Pirate boat cake

Hiep Hiep Hiep Hoera!! My brother in law is celebrating his 11th birthday. And since he's visiting our family in Netherlands during his summer holiday, I want to make it a little bit special by making him a homemade birthday cake. After searching around on the internet, i decided to make him a 3D cake. A Pirate boat cake. This is my first attempt making 3D cake and i'm so nervous. But hey! It turns out not really that bad. I managed to make a pretty nice ship. With some decorations, it looks cute and my brother in law doesn't even want to cut the cake.

For 1 boat cake i need :

• Chocolate cake 
• Vanilla cake  
• Pyrex dish (27 x 18 cm)
• Mocha butter cream
• Vanilla butter cream
• Jelly beans
• Brown sugar
• 1 pack Pocky
• Chocolate ball / Maltesers
• Paper, pen , and skewer
• Some pirate toys (I'm using Playmobil pirate doll) 

First, I need a cake board. It was difficult to me to find a cake board with a size that i need. I need a rectangle board  which is big enough for the boat. So, I had to make it by myself.

I made it using a cardboard, aluminium foil, and plastic wrap. I cut the cardboard 28 x 38 cm, cover it with foil, and cover it again with plastic wrap. Final touch, secure the end of the wrap and the side of the board with sticky tape.  Easy and not expensive.

This is the rough sketch for my cake. Too bad I totally forgot to take pictures during the process because i was way too busy and too many distraction from my little baby.

For the boat, I was using with 2 layer cakes. I stacked the cake using mocha butter cream. I cut one side of the cake about 4 cm and put it on the top of the bigger cake for the deck of the boat.  After that, i cut the cake to make the front of the cake and trim every corner to make it less sharp.

The cake, especially the chocolate one was crumbling a lot during the cutting and trimming process. So maybe next time it would be better if i put it in the refrigerator for a while before I start to cut the cake.

After i've finished with all cutting and trimming, i started to cover the cake with mocha butter cream. I put some blue butter cream around the boat, and trying my best to make water effect,  stack the decoration here and there, and Yay!!! My boat is done. Still a bit disappointed and keep asking myself why i didn't use piping bag and wave tip for the wood effect instead of using fork and additional brown coloring agent. It would be nicer. But well, next time better. Not perfect, but i like it.

I managed to add a small island near the boat because i had leftover chocolate cake batter. So i made some cupcake from it. I took one of them, cut the top of the cake, put it on the board, covered it with butter cream and brown sugar, and put a small treasure chest on the top. Hmm... It looks cute. Even my brother in law and my husband start playing with the toys and the treasure chest on the top of this small island. :)

Happy 11th Birthday, my little brother!! I wish you all happiness in your life :)