hey everyone

here is my first pirate ship cake ( actually, my first 3d carved cake ever! )

i was dissapointed in the fact that my cake wasn't heavy enough ( i thought it would be because i used the same recipe for my brother's 3 tier wedding cake ) but after i carved it and put the buttercream in, i put the fondant on & it started to droop to one side. i had to use some plastic dowels to hold up one side, which i covered with 'sand' and 'happy birthday' sign.

i also made a gumpaste pirate but he was cartoonish and didnt quite go with the look of the cake so i didn't put him on =(

anyways, let me know what you guys think or what i should fix/do for next time!

Wow that's amazing, congratulations 100%

Love the wood grain. It's more realistic and less "cartoon-ey." I think the sand adds a great touch and you'd never know there was a problem under there.

thank you djor & bellatheball!

the wood grain was actually so easy and i'm pretty happy with how realistic it looks! =) thanks for your compliments

do you mind sharing your skills with making your wood grain???
It looks fab!!!

do you mind sharing your skills with making your wood grain???
It looks fab!!!

do you mind sharing your skills with making your wood grain???
It looks fab!!!

That is a fantastic cake!!! The wood grain came out awesome, love it!!!

I think it looks fabulous too...your wood grain work is awesome!!! Love the little parrot too!!!

The wood grain is perfectly achieved. The overall look is well done.

wow =) thank you everyone!

here's how i achieved the wood grain look:

i covered the entire cake in a thin layer of fondant. then i cut strips of all different lengths and used one of my pointed plastic tools (i don't know what it's called, sorry!) and carved lines in the strips and some had circles like wood grain has.. note that at this point, the fondant is white. i attached the fondant stripes to the cake with a bit of water and then poked 2 holes at each end of each piece of wood to make it look like nail holes..

then, i mixed brown wilton gel coloring with a little bit of vanilla (i didn't have any everclear with me) and painted short strokes with a paint brush. then i mixed more brown with even less vanilla to get a darker brown and went over a few spots to make the wood look more realistic.

i'm glad everyone enjoyed it =) and if you do some wood on your own cake with this technique i'd LOVE to see it!!