I’ve made a point to ask the kids what kind of cake they want for their birthday and when Eleanor said a Bucky cake (pirate ship from Jake and the Neverland Pirates Birthday party) I knew I had my work cut out for me.
Looking for other easy fun cakes? Check out my Mater Brownie Cake and Paw Patroller.
I usually make a cake with a character pan and decorate it but attempting a 3D pirate ship wasn’t something I thought I would be able to do. Thankfully Mike was the one who said we could do it and we worked together to come up with a great idea.
Pirate Ship Cake Supplies Needed:
- 3- boxes of cake mix
- 3- containers of icing (2 chocolate 1 vanilla)
- Cardboard (we put 2 cake board together and taped them to make them long enough)
- Blue Cellophane
- Chocolate chips
- Graham Cracker
- 2 -blue Airheads
- 1- red Airhead
- 1- Dowel rod
- 1- Pretzel rod
- 1- green curling ribbon
- 1- party horn blower (canon)
How to make a Pirate Ship Cake:
- Mixed 2 cake mixes together and used a 9 x 13 and filled it with 3/4 of the mix.
- Then filled a loaf pan with the remaining batter.
- We used an additional mix for 2- 9 inch round pans.
- Splitting 1/2 and 1/2.
- Note: Make the cakes earlier in the day so they have time to cool.
How to carve a Pirate Ship Cake:
I’m going to let the pictures explain this one, but you can see that we have the cardboard base and water (blue cellophane) all prepped.
How to make railings for the pirate ship cake:
- We heated up in a double boiler (a bottom pot with water and a top pot with the chocolate) some chocolate chips, with a little vegetable oil to thin it out.
- We measured where the railings would be so we would know exactly how tall and long we would need.
- Place the chocolate in a plastic baggie, snip one corner and pipe out the railings and back.
NOTE: We placed it in the freezer and didn’t put it on the cake till right before the party so it wouldn’t break or melt
How to decorate a pirate ship cake:
- I let the chocolate icing do it for me. I did take some vanilla and add yellow dye for the yellow piping. (Plastic bag with corner snipped off)
- I used a red Airhead candy for the slide
- cut up 2 blue Airheads for the door and manholes (I used a quarter for the size).
- The canon for the ship was a mouthpiece from a party horn, and I used a dowel rod and some paper for the sail (I could have used a pretzel rod if I wanted though).
- The island is just crushed up cinnamon graham crackers with a pretzel rod and curling ribbon on top (with lots of icing to keep it there) for the tree.
- I threw on a few chocolate covered raisins for some coconuts, it’s the small details that count!
I was surprised with how easy and adorable this cake turned out. It took time, but I would say it was probably under 2 hours of decorating with both Mike and I working as a team. We were lucky that we already had the characters so we could just add them on (Note: add them after you icing the cake not the next day).
I’m so glad Mike pushed for the 3-D cake it really was an awesome centerpiece for the party and the memory of seeing the kids face was worth the time it took to make it.
This is me Destiny! I'm a content creator that covers DIY, Cricut, Travel, National Parks, Disney, Games and Family. Iām navigating life with my husband Mike, 2 kids and live in the suburbs of Maplewood, New Jersey.
My kids would totally LOVE this cake!!! Thanks so much for sharing at The Wednesday Roundup!
Amazing job on the cake! I've made some cakes before but a 3D pirate ship cake looks scary! You did a marvelous job! Pinning this to my birthday board!
love it so creative.
come see us at http://shopannies.blogspot.com
Love your cake it is so Creative š
Thanks for linking up to Creative Mondays,,, featuring your post this week at the hop…
This post came at the perfect time! I'm donating a cake for a homeless kids bday party and he requested pirate! Thanks so much!
On question :). Can you tell me what you used on the back of the boat?
So excited to see how yours turns out! For the back of the boat we used chocolate. Sorry I didn't have a picture of that. We just used the same chocolate as the railing and made a big back and then put it on freezer paper and froze it. We used icing to add it to the back of the ship. If this isn't clear just let me know and I'll try to explain a little better!
Thank you so much it turned out perfect! I'm posting just a pic of it tomorrow with a link to you. It turned out great!!
I'm so excited and can't wait to see yours! Thanks for sharing.
This is the cutest cake ever! So fun! Pinning so my daughter can make it! š
Thanks, oh make sure you share a pic if she makes it!
I’m making this next week. Can you tell me about how many people just the ship would serve? Just want to make sure I have enough.
That’s great Heather. Going off of memory we were able to serve about 30 people with just the ship, but a majority (20) of them were kids and the slices were smaller. I hope this helps.