I'm going to be making my son his birthday cake, a pirate ship!!
But I need the cake to be vegan, or egg free.. and hold shape!
Every egg free cake ive made (i use banana rather then egg) always it mushy and falls apart which wouldnt work at all for a pirate ship shaped cake!

so if anyone recommends
please help

Here's a link to the CC recipes that are egg free. Theres also suggestions on what to use as an egg replacer. When you check the recipes, be sure to read the reviews or lack of as some are successful, some are not.

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/category/egg-free-cakes

You might want to check out this egg replacer that seems to be popular also. There's recipes on the site as well.

http://www.ener-g.com/egg-replacer.html

I have made egg free cakes and have found that most of the egg free recipes are just too dense. I have found that if I use a regular recipe, but substitute eggs with applesauce, it not only comes out like cake, but extremely moist and flavorful

I have dairy and egg allergies, and I use the ener-g egg replacer when I bake for our home. In most things it works well, although I have had a few problems once in a while (but usually with brownies, not cake).

I do have a good chocolate recipe (the wacky cake or depression era cake or dump cake I've heard it called). Unfortunately, I find that it's not great for sculpting. I made a ship out of it for my husband's 40th birthday party and the whole back end of it fell apart. I've tried using it for a tiered cake, and had some sinking issues there too. Delicious, but not sturdy!

I have used this recipe for both vegan and egg-free cakes with great success. I bake in pans that are 3-inches high. If I only need it to be egg-free and not vegan, I use regular butter, any type of milk I have on hand, and real sour cream. It does sink slightly in the middle, but once you trim off the top, it looks perfect and is very easy to work with. I think it should do fine for carving.

Vegan Vanilla Sour Cream Cake

Ingredients
1 cup soy butter (Earth Balance is best)
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups unbleached flour
3 tsp non-aluminum baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup soymilk (or ricemilk)
1/2 cup vegan sour cream (tofutti is vegan, look for non-hydrogenated)
9 tsp Ener-G egg replacer powder
12 Tbsp warm water.

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare pans as desired.In mixer, cream soy butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 7 8 min.Mix Egg replacer and warm water. Beat until frothy. Add to mixer.Beat in vanilla.Mix flour with baking powder and salt in separate bowl.Add dry to creamed mixutre alternately with soymilk and sour cream. Begin and end with dry.Spoon into pans. Bake for approx. 25 35 minutes, until cake tests done.** Please dont over mix the batter which is very bad for vegan baking. **(Please PM me if you have any trouble.) )Tofutti makes both hydrogenated and non-hydrogenated sour creams and cream cheese. The flavors are very similar to dairy versions.

I appriciate all the help!

I wasnt able to find ener G but I got this egg replacer by Bob Red Mills

i hope it works

im doing a test cake tonight

thanks again

I'm pretty sure this is the recipe I use. I'm too lazy tonight to get up and get my recipe book. Anyway, I've made this several times with no problems. I've made them as regular cupcakes and using the Wilton pan for small doll cakes (the cavities look kind of cone shaped. I can't think of the proper name for the pan right now.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/magazine/08food-t-001.html

For fondant: powdered food coloring (check the label) and I just found some vegan marshmallow cream in the gluten-free section of a local health food grocery store. The powdered sugar I use has nothing offensive to vegans in it so I'm going to try making a batch of MMF with it this week.

For the frosting, vegetable shortening, powdered sugar, and flavoring are all that is needed.

Oh! It is a bit soft so you may want to add a little more flour to it.