My coworker wants an aircraft carrier cake for her husbands Navy retirement. See pic here:
http://kennywaynefields.com/images/cv66_9.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/keithwarner/ph-10146.jpg
I can't figure out how to do it. The cake gets smaller toward the bottom of the ship so it would not support the top half if I did it out of cake. Also there is the part where the ships take off from that hangs off the side of the ship. I can't figure out how to cut that out without the cake just falling off. Help! I can't get the pictures to attach of the ship...
Well, I don't know if this is going to help or not. I did an aircraft carrier cake but just didn't do the angled cut at the bottom. I would think if you did do the angled cut the cake should still hold. I know don't about the overhang piece. I didnt exactly overhang that part.
Check out my cake. I just baked an 9x13 and carved the top end. Basically, I just made a simplified version and added buttercream water around the edge. The kid I made it for absolutely loved it though it was not an exact replica of the aircraft carrier.
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1907049
Good luck and Hope it helps a little. Maybe someone else can give better advice.
I did an aircraft carrier cake and I carved three layers of a 9 x 13 rectangle to the shape of the carrier and the top deck tarmac was a black fondant covered board cut to shape.
URL: http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1698004
Not the best, but it worked 
I had thought about both RKT and the idea of putting a board on it. I was thinking about doing a base and then building the top deck as the actual cake. The board underneath holding the cut out parts. Thanks for the images they were helpful. I thought about not cutting the curves...thanks for showing me what that would look like. It doesn't look bad at all.
i also did one, (one of my very first pictures in the gallery) but mine was pretty big, 6 9x13 cakes. just taper the sides a little, it doesn't have to be as angled as the real thing. I also used a board for the deck, used a choc mold for the little airplains and made sailors manning the rails, That might be quite neat for a retirement cake, all the sailors. Ipiped them out of royal icing and they stood 1" high.
Great job this gives me a direction to go in...but I am not sure I could make all those men. lol
it wasn;t mine, i dont have a flickr account, but the sailors are real easy to make, it took 92 for my cake you would not need as many. i think i have a close up of them if you want to see.
guess i do have a flickr account after all, i forgot all about it.
i would have split each cake in half and iced 3 layers together then put a board with straws as supports.
As long as you have a few layers with boards & supports, the extra support should suffice for the overhang.
If you're still paranoid, you could do the end with the overhang in rice crispie cake (it's lighter & stronger), then attach it to the main cake with support dowels running horizontally through the cake to more crispie cake at the other end.
Bugger of a cake to do though, wouldn't be on the list of my most enjoyable cakes to do!
I decided on the top tier that I am just going to cover cardboard and do the overhangs out of that. I am making it out of 6 9x13 cakes but because I am tapering them in I wasn't sure how much support I need between each of those layers, I guess I could taper the cake boards in between but wasn't sure if boards in between was necessary.
I saw Jeff make one of these on the Ace of Cakes and even he had trouble with it. He used styrofoam for one end of the ship and he still had problems with the weight of the upper cake causing the cake to collapse. I would try to go for a design that has less tapering at the bottom of the ship.
Here is an awesome cake I saw on Flickr. Wish I knew how they did this one.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/carynscakes/3648047314/
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