gold coin made of fondant on the bow.

All around the “sea” base, I made fish and bits of seaweed out of fondant. I made some starfish too and used jelly beans to look like pebbles. I made a purple octopus with a simple triangle pirate hat and two shark fins out of black fondant. The treasure chest is made out of chocolate fondant marked to look like wood. I used gold lustre dust make the lock and the detailing on the chest. I then covered the inside of the chest with edible glue and added dots of different coloured edible glitter to make the “jewels”. I downloaded the sails and jolly roger flags from the internet and attached them using wooden skewers.

To make the bow wave around the ship, I used a star tip and iced buttercream icing around it. Then using blue and turquoise food colour I added small amounts to the icing to make the wave effect. I was really delighted how this turned out.