This was definitely a last-minute pirate birthday cake. The client called me a day before, when I was pretty booked up, but I love pirate cakes and they were kinda stuck, so I took it on… he sent a pic of a somewhat pale cake compared to what I deem exciting. But I think it’s because I told him I’d fit it in depending on the detail required. After all we’re talking “pirate”!!!
So this is how I made the bits and bobs to go with my cake. For the hook base I cut a circle and put it on a small ball covered with cling wrap and dusted with cornflour to mold the shape – the actual hook part I formed by hand. There is a hole I made before the base hardened, which goes into the hook and plays a role in securing the whole item to the cake. It can be made without the skewer, but I didn’t have time to allow the hook to dry if only glued to the base without extra bondage.
The flag pole is a wooden dowel, which also aided the stability of the cake, being two tier. The flag is fondant paste strengthened with tylose and it is folded double around the pole. Then I placed dowels under it to give it the form as if blowing in the wind…the skull and bones on the flag and eye patch is hand cut with a craft knife and scissors. The eye patch is also rolled fondant, the shape cut out and mold over something roundish to give it form. The treasure map is rolled flesh color fondant, dusted bronze at the edges and patches of brown glued to it to give it some interesting topography.
The dotted line is drawn with an edible pen/koki. The striped sails were my favorite part to make! I rolled out white fondant (not too thinly, as it will be rolled again). I added a little dyocell to give it elasticity. Then I cut black stripes, glued it on, making sure I put glue only in the very middle of the strip so it doesn’t ooze out. And then I rolled it out again to blend the stripes into the white, making it look like smooth, striped fabric. I think this just made the cake pop! The cake itself is a 20cm (8″) base tier and 15cm (6″) top tier. Everything is set on a marble blue fondant covered board, with brown sugar for sand. The coins are chocolate coins I bought at the store.
I regret not painting the hook silver, but time ran out unfortunately…I simply love this cake and I think it’s the coolest pirate cake I have seen! LOL
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