This Homemade Pirate Ship Wreck Island Cake was for my son’s 5th birthday. I made 2 11×15 yellow cakes and 1 8-inch round yellow cake for the ocean and island, and one 11×15 chocolate cake for the ship. These were wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen until time to assemble.
The two rectangle yellow cakes were put together with the round cake on one corner, and frosted with white frosting. The “ocean” frosting was swirled to look like waves and then sprayed with blue decorating mist (Michael’s). The island was covered with graham cracker crumbs to resemble sand.
For the ship, I first outlined and cut-out the ship shape on corrugated cardboard. This I used as a template to cut the cake shape and also as a base for the ship to sit on top of the ocean cake. I cut second and third tiers for the ship from the same 11×15 cake and assembled them using chocolate ganache frosting. Then I added fudge sticks for railing and refrigerated the cake to allow the frosting to set. Once the ganache was firm, I piped on windows and ladders. I used half a Hershey bar for doors and Oreo sticks for cannons.
The cakes were transported separately to the party site, and then dowels were inserted into the ocean cake to support the ship (on the cardboard platform). I then piped some extra frosting around the edge to hide the bottom. I decorated with items from my son’s pirate set. And added the sails, cut out of paper, on painted dowels.
I’ve done pirate ship cakes, and found them to be VERY time-intensive, but so much fun ! Very nice job, but, WOW, lots of CAKE !