(with things you have in the kitchen!)
Someone turned seven around here.
He asked for a pirate cake one day in advance. Not much time to plan – or shop! I looked at the store for inexpensive pirate figurines: nothing. I checked for chocolate coins. Nope. Time to improvise! He specifically said he wanted fish swimming around and a pirate ship on top, so those were the hard lines. Everything else would just have to line up.
You Will Need:
- 1 batch cake batter (mix or not, your choice)
- frosting
- food coloring
- paper, black marker, skewers
- coconut (optional)
- 1 graham cracker (optional)
- goldfish crackers (optional)
- mini marshmallows (optional)
- sprinkles or decorating sugar or whatever you have
First, divide cake batter between a greased 11″ x 7″ pan and greased muffin liners. I made five cupcakes, but only ended using four, so use your judgement based on what you want to do.
Mix up some blue frosting: use some to attach the cupcakes that will be your island (you can see I sliced one in half) and then crumb the rest of the cake in blue.
Sloppily. This is the ocean, after all.
Next, mix up some green frosting. I tossed in coconut for a shaggier ‘grass’ look. Cover your cupcake island with it. Crush a graham cracker; sprinkle around the edges of your island for a beach.
Now it’s time for the ship. Slice and splice two cupcakes into a vaguely pirate-ship-shaped mass.
Mix up some brown (I added cocoa powder) and smooth it over the ship. Make the sails: they’re not hard, they’re just squares of paper on skewers broken to the right height. I made a pirate flag because I knew he would want it.
To finish off, add another layer of blue frosting and whatever embellishments you like. We edged the bottom with mini marshmallows and goldfish crackers. Charlie helped.
I added blue sugar on top for fun. Or because I tried to make some powdered sugar when I ran out and it turned out grainy and I wanted to mask it. Either way.
Happy birthday, buddy!
