this cake turned out to be a monstrosity! It was REALLY heavy and took quite some work to fit in the fridge until the pick up. There were several layers of cake (white cake with buttercream for the birthday boy) to build up the body of the ship. The top backside of the ship is rice krispies covered and decorated to match the cake. The masts were made out of fondant that were dried and hardened. I wanted the ship to look as "ship-like" as possible so I cut out individual slats of fondant that I mixed to look like wood and then placed them on after covering the whole cake in fondant. Then I painted on a darker shade of brown food coloring, kind of like staining wood. The treasure chest was made out of fondant as was the pirate. This was definitely a challenge but was so exciting to finish.