Pirate Birthday Cake

This single tiered pirate birthday cake was for Makayla's 14th birthday. She loves pirates, Halloween, and skulls so we came up with this design. It was a Chunky Monkey cake (chocolate cake with banana cream filling, fresh bananas, and chocolate ganache). It was covered in marshmallow fondant with piped buttercream spiderwebs. I loved the simplicity of the design :)

Two-Sided Pirate Cake

Last year, I made a two-sided cake for Patty because her three children celebrate their birthdays so closely together. Last year, it was a car and kitty theme but this year, they all three wanted a pirate themed party. The top tier was Strawberry Not So Short Cake (strawberry cake with strawberries baked in layered with vanilla cream filling and buttercream) and the bottom cake was Banana Cream Pie Cake (lightly flavored banana cake with banana cream filling, fresh banana slices, and buttercream).

The whole cake was covered in homemade marshmallow fondant and all of the accents were also fondant. The ladies wanted hearts and a more friendly looking skull while Junior wanted to keep a more classic red and black design. I made the top treasure chest out of rice crispy cereal and then covered it in fondant. In order to keep the top of the chest at an angle, I had to make it separately and angle it by stuffing the chest full of treasure-looking candy. All of coins, pearls, and pirate "booty" were edible made out of either fondant or pearlized dragees (edible balls). I marbelized the fondant on the chest in order to make it look more like wood and brushed brown sugar underneath the treasure chest to give it a beach feel.

I loved make this cake(s) and really like how it turned out! I hope I continue to be a part of Patty, Giselle, Alyssa, and Junior's parties because they definitely keep me on my toes with their cake ideas.

Treasure Chest Cake

Summer needed a huge cake for her huge luau party (around 400 guests!) for her son's 1st birthday. The party was a pirate themed extravaganza with a kiddie "walk the plank" and pirate costumes and decor everywhere. I knew I had to make something awesome when Summer asked me to recreate a pirate treasure chest that she'd seen online. Although she didn't want it to feed all of the guests, she wanted it to be a nice centerpiece. Here's what we came up with. This cake was a foot long, over 8 inches wide, over a foot tall, and super heavy! The picture doesn't do the size any justice.

The cake was a chocolate cake layered with buttercream and chocolate chips. Because the base was so tall, I made two separate layers of cake stacked on top of itself. Now for the nitty gritty... if you're not interested on how to make cakes, no need to read on :)

The top lid of the cake was made out of rice krispies and covered in marshmallow fondant. In order to keep the lid opened, I put in support under the lid and then skewered it into the cake till it was steady. The whole cake is covered and decorated with MMF. I first colored the the fondant brown and then let is sit till it dried. I "scratched" the dried fondant with a knife and made sure to leave nicks and different lines. Once that dried, I painted on layers of brown food coloring making sure to dye some areas darker than others until I thought it looked like wood. Then, I took the hardened fondant and simply adhered it to the side of the cake that was covered in buttercream. This gives the cake a pretty crisp edge.

The corners of the chest were painted with gold food coloring. The pearl necklace, "gold coins" and sword are all fondant. The green and red gems are peanut M&Ms and the yellow gems are both reeses pieces and fondant. The silver nuggets are tootsie rolls and dove chocolates covered in tin foil and the sand on the bottom is crushed graham crackers.

Hmm, I think that's about it :) It was SOOOOO MUCH FUN to make this cake. Summer was amazing to work with because she basically said, "here's kind of what I'm looking for but do whatever you think is best." I tried to make it look as "pirate treasure chest" as possible and really just loved every second of making this. I wasn't able to be there when Summer came to pick up the cake but she called me immediately after picking up the cake. She kept screaming (in a good way) and just told me how much she loved it. I wish I could've made it to the party to see the amazingness of a 1-year-old-Pirate-themed-Hawaiian-Luau :) Maybe next year, right?

Pirate Ship Cake... Arrg

Dominique wanted a pirate ship cake for Kieran's 3rd birthday... and this cake turned out to be a monstrosity! It was REALLY heavy and took quite some work to fit in the fridge until the pick up. There were several layers of cake (white cake with buttercream for the birthday boy) to build up the body of the ship. The top backside of the ship is rice krispies covered and decorated to match the cake. The masts were made out of fondant that were dried and hardened. I wanted the ship to look as "ship-like" as possible so I cut out individual slats of fondant that I mixed to look like wood and then placed them on after covering the whole cake in fondant. Then I painted on a darker shade of brown food coloring, kind of like staining wood. The treasure chest was made out of fondant as was the pirate. This was definitely a challenge but was so exciting to finish. I hope you likey!

Pirates and Princesses

What 5-year-old doesn't want to be a pirate, right? Well, Grant wanted a pirate cake for his birthday. This cake was a buttery yellow cake layered with chocolate buttercream. Grant's mom wanted some cupcakes to go along with the cake so we came up with some designs that matched the cake theme.

The cupcakes are also buttery yellow cake covered in buttercream and dipped in crystallized sugar. The decorations on the cake and cupcakes are handmade out of marshmallow fondant.

Abbi, on the other hand, wanted to be a princess for her birthday. The top tier is made out of rice crispies and then covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant. The towers are also made of rice crispies and the tower tops are ice cream cones covered in fondant. The bottom tier is strawberry cheesecake cake. I wanted to keep this cake very simple rather than going overboard with colors and decorations. I hope I accomplished that here :)