When my grandson asked me for “The Black Pearl” for a birthday cake, I was scared. Christopher turned 9 and this is the first cake I’ve been able to make for him so I wanted it to be special. I was excited to have the chance to make this but really had to stretch the imagination.
I made the ship out of rice crispie treats and carved it to shape. I covered it with fondant and added the rails and cut the lines around the windows. I used my airbrush with black and pearl food color paint and covered it. It looked good at that point but It needed more detail. My niece Jessica is an incredible artist and she spent hours with gold airbrush color and petal dust to add the amazing highlights and wood deck.
I made the lamps and wheel out of gumpaste and Jess painted them as well. The sails are made out of grey gumpaste and I simply stuck my finger through them in places to make the holes. I used wood dowels for the masts because of the weight of the sails. The cake that it sits on is a 3 layer French vanilla cake with blackberry moose filling, covered with green white chocolate buttercream.
I stuck with the pirate theme and made a treasure map out of fondant and used a brown edible felt pen for the writing. The cake was a hit with my grandson and it was worth all the work to see him smile.
Aunt Gin this is AMAZING!!! you did a truly awesome job!! How lucky he is to have you as a willing cake baker and grandma!.