Shiver Me Timbers...it's Ethan's Birthday!

Happy 6th Birthday Ethan! This cake was suppose to be so easy to do and it looks that way but it was the pirate ship from you know where. The only thing that made it worth while was seeing Ethan's face when he discovered it the next morning. He loved it and had so much fun changing the pirates positions and messing with the waves. I was so thankful for Patti and Danielle's help once again. We just can't do birthday cakes on our own anymore and I love it. They are true friends. Who else would be crazy enough to stay up with me until 2 a.m. just to salvage a 6 year old boys dream of the best pirate ship ever. It worked. Thanks girls.

I wouldn't suggest ever making this cake unless you can make a chocolate cake that is more dense. The boxed cake mix was so soft that it was tearing all over the place. I baked this in 2 9" pans. I cut the cakes in half and stacked them on top of each other with frosting. I cut a small amount off the rounded bottom so they would lay flat and then I turned them on the side so that the part I just cut off was the bottom of the ship (I got this idea on line and from Danielle). I used 2 straws inserted in the middle of the cake to help hold the cake together. I tried to originally cut some of the middle of the cake out so that I would have 2 decks but that resulted in me having to start all over from scratch because it completely feel apart so I recommend keeping it simple.

I then frosted it using none other than Patti's yummy chocolate frosting. We used a knife to carve the wood planks in the side, pretzels for the railing, whoppers for cannons, Rolos for gold, candy bar cut smaller for the plank, fondant and sprinkles for the waves, 6 candles for the cannons coming out of the ship (this was a fun way to have Ethan blow out his candles) and Legos for the actors (Ethan loved the guy walking the plank.) For the flags I used the pattern on the 2010 Wilton yearbook. I printed them onto paper rather than use fondant like they suggested. I glued them on wooden dowels that I painted. The jolly rodgers flag in the front I found on the internet. For the base I covered a square of wood with blue wrapping paper and then covered it with plastic wrap to keep it clean.

Just when we thought that we were done the cake started cracking down the center going both ways. Nightmare. We piped frosting down the large cracks and leaned heavy cups along the entire cake to hold it together. I said a prayer and hoped the cake would be in one piece the next morning. My prayer was answered and it stayed together even when the cups were removed. The only thing that had changed was that it looked more square after being squished and you could see the cracks. Both things Ethan never noticed.