Pirate Ship Cake

Step 3: Frosting Time

Now you just frost and add some jewels and finishing touches. For the jewels I used M&Ms. For the rails of the ship I used cereal straws since they are cheaper then Pirouettes.

Comments

[talonsblade]

my wife has started to make cakes for special events, the part we always have problems with is smoothing the icing. most recipes say to use fondue but we hate fondant. you didnt use fondant and your icing looks great so whats your secret for smoothing out the icing?

[Gothbunny]

Make sure your frosting is light and fluffy and to check that get a big scoop on a knife and fling it onto your cake, if it comes off easily then you are good. Then get a cup of hot water and dip your knife in it.

Do not do that when you are doing a crumb coating though. Your crumb coating should be thin but not wet as you want that to harden over the crumbs to keep it out of the frosting.

Also, use a lot, it makes things easier. Think of painting over a dark color, you wouldn't use a thin coat to cover it, you would use a thick coat, same for frosting. One of my favorite frostings is from kraftfoods.com, look up fluffy coconut frosting. I just don't use the coconut, but this is one of the more tasty frostings I have used!

Let me know if you have any other questions =)

PS - do you know the paper trick when baking your cake? take just plain printer paper and put it on the bottom of your cake pan and pour your batter right ontop of it. you don't have to grease because the paper absorbs the oil and your cake will come right out, just be careful pulling the paper off so you don't rip a corner off!

Hope that helps, have fun baking!