The Prairie Kid wanted a pirate themed birthday party after thumbing through an Oriental Trading Post catalog. I decided we could attempt to pull that off. Weeks before The Party I started Googling pictures of pirate ship cakes. I would drift off to sleep imagining how I could create such a thing. I had a plan in my head...or so I hoped.
I found out what kind of cake The Prairie Dad wanted, since this was his birthday cake too. He voted for German chocolate. Doable.
I found out what kind of cake The Prairie Dad wanted, since this was his birthday cake too. He voted for German chocolate. Doable.
Cake Making Day
So, I made the cake one afternoon when I was feeling pretty good. I was scared because I had never made a homemade German chocolate cake before.
I was relieved that it all went well. I let the cake completely cool and bravely began to "construct" the ship. It was like making Legos and then building with them. Only it was cake...not as easy to put together and pull apart as Legos.This was the only thing I used as a pattern. After I cut this piece out the rest was winging it!
I used canned Coconut Pecan frosting as the "glue"
Piece by piece...
It slowly came together...
The Nephew and I made a bunch of applique pieces with Royal Icing. It would take a few days for them to dry so we did those the day I made and built the cake. 
When the cake was built we froze it for 30 minutes, then wrapped it tightly in Saran and put it back into the freezer until the day of the party.The morning of The Party Day I woke up after very little sleep feeling quite miserable. I honestly didn't know how we'd pull off having The Party. I tearfully and prayerfully moved throughout the morning trying to accomplish this for My Boys. I sat on a bar stool at the counter to frost the cake and munched on an apple trying to maintain energy.
I made a whipped ganache for the outer frosting. It was a little speckled but it tasted delightful.
Crumb Coat
Outer Coat
And after the all the final touches are put on....WA-LAH! A Pirate Ship Birthday Cake!
Thankfully we had these little pirates and the canon and treasure chest from The Prairie Kid's toys
The ladders, rail, anchor, portholes and bowsprit (spear at the front, I learned a lot about ships!) were all made out of Royal Icing
All in all it turned out satisfactory. I would have put more perfection into it if I had been feeling better but at this point I was seriously just glad to be able to get through the day and not have to cancel. The thing that was most special about The Adventures Of Pirate Ship Cake Making was the response from The Prairie Kid. When he would find me working on the cake he would whole-heartedly say, "Mom! Kank you! Kanks for my pirate ship cake!" And several times I received the most sincere, thankful hugs that a preschooler could ever offer a mommy.
Thankfully we had these little pirates and the canon and treasure chest from The Prairie Kid's toys
The ladders, rail, anchor, portholes and bowsprit (spear at the front, I learned a lot about ships!) were all made out of Royal Icing
All in all it turned out satisfactory. I would have put more perfection into it if I had been feeling better but at this point I was seriously just glad to be able to get through the day and not have to cancel. The thing that was most special about The Adventures Of Pirate Ship Cake Making was the response from The Prairie Kid. When he would find me working on the cake he would whole-heartedly say, "Mom! Kank you! Kanks for my pirate ship cake!" And several times I received the most sincere, thankful hugs that a preschooler could ever offer a mommy. 
2 comments:
Great cake! How sweet that Tade was truly thankful, I love being appreciated as a mommy, it makes all the hard work worthwhile. I'm glad you were able to make it through the day. I hope you can rest up from the activities and feel better soon.
Good job mom. Way to pull through for the youngin. Mom of the year.
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