First, I baked a 1/2 sheet cake. I find my cakes come out of the pan better if I line the bottom with wax paper intstead of just greasing and flouring...it may cause more crumbs, but my cakes don't fall apart so easily!
Next, I cut the cake into 3 equal sections and stacked two of the sections, one on top of the other with frosting in the middle. The third section, I also cut into three equal sections. On one end (the stern, or back end) I stacked two of the pieces with frosting in between. At this point I cut two dowel rods the same height as the stern, and inserted them an about an inch or two from each side, towards the center, to give support. On the other end of the boat, I added the last piece, frosting in between the layers, to make the bow of the boat. To make the front (bow) pointed, I cut each side at a slight angle...I did'nt take too much off the sides for fear it would collapse!!! I also added a dowel to this end for support.
This leaves a nice deck area in the center. Next, I crumb coated the entire cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. For anyone who uses the Wilton buttercream recipe (1 stick butter, 1/2 cup Crisco, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, 4 cups powdered sugar, 2 TBL milk), just add 3 oz. of melted bakers semi-sweet chocolate and 1-2 extra TBL of milk...it's so yummy! For this cake I used a double batch of frosting, you may want to triple it just to be safe! Once I did one good crumb coat, I went over it again with another layer and put it in the fridge to cool.
Once it was cooled overnight, it was ready to decorate! I used a toothpick to make the long wooden planks all over the boat...and then I smoothed it over with a knife dipped in hot water. It made it look "old"!! I used short pieces of straw and dowel rods covered with brown fondant to make the railings around the bow and the stern. I rolled black fondant into small cannon balls to put on the deck. The three cannons on the side were as follows: I made three black fondant squares and attached them to the side of the ship with corn syrup. Then I used a dowel to put a hole in the middle of each. I cut 3 dowels about 2-3 inches long, covered half of each with black fondant, and inserted the other end into the middle of the black squares...voila! Cannons! I decorated the boat with red buttercream frosting, added 2 little pirates, used blue and white buttercream to make the water and FINALLY...I added the sails! I just printed a skull/crossbones from the computer for one smaller sail, then "Happy Birthday Tyler" for the other, larger sail. I used a hole punch on each end and inserted a dowel through.
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