Jake the Pirate

The request is for a pirate birthday cake with “chocolate!!!” and also Jake the Pirate from Disney. After looking up the kid’s animated series, I need to make a real quick sketch to verify if this is the correct series. Then I do a pencil sketch for Henry to have of his own after his party.

Bake and Fill the Cake

First, I bake four layers of really rich chocolate birthday cake.

Next, quickly whip up a special secret “flavored” cream cheese filling for between the layers. Finally, I finish up by cooking a batch of real fudge frosting to ice it with.

Birthday Cake Fondant

Now, comes the hard part for me on this birthday cake. I have never made fondant before, so I looked up how-to on the internet and get to making it. I wanted to make the cartoon characters and his name out of this fondant instead of using frosting. You know, always trying something new.

The recipe I found made up a lot of fondant. Really too much, so I covered the top of the already frosted birthday cake and decided to paint a little scene on it.

More Than Just Sticky

I know the recipe said it was sticky but there should be a stronger word to describe how sticky fondant really is. Wow. The next process for me was experimenting with my food coloring and cake decorating glitters to see what they would do on this fondant top coating. It is a very different glowing kind of coloring. It almost seems like a glaze after you coat it a few times. Here is the background sand, water, and skyline.

The little characters took longer than expected due to the stickiness and getting the paints to work on them after cutting them out. This is Jake the pirate on the cake and the number six on the counter with the parrot with the paints. Whew! Frosting seems much easier all the time.

Finishing up you can see that I have made Henry’s name in the same style that they use in the series. Which kind of looks like shipwrecked lumber nailed together. After getting it all assembled I went ahead and sprinkled some more shredded chocolate on the top.

This cake will not be mistaken for anything but chocolate.