Want to make a pirate ship cake for your next party?

Here’s some photos of ours under construction plus some tips on decorations and supplies you might need.

First the cake pan – we used a Nordic Ware Pro Cast pan that we hired from a local cake shop but you can purchase one from Amazon. This takes a lot of the hassle out of getting the ship-shape right. But what we did do was turn the finished cake upside down. We felt it had a more traditional galleon shape that way. If you do this you will need to bake a second smaller cake to add some decking and cabin to the top of the cake.

Once you have your shape right cover with chocolate frosting. Using a fondant marking tool or anything sharp and pointy draw plank lines around the cake and wiggly lines for wood grain.

Use chocolate fingers to build the deck railing and bowsprit.

We used Wilton piping gel tinted with aqua colouring for the water. This stuff is amazing and you actually don’t need that much. Spread on your cake board thinly with a spatular. Add some sea foam if you like with some aqua butter cream frosting. Use some parchment coloured paper for your sails – we printed ours with a birthday message. Thread them onto a long wooden dowel for a mast. My daughter helped me to model some cute details with coloured fondant like the crows nest, treasure chest and sharks fins in the water. Pipe some details like the anchor and portholes with dark chocolate frosting. Top it all off with a jolly roger flag.

Arrrr me hearties that be a great pirate ship cake!

Don’t forget you can download matching pirate printables from our Etsy shop.