One year my son wanted a pirate birthday cake. I obliged. Rather than find a ship-shaped pan, (which is probably not the same as ship-shape) I built the boat using chocolate icing from a can and chocolate wafer cookies.
Once I had the basic shape, I put it on top of a cake so there would be water for the ship to be in. This made it so I didn’t have to create a rudder or any of the other underside workings of a ship. Plus, not everyone wants a nice slice of birthday wafers.
I then built the sail by opening blue and white airhead candies, lining them up side-by-side and running the rolling pin over them to make them one solid piece. In retrospect, airheads do not make the best sails because they are heavy and it took toothpicks and a lot of frosting to keep them standing and the mast from tipping over.
Lastly, the over-sized pirate was made from tootsie rolls (the fruit kind which I think are actually called frooties or something). Fondant could also be used and would probably hold up better. As it was, we had to freeze the pirate and put him on the cake right before lighting the candles.
I covered the entire ship with panels of chocolate frosting to make it wood-like and then put sea creatures in the surrounding water. Here it is from a couple of different angles.
p.s. I would recommend serving it outside because the wafer cookies are REALLY messy.
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