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Pirate Cake with No Tools
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Sep 6, 2024
Let's make a pirate ship cake with no special tools! This cake design uses quick, easy and affordable techniques to decorate a single cake or a tier cake. Ask me any questions in the comments! *Start your FREE 7 day trial on my cake school https://britishgirlbakes.teachable.com/p/all-you-can-cake/ *LEARN The Basics of Cake and The Basics of Buttercream in my most popular online courses! https://britishgirlbakes.teachable.com/ *My 4 Minute Buttercream recipe https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/recipes/buttercream-frosting/ *READ a written version of this tutorial (with photos!) https://www.britishgirlbakes.com/pirate-ship-cake/ *SUBSCRIBE to my channel for a new cake decorating tutorial every week! *SAY HI! Website: https://www.britishgirlbakes.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/britishgirlbakes
View Video Transcript
0:00
Let's make a fun pirate-themed cake with no special tools
0:07
You can make this pirate ship design on a single cake or on a two-tier cake
0:11
I'm using my very vanilla and perfect chocolate cake, alternating layers for an 8-inch cake at the bottom and then a 6-inch cake on top
0:20
For a tier cake, you'll need the top cake to be on a cakeboard the same size as that cake
0:25
The purpose of this is to support the cake so it doesn't sink into the bottom cake
0:30
and the reason for it being the same size is so that it's invisible after you frost the cake
0:35
The taller this cake is, the more room you'll have, so the bigger you can make your pirate ship
0:40
Start with a crumb coat, which is a very thin layer of frosting to trap any crumbs that come off the cake
0:44
so that they don't get into your final layer of frosting. I'm using my four-minute buttercream to fill and frost these cakes
0:51
and the recipe is on British Girlbakes.com. To tint buttercream, the best option is gel colours, which are very concentrated
0:57
so you only need a drop or two to get really bright and bold colors
1:01
I'm turning the bottom cake into an ocean with a very easy and very quick technique
1:06
Frost the top of the cake with a light shade of teal or turquoise and put that same color into a piping bag with a petal tip
1:13
and pipe a ruffle around the top of the cake. If you don't have a petal piping tip
1:17
you can just spread this color straight onto the cake and you'll get all of the beautiful ocean colors just without the texture
1:24
Petal tips look like teardrops, and when you pipe through them the narrow part makes ruffles but the wider part doesn't
1:31
So for this cake you'll want the narrow part of the petal tip or teardrop to be pointing downwards
1:36
and angled slightly towards the cake so that the wider piping sticks to the cake
1:41
Point the narrow part upwards and slightly away from the cake, which makes ruffles that look like waves
1:47
I'm adding another drop of gel to my bowl of buttercream and putting that darker colour into the piping bag
1:52
so that the waves get darker as the ocean gets deeper, lower down on the water. lower down on the cake. The slower you pull your piping bag and the more you wiggle your wrist as you
2:01
pipe, the wavier the piping will be. This technique is so forgiving because if you need to pull away
2:07
and push the buttercream lower down into the piping bag, when you start piping again, the join of
2:12
the ruffles will disappear into the texture on the cake. It's not a precise technique, just have fun with it
2:18
to create this whimsical effect You can smooth any messy parts of the piping with an offset spatula To hold up the next cake tier you need some supports Use a cake board the same size as the next cake to draw around
2:30
to show you where the next cake will sit eventually, and then poke boba straws or dowels into the bottom cake
2:37
cutting them to be the same height as that cake. I'm using four straws for this 8-inch cake
2:43
spaced equally around the cake at least an inch within the circle I drew
2:46
so that they'll definitely be underneath the top cake. Put this cake in the fridge while you frost the top cake
2:54
the one that will have the pirate ship on it. To create a sky effect, use white and blue butter cream
2:59
ideally three shades, and spread dollops of those colours onto the cake
3:03
The crumb coat needs to have set so that these colours don't mix into it
3:07
I set my crumcoats by putting the cake into the fridge for 30 minutes, but keep in mind that if the cake is cold from the fridge
3:14
you'll need to frost it quite quickly because other, Otherwise, these blobs of buttercream will chill and set and be difficult to spread
3:21
Scrape around the cake with a cake comb or frosting smoother or icing scraper
3:26
and the colours will blend together and look like a cloudy sky. After a few scrapes, spread more buttercream to fill in any indents
3:33
where the frosting isn't as thick as on the rest of the cake, and then scrape again until the frosting is smooth
3:39
You can leave the top edge uneven like this, or level it with your offset spatula
3:43
Put this cake into the fridge for an hour or the freezer for 30 minutes to set the frosting so that it's ready for the pirate chip
3:51
You can draw or trace or print out a pirate chip, keeping it to a simple outline for the best results
3:58
Then put a piece of parchment or wax paper on top and trace the brown details only, the hull and the masts
4:04
Showing my ignorance about ships here, don't know all of the technical terms, pencil works best for drawing onto parchment paper because of the non-stick surface
4:12
Then on another piece, trace the white details, the sails, and then onto another piece the black details, the pirate flag
4:20
And I'm using a separate piece for the portholes because I'm going to make them grey
4:24
but if you use black for those, you can use the same piece as the pirate flag
4:28
Now cut out the shapes from each of your pieces of parchment paper
4:32
cutting along the outline to leave the outer part intact, which you'll use as a stencil next
4:38
Take your time to cut a neat outline following the lines you drew, because that outline will become the outline on your cake So if you cut a jagged line or an oval instead of a circle that what you end up with on your pirate chip on the cake Each piece of parchment should have an inch or two of paper all around the cut part of the design
4:57
which will protect the rest of the cake from getting unwanted smudges of buttercream onto it
5:02
The exception is the pirate chip because the boat will sit right at the bottom of the cake
5:06
so you don't need any paper below it. Take your cake out of the fridge or freezer and press the biggest boat
5:12
stentzel against it. After about a minute, some tiny drops of condensation will form on the cake
5:18
because it's warmer out of the fridge or freezer, and those droplets will help the stencil to
5:22
stick to the cake. Spread brown buttercream all over the boat shape that you cut out
5:27
spreading inwards towards the middle of the cut-out shape, rather than outwards, because that
5:32
might spread buttercream underneath the parchment paper, causing smudges around the outside
5:36
of the outline of the shape. Smooth the brown frosting with an offset spatula or cake comb
5:42
Partiment paper and wax paper are great because they're cheap, and you can make any shape of stencil you like very quickly
5:48
But because the paper is very thin and flimsy, it's easy for it to stick to the frosting on your Offset's bachelor or cake comb and pull away from the cake
5:56
So be gentle and use slow movements. If the stencil does pull away, reposition it and I'll show you how to tidy any smudges next
6:05
Peel the stencil off to leave your shape behind. You can use a toothpick to gently scrape off any smudges and this works because the blue furrow
6:12
frosting on the cake has chilled and set. So you won't damage it, you'll just take off any unwanted
6:17
brown frosting. Use the edge of your cake comb to score some lines in the butter cream to mark out
6:23
different sections of the boat and planks of wood, and a toothpick is a great tool to mark the
6:27
shorter ends of the planks, and to draw little nails that you see in shiplap. Now put the cake into
6:33
the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 15 minutes to set this brown frosting. Press another
6:38
stencil onto the cake and spread butter cream over that, scraping off the excess to leave a thin layer behind
6:44
For these portholes, a thin layer looks best because you don't want the windows to look like they're
6:49
sticking out from the wooden boat. But for some shapes, like these sails, a thicker layer of
6:54
butter cream is better because white is such a light colour that with a thin layer you'd be able to see
6:59
the blue frosting through the sails. Keep your toothpick handy for touch-ups after each stencil
7:04
and put the cake back into the fridge or freezer after each stencil to set that color before pressing on the next stencil Any time after stenciling on the big brown boat you can stack your cakes if you making a
7:16
tier cake. Both cakes need to be cold so that the frosting is firm and spreading a little bit of
7:21
fresh frosting onto the bottom cake within that circle you drew will help the top cake tier to attach
7:28
Slide an offset spatula or cake lifter underneath the top tier, lifting it on its little cakeboard
7:33
and then lower it onto the bottom cake. Adjust it to center it, and this is why the cakes should be
7:39
cold so that you can touch the frosting without damaging it. To cover up the join between the two
7:44
tiers, use some of that lightest shade of teal or turquoise from the ocean part of the cake
7:49
with your petal tip. Hold the wider part of the tip against the bottom of the cake to pipe a wave
7:55
You can pipe a few more if there's space on top of the bottom cake
7:58
and just like with the ruffles around the sides of the cake, the more you wiggle your wrist, the wavier
8:03
your piping will be. I like to start piping at the side of the cake, because that's typically the
8:09
most subtle place to hide the start and finish of each row of piping, because everyone looks at the
8:14
front of the cake, and if you're singing happy birthday and letting someone blow out a candle on the cake
8:19
everyone gathered around will be looking at the back of the cake, but no one really stares at the
8:24
side of a cake. You only need a tiny bit of buttercream for the pirate flag and a few drops of black gel
8:29
Making a dark grey is fine because with time the gel will develop and the colour will darken a few shades
8:36
After 30 minutes in the fridge, the dark grey has become a true jet black colour
8:41
Let that set in the fridge before using your final stencil, the skull and crossbones
8:45
And just like with the white sails, it's a good idea to spread this fairly thick
8:49
so it doesn't end up looking grey because of the black buttercream underneath. With a thicker layer of frosting, the stencil edges do tend to be messier, so grab your toothpick and smooth those out
8:59
I forgot to mark the masts on the ship, but it's fine to do this either immediately after stenciling
9:05
while the buttercream is still soft, or after chilling the cake when the buttercream has set
9:11
And there it is. A pirate cake made with no fancy cake tools
9:15
just some paper stencils that you can make yourself very easily, quickly, and affordably
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I hope this tutorial has been useful. Visit my cake school on British Girlbakes.com
9:25
to learn hundreds of cake decorating techniques and designs. Thanks for watching
9:29
Thank you
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