A Pirate's {50th} Birthday Cake

First, this has been a very crazy and exhausting day! My mom woke me up at 3:15 this morning because she had to take my dad to the hospital for chest pain and the shakes. Thankfully, so far all of his tests have come back clear and the doctors don't believe it's his heart. My dad is an associate pastor, father of four daughters, and a full-time team leader at Lockheed Martin in their computer department. The man has A LOT on his plate! We think that this was a wake up call for him to slow down and not try to do so much. Prayers are appreciated for his full recovery and continued good health! God isn't finished with him yet!!

Now on to the cake...

I had a fun last minute cake order come in last week and I'm so excited to share it with you today! The cake was for a 50th birthday party and the theme was pirates. Really cool.

Pirate themed birthday cake 

Anyway, they wanted a cake that would appeal to everyone so for the flavors they chose chocolate for one tier and vanilla for the other. The whole thing was iced in white chocolate buttercream. My favorite part is the decorations. I'm not much of a fondant fan. I don't like the way it tastes and I'm not particularly fond of working with it. However, the cake picture they showed me had a lot of fondant work and I wanted to find a way to make the cake they wanted without having to deal with it. So, I went to my favorite store for creativity and looked around. Did you know that Wilton makes sugar sheets? Literally sheets of edible "paper" made out of sugar and in lots of different colors! I love this stuff!! Cut or punch the shapes you want and voila! Done and done. So easy and exactly the look I wanted.

Photo courtesy of wilton.com

For the cakes I used these recipes:

Chocolate Cake (adapted from here)

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 
  
• 1 cup boiling water

      3/4 cup cocoa

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of electric mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared liners and bake at 350 for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle of cake comes out clean. This recipe makes approximately two 2" x 8" layers.

For the vanilla cake I used the recipe for my almond cake and left the almond extract out. You can find the recipe in my post on almond cupcakes here. For the icing I used my favorite go to - the Wilton white chocolate buttercream icing. LOVE this combination! The clients were very pleased when I delivered the cake and I hope they had fun at their party. 

Close up of the top :)

Next week I'll be sharing a classic favorite - PB&J cupcakes - and a new flavor - Strawberry Rhubarb Pie cupcakes! Until then, happy reading and, more importantly, happy cupcake-ing!!