Pirate Ship

This cake was for my son's 5th birthday. He wanted a pirate ship, but I left myself very little time to make it, and so from the fondant covered all singing, all dancing confection I had originally planned I ended up making the abridged version.

The cake itself was a chocolate mud cake recipe from my copy of Planet Cake. The cake is very moist, very chocolatey, and very very moreish.  I covered the cake in milk chocolate ganache, and used ice-cream wafers for the windows and door. The crows nest was an ice-cream cornet chopped up, filled with cake offcuts, and  wooden kebab skewers used to make the masts.

I printed out the skull and crossbones on paper for the sails, as my idea of edible ink on rice paper sails soon evaporated when I realised I had about a day to make and decorate the cake.

It's not the tidiest cake I have made, but it was fun to do, and disappeared as quickly as it was made.