pirate ship birthday cake

Yesterday I had the challenge of creating a 'cake in a day', 

my other nephews birthday is today and I was asked last minute to create a cake to match his pirate theme birthday. 

I started baking at 11.00am and then with lots of breaks in between finally finished about 11.00pm last night.

I stuck to my tried and tested chocolate cake recipe and used fondant to ice the cake and decorate it.
I am going to create a new post to share the recipe, baking instructions and decorative techniques soon along with pics.

I researched a wide range of pirate ship cakes on the internet and took my inspiration from a selection, although most ships were carved from cake and I didn't have the courage to try this method with such a small amount of time.

I had to wait until this morning to make sure the icing was set on the cake before resting the pirate ship on top as it weighs a ton and I didn't want to crush my cake. 

I used muscavado sugar around the bottom of the cake board to create the illusion of sand. 

The cake is a 6 inch chocolate fudge cake and I used an 8 inch cake board. 

 I tea stained some handmade textured paper (which I bought) and drew the jolly roger design on with a fine liner and added shading with a pencil.

I made the scroll early yesterday out of fondant and wrapped both ends around cocktail sticks while it dried so it would hold its shape. I then used an edible pen to write the birthday message on. I left that until just before I packed up last night so i didn't crush the scroll. Also the pen doesn't work on wet fondant (i have made that mistake before). 

August is a busy birthday month in our family, along with my nephews birthdays it's also my husbands, dads and nans - so lots of possible cake projects coming up - maybe I will have a go at cake carving if i feel brave enough!