I have three grand kids whose birthdays are all in the first week of March. Abby and Cate asked for a pirate cake and Davy was happy to comply. So here it is. 
This wasn't an easy cake. I had a cabin carved out but when I put it in the fridge to cool while I worked on the fondant it cracked completely in half. So I had to improvise! It still turned out cool, but there is so much I would do better next time. I let Davy pick the flavor which was confetti. Not my favorite, but the kids loved it. I used the usual icing and fondant.
I used Tootsie rolls for the railing wood and roped fondant for the hand rail. I tried to use just a flat piece of fondant for the railing but it wanted to droop between the "boards. The rope worked much better. I also think I did much better on the palm tree this time. I used brown sugar for the sand and root beer candy barrels. I made the treasure chest out of gum paste and filled it with decorating pearls and gold sprinkles. Rolos are the cannons on the sides of the ship.
For the masts and sales I used wooden skewers and gum paste to make the sails. I laid the sails over a bottle to get them to curve until dry. I painted the Jolly Roger with food coloring.
For the boards I used a pizza roller to indent the slats and then brushed with petal dust to get the woody affect on both the deck and sides of the ship.
I was going to make a pirate, but Davy wanted Captain Hook. So I found a set of figurines that the kiddos could play with.
