In honor of the Pirates of the Hudson festival in Sleepy Hollow, the following is a pirate cake and pirate ship made by my friend Vanessa for her son’s birthday. This is her first themed birthday cake and I am so impressed. She also configured a pirate ship from old cardboard boxes without any instructions, just a picture she found online. Her son, Zack, is one lucky little matey!
Above is the S. S. Zacharoo. Vanessa worked on the ship, when the kids were in bed, every night for weeks. She said she enjoyed making it and knew that it probably wouldn’t survive the party. She was happy just watching the kids enjoy it. (Plus, where would you put this thing after the party?)
The ship had a crepe paper entrance at the back, portholes on the sides and a treasure map inside to follow on the high seas.
Look how she masterfully stapled cardboard to reinforce the bottom of the ship.
Next up, the pirate cake… I always thought themed cakes were way over my head, but as I witnessed it’s totally doable. When you break down the steps, you realize you don’t need to be a professional baker, you just need instructions. This is how she did it…
Pirate Cake (Recipe from Betty Crocker)
You will need:
1 (8-inch) and 1 (9-inch) round cake (use boxed or homemade)
3 containers of frosting: 2 vanilla, 1 chocolate
Assorted candy:
1 small chocolate-covered mint patty
1 large marshmallow, cut in half
1 blue gum ball or M&M
1 yellow ring-shaped hard candy (we used a gummy peach)
1 roll strawberry Fruit by the Foot or other red chewy fruit snack
1 black licorice rope
2 square-shaped candy-coated gum or Tic-Tacs
chocolate sprinkles
Cut 9-inch cake in half and cut out the hat. Download the hat template from Betty Crocker. The rest of that cake will be for the body of pirate.
Cut the top off the 8-inch cake like in the photo below. Place the hat on the 8-inch cake and the remaining 9-inch cake goes upside down as the pirate’s body. With the remaining piece of the 8-inch cake, cut ears and nose and attach to cake with a little frosting. Cover; freeze 1 hour or until firm. (The cake didn’t fit in Vanessa’s freezer so we went straight to frosting.)
Frost the hat with chocolate frosting. Add a little chocolate frosting to some vanilla for the skin of the pirate and, then, frost his shirt with vanilla. Vanessa was careful about keeping the excess frosting off the tray. She was also extra careful to not let the chocolate cake crumb on the white frosting. She used a regular knife to frost the cake and washed it in-between frosting.
Now’s the fun part! Mint patty is the eye patch, marshmallow slice and gum ball are his eye and ring-shaped candy is his earring. Cut strawberry fruit snacks into stripes for the shirt, mouth and eye patch strap. A piece of black licorice decorates his hat. Give him gum or Tick Tack teeth and chocolate sprinkles for his whiskers. Cover the cake and store at room temperature. Now, admire your work and shout “Aaaarg!” while doing a pirate jig.
If you have more questions, check out You Tube to see Liv Hansen for the Betty Crocker Kitchens bake a similar pirate cake.
This is the cutest and yummiest pirate I’ve ever seen. Happy Birthday, Zack!
