This easy pirate themed cake complete with ocean themed watercolour buttercream, pirate cake topper and ocean creature decorations is perfect for a pirate party!
Yesterday I shared a fun octopus vegetable platter with you, and today I'm continuing the pirate party theme, with my easy pirate themed cake recipe. This fun cake is easy to make but looks really impressive - it certainly went down very well with my 6 year old little pirate anyway!
I used a watercolour style technique of mixed colours for the buttercream icing. It's much easier to achieve than it looks at first glance, I promise!
The great thing about this cake is that the icing is representing the ocean waves so it doesn't have to be smooth or perfect - ideal for a VERY amateur cake decorator like me!
I decorated the cake with plastic ocean animal toys and a pirate ship decoration that I bought specially for the occasion. I'm a great fan of quick and easy and this is one of my favourite methods for decorating a simple birthday cake. The birthday child gets to keep the decorations afterwards as a bonus present too, which always goes down well!
Easy Ocean Pirate Themed Cake
Ingredients:
For the cake:
- 300g butter (softened)
- 300g golden caster sugar
- 6 eggs
- 300g self-raising flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 3 Tbsp milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
To decorate:
- 375g butter
- 750g icing sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- blue and green gel food colourings
- ½ jar seedless raspberry jam (optional)
Plastic decorations:
Method:
Preheat your oven to 190°C (Gas mark 5/375°F). Grease and line 3 x 20cm round cake tins (shallow sandwich tins are ideal).
Place the butter and caster sugar in a large bowl and whisk together until well combined and fluffy.
Add the six eggs, two at a time, whisking after you add each pair.
Once the eggs have all been whisked in, add the flour, baking powder, milk and vanilla. Whisk again until fully combined.
Divide the mixture between the 3 tins, gently smoothing the tops down with a spatula.
Bake in the pre-heated oven for around 20 minutes, until the cakes are golden and springy to the touch.
Turn the cakes out onto cooling racks and leave to cool completely before icing.
Whilst the cakes are cooling, prepare the buttercream icing.
Whisk the butter until soft and fluffy. Add the icing sugar, a little at a time, whisking as you go until completely combined. Add the vanilla extract and whisk again until combined.
Remove approx 300g of the buttercream icing and pop it into a separate bowl - this will be used to fill the cake.
Remove another 300g of the icing - this will be used for the crumb coating.
Colour two-thirds of the remaining icing blue, and the remaining third green.
When ready to assemble, secure one of the cakes onto a cake board with a little of the buttercream icing.
Spread over half of the buttercream icing you set aside for filling, and top with a couple of spoonfuls of raspberry jam (optional). Add a second cake and repeat the buttercream and jam filling, then top with the third and final cake.
Using a palate knife, spread the buttercream that you set aside for the crumb coating all over the cake. If you have a cake turntable, this will really help you to get an even coat. Spinning the cake slowly, use a large cake scraper to even out the sides.
Once the cake is covered in the crumb coating, dab small amounts of green icing all over the cake. Continue with the blue icing, until the whole cake is covered in dabs of blue and green buttercream. Using the cake scraper, smooth the icing until roughly even and blended together. Bear in mind you're going for an ocean effect so it doesn't have to be perfectly smooth.
Decorate the cake with the plastic sea creature toys. I pushed my ocean creatures into the buttercream around the base of the cake, and added an octopus to the top.
Finish with the pirate ship topper. I used my palette knife to swirl a little extra of the buttercream around the boat to cover up the base of the topper.
Serve and enjoy!
If you enjoyed this pirate cake recipe, do check out these other pirate inspired recipes too - they'd all be perfect for a pirate party for kids!
Or for more easy children's cake ideas, check out the Cakes and Cupcakes section here on the blog.
Grace
Easy Pirate Ship Themed Cake
Equipment
- cake turntable
- large cake scraper
- palette knife
- pirate ship cake topper
- set of ocean animal plastic toys
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 300 g butter softened
- 300 g golden caster sugar
- 6 eggs
- 300 g self-raising flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 3 Tbsp milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
To decorate:
- 375 g butter
- 750 g icing sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- blue and green gel food colourings
- ½ jar seedless raspberry jam optional
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 190°C (Gas mark 5/375°F). Grease and line 3 x 20cm round cake tins (shallow sandwich tins are ideal).
- Place the butter and caster sugar in a large bowl and whisk together until well combined and fluffy.
- Add the six eggs, two at a time, whisking after you add each pair.
- Once the eggs have all been whisked in, add the flour, baking powder, milk and vanilla. Whisk again until fully combined.
- Divide the mixture between the 3 tins, gently smoothing the tops down with a spatula.
- Bake in the pre-heated oven for around 20 minutes, until the cakes are golden and springy to the touch.
- Turn the cakes out onto cooling racks and leave to cool completely before icing.
- Whilst the cakes are cooling, prepare the buttercream icing.
- Whisk the butter until soft and fluffy. Add the icing sugar, a little at a time, whisking as you go until completely combined. Add the vanilla extract and whisk again until combined.
- Remove approx 300g of the buttercream icing and pop it into a separate bowl - this will be used to fill the cake.
- Remove another 300g of the icing - this will be used for the crumb coating.
- Colour two-thirds of the remaining icing blue, and the remaining third green.
- When ready to assemble, secure one of the cakes onto a cake board with a little of the buttercream icing.
- Spread over half of the buttercream icing you set aside for filling, and top with a couple of spoonfuls of raspberry jam (optional). Add a second cake and repeat the buttercream and jam filling, then top with the third and final cake.
- Using a palate knife, spread the buttercream that you set aside for the crumb coating all over the cake. If you have a cake turntable, this will really help you to get an even coat. Spinning the cake slowly, use a large cake scraper to even out the sides.
- Once the cake is covered in the crumb coating, dab small amounts of green icing all over the cake. Continue with the blue icing, until the whole cake is covered in dabs of blue and green buttercream. Using the cake scraper, smooth the icing until roughly even and blended together. Bear in mind you're going for an ocean effect so it doesn't have to be perfectly smooth.
- Decorate the cake with the plastic sea creatures and top with the pirate ship decoration. I pushed my ocean creatures into the buttercream around the base of the cake, and added an octopus to the top.
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