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270+ Coolest Homemade Pirate Ship Cakes

Take a look at these cool homemade Pirate ship cakes shared with us by cake decorators from around the world. Along with the birthday cakes here, you’ll also find loads DIY birthday cake-making ideas and how-to tips to inspire your next birthday cake project. Enjoy!

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Pirate ship cake by Heather E., Heber, UT

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I made this cake for my son’s eighth birthday. I used four cake mixes made into four 8in. rounds, one 9×13 cake and cupcakes. I froze all the cakes overnight then cut the 9×13 cake in thirds and the rounds in half.

I used two of round halves for the front, two of the round halves for the middle with one of the thirds in between them and one of the rounds and two stacked cupcakes for the back. Then I frosted all of that with chocolate buttercream. For the water I used the two other thirds on the sides and five cupcakes across the back. I frosted all the water parts with blue buttercream and decorated with Fruit by the foot Pull a Part for the waves.

To decorate the rest of the ship’s details I used pretzel twists, gum sticks, tootsie roll, Midgets’ pull-n-peel licorice and a sandwich cookie. The sails are three bamboo skewers and white paper. The pirates are Lego’s.

Pirate ship cake by Corinne F., Darmstadt, Germany

Homemade Pirate Ship Cake

I made this pirate ship for my son’s third birthday. I wanted to make something different to the usual pirate ship cakes so this is what I made. I baked a round sponge cake and cut it in two in the middle. I cut a bit in the center of the lower half to make the shape in the center. The other part I cut in three, two big pieces on each side and one thin slice in the middle to make the mast.

For the mast I also used some of the left over pieces from the lower half to make it longer. I then put all the bits together and covered in butter cream icing (butter, icing sugar and a little bit of milk for consistency). The white-ish cream has some lemon juice for flavor and the brown one has cocoa powder. I used a fork to make the lines to make it look like wood planks. I used liquorice to “join” the sails to the mast and to make a platform for the pirate around the mast (I just cut a bit off a round piece of liquorice).

I used sweeties to decorate the bottom part of the ship, make a flag on the mast and simulate the sea and put fish, crocodile and turtle shaped sweeties in the sea. I used Playmobile pirates and treasure chest.

Pirate ship cake by Mona T., Wilmington, NC

Homemade Pirate Ship Cake

I baked a 1-2-3-4 white cake (Joy of Cooking recipe) in a bundt pan and another very small bread loaf. It was the perfect cake because it’s nice and dense and holds the shape well. It’s easy to work with and doesn’t flake or fall apart like a store bought cake mix. After cooling in the refrigerator overnight I cut the bundt cake in half.

While working with each half (now a C-shape) I cut off a small sliver of the rounded side to flatten it so it would sit up on a tray. Then I trimmed one slice of cake of one end of the C so the bow of the ship would be lower than the stern. I frosted each C-shape with chocolate icing and sat them on the tray as if they were in a battle. I used chocolate fudge Pirouette cookies from Pepperidge Farm as cannons (cut in quarters then pushed into the sides and backs).

The decorations are similar to the other Pirate ship cakes here: Whopper candies for the cannon balls, Rollos for barrels; coconut dyed blue for the water (with Swedish Fish swimming in it) and the bamboo skewers with paper sails. I added yellow icing details and square pretzels for the railings.

The treasure chest was simple. A small amount of batter was reserved from the cake mix and baked in a miniature bread loaf pan. When cool I then cut the top off. It was iced with white butter cream icing. The “treasure” was Rainbow Nerds Candy with some edible gold coins for accent. Because of the paper sails on the ship the treasure chest was a perfect place for the candles (the pirate hat and sword were candle decorations found at a party supply store – as were the parrot and small red treasure chest on one of the ships). You could also use this surface to write “Happy Birthday”. The treasure chest was a very popular piece of cake for the kids because of the candy.

The decorating took less than an hour – it’s really quite simple when you have the right candy and supplies. The kids loved it. It was a very memorable day for our son – he’s still talking about it.

Pirate ship cake by Jocelyne C., Burnaby, B.C.

Homemade Pirate Ship Cake

This chocolate pirate ship was easy and somewhat quick to make since I didn’t have to color any icing. I baked a 9X13 sheet cake and baked two small oval pans (the one you get in Course 2 kit from Wilton). I made torte cakes for the oval shaped pans, stacked them together and they became the ends of the ship. I placed those at each end of the sheet cake and carved around to the base of the ship. Left over cake was the island covered with graham cookie crumbs.

This is my first try at pirate ship cakes and I think I did quite well!

Pirate ship cake by Jade J., Melbourne, Australia

Homemade Pirate Ship Cake

The pirate ship was put together using ideas for pirate ship cakes from https://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/pirate-ship-cake.html and pictures from cake central. The little pirates were made using a picture I found on cake central. Pirate ship was chocolate mud and white chocolate mud filled with dark chocolate ganache covered with chocolate buttercream and chocolate fondant.

Balustrades were chocolate fingers and railings were strips of licorice. Mast and plank was pastillage, rigging was royal icing. Pirates were made from modeling paste (fondant + tylose). I used a wood grain impression mat to get the textured wood grain on the chocolate fondant (the level part of).

Homemade Pirate Ship Cake

This cake was cut into 42 serves of 2cm (width) by 7cm (length) by 11 cm (height) which were really big serves so it can probably feed twice the number of people if you half the slices again or 60 if you cut 4.5cm long slices.

The deck was cut and sliced into 2cm by 7cm by 4cm slices but I can’t remember how many slices I got from that part of the cake. I baked the pirate ship cakes in a 2″ tall 23cm by 33cm Wiltons rectangle pan and used two layers for the main body of the ship and one layer for the front and had lots of cake left over from the carving! You can probably use a 23 by 33cm tin and then a 20cm square tin for the front, cut in half triangles and then stacked and carved.

The birthday boy had a blast and I sure hope in years to come he will appreciate that his mummy went to so much effort for his first birthday cake! I made two smash cakes as well, one for the actual day and one for the party. Those were baked in a Wilton sports ball tin and decorated with buttercream.

Pirate ship cake by Sarah T., Dexter, OR

Homemade Pirate Ship Cake

My mother in law and I chose the best pirate ship picture we could find from all the pirate ship cakes that we saw and went that. We used a Wiltons football cake pan. We put the two halves together to make a full football and cut the back off for the back of the ship. We then carved out the rest of the decks just by eyeballing it.

The mast and sails were Dowling and fabric tied up with a black string. The rails are small Dowling and toothpicks. We set the ship on a sheet cake that was iced with white icing and gone over with blue. It took us quite a while but the end result was worth it. My four year old daughter (a pirate fanatic) loved it!

Pirate ship cake by Wendy A., Red Oak, TX

Homemade Pirate Ship Cake

I made this cake for my son’s sixth birthday party we had at the bowling alley. It was a fun cake the kids wanted to play with. My son Kyle is a big fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean so this cake idea was perfect. I have been able to make his birthday cake every year so far like my Mom did for me. I try to out do the year before by being as creative as possible and make it almost entirely edible. Hope you like it.

I used a round cake frosted white frosting sprayed with icing paint to look like the ocean. All the items treasure chest, cannon, cannon balls, barrels, anchor side, cannons on boat were molding out of dyed fondant. Jack Sparrow came from my son’s toy chest.

Sails were made of wood sticks that I wrapped with fruit roll ups and wrapped to the poles made of wood sticks threaded through cookie sticks filled with chocolate. The boat was simply made from loaf pan cakes approx. (3) cut in the shape of a ship. I lined the ship with the cookie sticks and painted them with frosting to match the ship. I used tube black icing to draw the designs on the side.

This was very quick and easy to make. Pirate ship cakes are much easier than the r2d2 I made the year before that I hope to add later to the site.

Pirate ship cake by Desire W., Sacramento, CA

Homemade Pirate Ship Cake

I started by baking two 9×13 cakes for my pirate ship cakes. I used two boxes of Betty Crocker Super Moist Yellow Cake mix. Let the cakes cool for about 15 minutes and then transfer the first cake (base cake) directly in the center of a large piece of foil wrapped cardboard (approx. 14×18 I used the bottom of a 40 pack 16 oz.water bottle package).Transfer the second cake (will be cut up to be used as the layers for the front and back of the ship) onto a large cutting board. To prevent the cakes from cracking place the cardboard/cutting boards over the glass baking pans and flip the pans upside down. The cakes should slip right out.

All that you cut from the base cake are the corners on the left side (front of the ship) approximetly 1/4 of the cake down. Use the second cake and cut off pieces to layer the front of the ship, back of the ship and side rails. There will be left over pieces of cake that are not needed. Use your chocolate frosting as the glue when layering the cake pieces. I recommend using frosting that is not whipped. The thicker frosting holds better. Also I did not need to freeze my cake as others have recommended.

The frosting was Duncan Hines Chocolate and my cake held together perfectly. I did use two and a half containers of frosting. Let the layers set for about an hour and then continue to frost the entire cake. Decorations: The pirate toys came from two different Pirate Play sets purchased from the Dollar Tree which included the cannon balls(whoppers candies are great too)barrels, two pirate figures, treasure chest, map and little pirate ship( I placed this out in the coconut water). I also placed gold coins rings and Rolo candies by the treasure chest. The red skull on the side of the ship also comes from the Dollar Tree as an eight pack of Gummy Skull Pirates of the Caribbean candies. I also placed two in the back of the ship. The biggest hint I can give you is to find a Dollar Tree. They have an amazing collection of Pirate party favors/decorations.

For the back sail I printed an image of a Jolly Roger from the internet for one sail and typed Happy Birthday for the second sail and then used a wooden skewer and placed it into the cake. The front sail is an edible sail from Disneyland’s Blue Bayou Restaurant inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. We brought it home with us but you could use the same style sails as the back.

I then placed chocolate wafers (also from the Dollar Tree) all along the ship as the railings. I also used the same chocolate wafers and cut them into half and placed them along the bottom side of the ship as cannons and then placed the candles inside of those wafers. My son was turning five so we used five wafers and candles. For the water I dyed some coconut blue. (Just put the coconut into a plastic bag, add a few drops of blue food coloring and shake.) Then place around the cake covering the foil. I also placed a couple of plastic sea creatures in the water.

It is very easy to make pirate ship cakes, extremely inexpensive and I had fun making it for my son. He loved it!

Pirate ship cake by Tammy S., Albany

Homemade Pirate Ship Cake

A friend of mine wanted to surprise her cousin (who is a serious Pirate of the Caribbean fan) with a cake of the Black Pearl. I had never made pirate ship cakes so searched this site for good ideas!

I started with a 13x9x2 inch layer. I cut the cake into four sections and stacked one on top of the other (four layers high) with frosting to hold the layers together. I then carved the cake in the shape of the ship, frosted it with black frosting (in the photos it looks kind of greenish but it looked black in real life) and used dowels painted black for the masts and black fabric for the sails.

This whole cake was set on top of a 13x9x2 single layer that is iced with black icing. The water is blue tinted piping gel on top of the black frosting. The island is made up of cake scraps then covered with graham cracker crumbs. The Jack Sparrow figurine was purchased by my friend online.

Pirate ship cake by Brian L., Heidelberg, Germany

Homemade Pirate Ship Cake

This idea for pirate ship cakes was derived from this website and several others. First I baked the two cakes. One in a loaf glass pan and the other is a regular 13″ sheet cake pan (cut the hump off the sheet cake so it will lie flat, I also placed it on the sheet upside down). Once cooled completely I shaved the loaf cake to a point at one end. The sheet cake was centered on a cooking sheet.

I then used regular white icing and mixed a little blue coloring for the water. When putting on the icing I made it wavy on top for the look of open water. I then placed the loaf cake on top and used chocolate icing on it. I made lines on top of the loaf icing for the look of boards and black icing on the top border of the ship. Added tootsie rolls as the cannons. Placed brown construction paper as the cannon doors and the rear raised back board (behind Pirate in Pictures).

The masts are paint brushes. The sails are black construction paper with the pirate logos clip-arts printed on white paper and cut-out then glued on. Lego skeletons and pirate were the perfect size for the ship and Gummy Sharks were used as well. Hope this can help anyone interested in a Pirate themed cake.

Pirate ship cake by Sara S., Surrey, BC

Homemade Pirate Ship Cake

I used a 9″ x 13″ cake and one 8′ round cake for my pirate ship cakes. I cut the 9′ x 13′ in half lengthwise and one of the halves in half again so you end up with three pieces.

I placed the two smaller pieces on top of the larger one to form the ships sides. Then I cut the round cake in half and used it for the front of the ship. To create a wood like texture I iced the cake with chocolate icing with a special jagged icing tip and piping bag. I then decorated with Lego pirate men, candy silver balls for cannon balls, blue sharks and plastic miniature fences for the ships railings. Graham cracker crumbs for sand, candy rocks etc.

Pirate ship cake by Carol G., Frankenmuth, MI

Homemade Pirate Ship Cake

I got the basic idea from another wed site and looked at this site to get more ideas for pirate ship cakes! Thanks to all who came before me and gave pictures so others might have a great cake for their child’s birthday!

I used three regular rounds to start. (My son asked for the “funfetti” cake mix). I cut them in half to make the “body” of the ship. I did cut the bottom of the cake so it would sit flat on the pan I was using. I did use bamboo skewers to hold the thing together. The other parts of the cake rounds I cut into 1/4’s and the bow of the ship is 2 1/8’s of a round stuck together and held on with the skewers.

The “do-dads” were milk balls, tiny “mega blocks” pirates (get them at Toys R US), gummy fish tinted blue, coconut cannons were German waffle cookies, Twix candy, root beer barrels (they were the hardest thing to find for some odd reason).

Thanks to all who gave me ideas for pirate ship cakes! Everyone was really blown away it was all home done!

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