Easy Homemade Pirate Cake

Here is an easy to make pirate cake that the kids go nuts for.  Even if you don't decorate a lot of cakes, this is one you should be able to tackle.  

I made a double cake and frosted a crumb coat.  As you can see, this cake was very crumbly!  After the all important crumb coat, I stuck the cake in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to let the crumb coat harden.

Next I frosted the sides of the cake in blue buttercream.  Then I used a toothpick to draw an outline of where I wanted the ocean and beach to be.  I spread brown icing on the beach side and blue icing on the ocean side.  The nicest part about this cake is that you don't have to get any of the frosting smooth!  Just smear it on!  I even used my spatula to make the water extra wavy.

The Last of the Cake Files.

 I'm not a baker; just a mom who likes making special things for the people I love. 15 years ago my mom and I took a cake decorating class at our local Michaels store.  It was a fun experience for us and here I am, years later, still using the basics I learned so long ago.  

When my daughter turned two I began my obsession with themed cakes.  I have my own little process that I use when I make a cake.  I Google search cake images, visit party sites and baking sites, and of course I check out the cakes on Coolest Birthday Cakes.com which displays thousands of homemade cakes made by moms just like you and me.  

The process goes like this...I bookmark several cakes and choose elements I want to incorporate into my own creation.  I never copy a cake exactly, but I borrow ideas and mesh things together to come up with something a little different.  Occasionally I have to come up with an idea on my own but I always find something on the internet that I use as a guide to help me with my creative confection.

Here's a peek at some of the buttercream concoctions I've come up with...

Keely's "Purple & Pink Kitty Party".  This one was tough!  Lots of carving and stacking layers to get the 3D look.  I've learned to stick to more basic shapes.  However, I will say, this cake was a big hit with my birthday girl.

My little one, Gage, had a "block party" for his first birthday.  His name fit perfectly on the sides of the cake.  The inside was 4 layers (yellow, chocolate, yellow, chocolate).

Cash really wanted a bulldozer...a bulldozer!!!  I was lucky enough to find a tutorial on-line.  I used two loaf pans for this. Thank goodness for Google!

The bulldozer cake was too small for the whole family so I used the same idea as the "Cars" cake (see last post) and changed it to look like a construction site.  The kids went nuts for the Oreo road.

Yo-Ho-Ho!

Another year has passed and my Cash is 4!  To celebrate we went with a pirate theme!  I thought it would be a totally fun theme but I quickly realized that pirates are kind of...well...inappropriate for kids.  I had already purchased the supplies before I came to this realization so we kept the theme and did out best to clean it up and make it kid friendly and age appropriate.  We decorated treasure maps, played Pin the Treasure on the Map, walked the plank and followed clues to find the hidden treasure.  It turned out to be a success and my kiddo loved it.  In fact, all of the kids had fun.  And in the end that's what really matters.

My big 4 year old...Captain Calico Cash!

The cake was chocolate with buttercream frosting.  I used scrap-booking stickers for the ship & pirates, graham crackers for the sand and piping gel for the water.