My son who was turning 4 requested a Pirate cake. I asked him what he wanted it to look like and he said he wanted a hook on top like Captain Hook and a sword. I started to brain storm asking him about certain things I was thinking about and he would yay or nay them. After I decided what I wanted to do I started.
I had only made 3 other cakes that were covered in fondant so this was still pretty much new to me. I did know that I needed to start on the sword handle first. It turned out to be the most challenging for me. After making a few different attempts I finally decided to make it hollow (I was hoping to make it light enough to stick out the top more to show more of the blade).
Then I hand painted it about 4 times before I decided on the color. After making the blade and hook out of fondant I realized they needed to be harder and discovered gum paste and started over. The rest of the cake came together pretty nicely. I hand painted all the accessories, the wood deck layer and the map and used cocoa powder to age the name sign and map. And of course my son thought it would be cool to be the one walking the plank.
Over all I was very happy with the results. I received tons of complements from friends and family which were nice to hear with it only being my fourth attempt on a big cake.
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