I'm planning to make my son a 3-D pirate ship cake as I have seen so many fabulous ones on here. To make sure the cake doesn't have any issues (i.e. too many crumbs or break apart too easily while carving), should I freeze for a bit and if so do I have to wrap it? I am planning to carve shape and then ice with chocolate buttercream and will use chocolate fondant, either individual pieces for the boards or just one big layer. If anyone's done one of these, please advise on cake pan sizes, etc. I'm just assuming I'll use several rectangular cakes stacked? Thanks!!
i'm interested to know this too.. i've tried carving cakes but my cakes always fall apart and i end up getting crumbs everywhere.. so not sure if i should change the cake recipe or whether i can freeze the cake before carving so i don't get this problem too 
Try these instructions. They helped me alot.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-556493.html
I add an extra pkg of pudding mix to my cake recipes that I am carving. It seems to help make it moist and keep it together. Freezing the cake won't hurt it before carving. But when it thaws, it may still crumble.
I just cut it, then frost it as soon as possible.
How big of a cake are you making? The pirate ship that I made (see photos) was rather large and tall. I put a stiffener layer between the cake layers (along with dowel rods) to keep the cake from "sinking".
I am working on another pirate ship cake, and want to add more details to this one. I have viewed several cakes on here and plan on "stealing" a few ideas. Arrrrr.
I like to use denser cake when carving. There are a number of great pound cake recipes online. Allrecipes.com has a dense chocolate pound cake recipe that works and tastes(at least I think so) good. Or if you want to use a box mix add an extra egg, a box of pudding and decrease your water by a 1/4 cup.
HTH.
Jo-Ann
Thanks for all the responses I am looking for a scratch cake recipe and so far my go to chocolate cake recipe is Hershey's one but i think that is just too crumbly to carve. Will definitely be checking out allrecipes.com to see if i can find any dense chocolate pound cake recipes Thanks you guys!!!
I actually haven't come across decopacs kit where i am so i think it's not available here. As for adding pudding to the recipe.. is this for box mixes or i can add it to scratch recipes as well? TIA!!
When I mad my pirate ship cake I used the football pan just square it off at the back if you want. I donn't have a pic of it 'cause my camera was not working properly but it turned out great. Hope this helps.
Hi!
Don't know if this will help, but I used a regular chocolate cake, filled with chocolate butter cream and covered with Fondarific chocolate fondant, to make the Sunkin Treasure Pirate Ship (design by Debbie Brown). I didn't use any special pan, just stacked and "eye balled" the carving. I think it worked out fine.
If I make the ship again, I'll use a chocolate sour cream recipe that holds together even better for carving - less crumbs.
Good luck, I know you can do it! 
Toni
When I made a pirate ship I carved mine out of a 9x13 cake. I believe I have step by step pictures of the cake if you would like to see them. Just let me know the picture of the finsihed ship is in my gallery
Hi Toni... could i ask if you could share the chocolate sour cream cake recipe with me? It sounds really yummy and it would be perfect if it's carvable as well
sweeteats0919... i might just take you up on your offer.. to tell the truth... i haven't baked any cakes larger than a 9"... haha.. just too scared to try making a bigger cake in case i screw it up or it doesn't bake properly.. but hopefully if Toni can share her recipe i will finally run out of excuses to try and make a carved pirate ship cake
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