12 Cool and Easy Homemade Treasure Island Pirate Cakes

My son is crazy about Pirates and Captain Jack Sparrow. I looked around at stores and all the pirate cakes were around $70. I decided I would try and make my own that is what led me to this website where I got most of my ideas.

I just baked a sheet cake for the ocean. I iced it then went over the cake with a star tip to make waves. I used graham cracker crumbs for sand on the island as well as some store bought pirate candles. For the Ship I used two loaf pans, cut one into three sections. One piece went in front to add length to the ship. The other two sat on top. I used the flat side of a basket weave tip to make the icing look like planks of wood. I used Rolo’s for the canons and pretzels for the railing on the ship.

I found some small pirate’s figures that were the perfect size for the cake. The mast is made from Cereal Straws and the flags I printed from the computer. My son really wanted sharks in the water so I took about ten fruit roll ups and layered them on top of one another and cut out shapes of shark fins to place in the water! This was the first cake I’ve made on my own it was a hit at the party!

More Pirate Birthday Cakes

Pirate cake by Jaime L., South Pittsburg, TN

My nephew Nate had a Pirate birthday party. I searched this site for pirate cakes and then made this really simple cake. I used green icing for the land, blue for the water (I added some peaks for waves with my spatula at the last minute), I added crumbled graham cracker crumbs for the beach (I was not sure if I should put on early, I was afraid they might melt). My daughter hand painted the pirate we found in a craft store. We added and painted a small pirate chest filled with candy coins and fake jewels and also bought a pirate ship (easy to find with the popularity of Pirates of the Caribbean).

I took fondant and made the rope around the base of the cake and bought gold foil covered candy coins for the base. My palm trees were made with royal icing a couple of days before with pretzel sticks for the tree. You can find directions to make this in the Wilton books.

Pirate cake by Angela A., Palm Harbor, FL

I saw all of the examples for pirate cakes on this website and followed their directions – it really was simple. I took two 8″ round chocolate cakes, cut them in half and trimmed the bottom to be flat so it would stand. I used the left over cake (from trimming) to build up the back of the boat for the steering wheel area and the pirate island.

I used brown sugar for the sand on the island and my son’s pirate’s toys to decorate. Malted milk balls, chocolate wafer cookies and Rolo’s finished the decor (and were the first to be eaten). I used straws through the middle of the cake to stabilize it and toothpicks to keep the Rolo “cannons” on. It also helped to put it in the freezer so frosting it was easier.

For the water I baked a 9×13 cake, cut it in half lengthwise and tinted the frosting blue. I kept it in the refrigerator until served and I think that really helped to keep it all together. It was fun to make and a special cake for my son’s 7th birthday.

Pirate cake by Jessica R., Kutztown, PA

After viewing many of the interesting pirate cakes on this website I combined what I liked about each one to create my own. I baked two 9 inch chocolate rounds for the ship, one 9 inch and one 6 inch vanilla round for the islands and the remainder of the vanilla went into a loaf pan to be cut into the shape for the upper deck of the ship.

After baking I allowed them to cool overnight. Next I cut the chocolate rounds in half and used icing to “glue” them together into the bottom of the ship. This should be placed into the freezer for about four hours to chill so it is firm enough to put the icing on. Many have said they wrapped their layers together but I chose to just place mine in a pan and put a heavy glass cutting board on top (with a layer of wax paper around it so nothing would stick to it!). This forced the layers together more while it was hardening in the freezer.

The Ship: slice a small amount off the bottom so it will sit flat on your tray. I then iced the bulk of the cake before I cut the vanilla piece for the upper deck and iced it. For decoration I used pirouettes (Pepperidge Farms) for the railing, peach rings for portholes, dollar store pirates/toys, caramel balls for cannon balls, Twizzlers pull-apart for rope and a Kit-Kat for the pirate raft.

The Island: I cut a small area out of the small island so it would butt up against the larger island nicely. Since my family does not like coconut we opted for brown sugar for the “sand.” I would advise a small layer of icing under the sand for a better taste! We decorated with other small dollar store toys. The palm trees were made from Nestle Crunch Stixx and green leaf candy which I cut in half and rolled flatter. (Use toothpicks to secure on the leaves and small parts of skewers to secure the trees onto the island.)

The Ocean: Vanilla icing blue food coloring and gummy sea life. Make sure you place the whole thing in the fridge for a few hours before serving. I highly advise not letting it sit out for long or things will begin to droop quickly especially if it is even remotely warm. Instead of placing candles sticking out of the portholes/gun whales as many of the other pirate cakes, did we opted to line them up along the front edge of the island.

Pirate cake by Bettie W., Logansport, IN

My grandson is all into pirates so when my daughter asked for a “private” cake for his birthday I knew I was in for a real task. After looking at a few of the other pirate cakes on this website I was able to begin my creation.

With a few simple props and a little imagination anything is possible. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Pirate cake by RoxAnne H., Dorothy, Canada

This cake was actually quite easy o make. I made three round cakes for the pirate cakes and then froze them. I cut two of the cakes in half and then used three of the four pieces and flipped them to stand on their side.

I cut off a little of the bottom so the cakes were flat and would stand by themselves. I used icing between each layer to help them stick together and also a kabob stick to make sure they stayed together. I put icing on the whole cake and used a lettuce knife I had to make the lines on the ship.

I used left over cake to make the captain’s room in the back of the boat. I used caramel fingers for outlining the deck junior and caramels for the cannon balls. Mini Rolos for the gunners and bamboo sticks for the flag holders. I drew the flags on plain paper and attached them to the bamboo. The gold on the island was yellow skittles.

I took my son’s treasure chest pirate guys and tree from his toy box. I sprinkled brown sugar on the island to look like sand and I made blue Knox blocks to be the water around the ship.

I took it to my son’s playschool and the kids loved it. The mothers thought it was great but said now their kids would want such a great cake!! I had a lot of fun planning and making this!

Pirate cake by Christine R., San Diego, CA

I used a 16×2 round for the base, 6×2 round cut in half for the ship and the Island was sculpted with another 6×2 round. I covered it with lots of whipped frosting to create the scene. Disney’s Peter Pan figurine set was used as the highlight. I went to a specialty cake decorating shop for brown sanding sugar for the sand. I used blue piping gel (eatable) for the ocean chocolate rocks plastic palm trees chocolate gold coins treasure chest etc. found at the specialty shop. I used chocolate frosting for the ship and whipped cream frosting for the rest of the cake.

I got the majority of the decorating tips from this website on pirate cakes. I love this website. I shouldn’t have used the Rolo’s as cannons because they fell apart from being speared with a bamboo skewer (which I also used to hold the sails). This cake was made for my Godson Jet’s 4th birthday party. He loved it.

Pirate cake by Serene Q., Amman, Jordan

I love kid’s birthday parties – although during the few days before the event I vow never to overcomplicate them again – but (sigh) I always end up making them more and more elaborate!

For his birthday this year my son decided on a pirate themed party which of course required pirate cakes. Naturally at the tender age of seven he is beginning to lose interest in girls and therefore decided on an all boy’s party. We personalized the invitations since we only invited 11 kids. The invitations were printed using an old English font with a skull flag on the top and the map to our house at the bottom. I tinted all the invitations in coffee, dried them in the microwave then burnt of the edges for effect. We rolled each one up tied it with rough string and put it inside a small plastic water bottle filled with a bit of sand and decorative shells. We went around every boy’s house to hand deliver invitations. They certainly got our kids excited about the party (everyone showed up!).

For Decorations I found some black and white skull streamers, black, white and red balloons with skulls printed on them and hung them at the party area and the entrance. I also bought a full skeleton and hung it from the ceiling just inside our entrance. We also made a few Jolly Rogers flags and hung them around the house. At four o’clock one by one barrages of 11 boys started arriving and were subsequently dressed up in pirate vests, hats and eye patches with face makeup for mustaches and scars (I found a set of 4 pirate dress-up at Toys & Toys). This took us up to 4:30.

The next event took us to an upstairs where the kids were busy decorating treasure boxes. I had previously re-cut tissue boxes to open across and added cardboard handles and spray painted them in gold and added rough string ties to close them. The kids decorated these with ribbons jewels (glass beads) stickers and markers. This took us up to 5 pm when we played “Pin the eye patch on the jolly roger flag”. To make it fun for all every boy who played won a puzzle piece of puzzle which they all had to stick together to make up a map. The map was a drawing of our house to show them where every room is and give them the location for the first clue of our planned treasure hunt: in the hanging skeleton’s hand! It read: Greetings mighty pirates! You are welcomed here with pleasure. But what good is a pirate without a chest of treasure? So now let’s start the hunting. And here is the good news, you will be greatly rewarded If you follow all the clues. Every brave pirate knows that the clue to finding treasure Is marked by an X on a map. Like the puzzle you pieced together. So once the kids got the first clue we went through 15 other clues which let us to the treasure. I had hidden an old treasure chest which was filled with chocolate gold coins.

Finally it was time to cut the cake. We had two pirate cakes: for the first I had made a set of ‘islands’ surrounded by sea water: four miniature cakes with blue jelly in between them. The second cake was a treasure chest. I made a rectangular shaped cake, cut it in half and put one half on top of the other. For the treasure chest cover I melted chocolate and poured it over plastic wrap – after it cooled a bit I wrapped it around a cardboard rolled up and tied to make half a circle. Once I put all the candy in the treasure box I lay the cover over it. Then I crushed some digestive biscuits and threw it around the box to look like sand and wrote my son’s name in the sand with like-colored icing.

For the rest of the food we tried to follow up on the theme with fish fingers, fish crackers, assorted sandwiches on hamam bread with pirate flags on each jelly (in which I had treasure gummy candy) and many other traditional birthday goodies. The give-away was the costume they wore plus a pirate giveaway bag with a skull button, large gold coin, a postcard with a pirate on it and a Peter Pan DVD.

Pirate cake by Mary F., Chicago, IL

After looking at all the pirate cakes on this site, inspiration came from the $1 aisle at Target. I bought the pirate ship raft rowboat and all the little guys for $3 and took it from there. The treasure chest candle I got at the party store and “buried” it by digging out some of the chocolate cake with a spoon. The sand is made with brown sugar — great trick and tastes great too.

Pirate cake by Gary D., Stirling, Scotland

Believe it or not, here are our first pirate cakes (Ship and Island)! A joint effort. I got so carried away with making the cake I forgot to take stage by stage pictures but I’ll try to explain best I can.

The ship was made from 4 loaf tin sized chocolate sponges. All were squared off, one complete for the centre; one halved lengthwise then shaped, made the ship wider in the middle tapering to the front and rear. Final one split into thirds, bow section shaped from a piece, remaining two pieces formed the raised and stepped stern section. All pieces stuck together with chocolate butter cream and ship was covered in it.

Ships ‘planking’ made from brown colored fondant icing (when coloring the white icing I left it slightly uneven for a better wood effect). Rolled quite thin I cut into ‘planks’. Score with a knife along the plank in various places for the grain then place onto the ship. Stagger the joins. Finish ends with 2 holes with a tooth pick for the rivets. Rails made from rolled fondant icing stuck with butter cream. Flags printed on a PC and a cake dowel used for the mast. I accessorized the pirate cakes with plastic characters then placed it on a silver cake board. Sea is blue sparkly “Party Gel” in a tube smeared around with some piped icing as wave crests.

Island – one round shaped. I covered it with yellow rolled fondant icing then green section on top. Sand is brown sugar rocks are chocolate decorations. I accessorized with plastic characters. Sea is same as above. All in the name of my daughters 4th birthday… (Two of the pictures have been through Photoshop to add sky rather than my kitchen tiles.

Awesome Homemade Pirate Cakes

Pirate cake by Susan B., Cumberland

My son is a huge Captain Hook and pirate fan so I decided to make a Treasure Island Pirate Cake. I made this cake with two 9″ round cakes cut in half and turned on their side. I used a basket weave tip to make the sides look like wood. I used foam and skewers for the sails, red foam for the anchor and I printed a pirate flag on the computer. I used root beer barrels for decoration, licorice for the cannons coming out of the sides.

My son has lots of pirate figures and a cannon for the top. I used a large cake board covered with foil and spread blue icing for the waves. I used a small single layer cake for the island and ground nuts for the sand. I used chocolate clay and pretzels for the palm tree.

I made a chocolate treasure chest filled it with gold candy coins and candy necklaces. The X marks the spot was made out of candy strips. The shovel was purchased at a craft store. I made skull rock from an apple and the crocodile was also made of green candy clay. These pirate cakes were a lot of fun to make!