Pirate Ship Cake

I was so proud of myself for making this cake for Jakey's first birthday. I'm not a great "baker" and my cakes never turn out, so I pretty much gave up on them a long time ago. I've never made Hailee a birthday cake, I always buy them or have someone else make them for me. I decided I'm going to start trying to make my own kids birthday cakes. You know, just one of those things that makes me feel like a better mom, as irrational as that may be. Anyway, I loved how this one turned out!
It was actually pretty simple. I got the idea on the internet and then made some improvisations. Here are the steps:

1. Bake cake according to package directions in two round cake pans.
2. While cake is baking, frost the bottom of a cookie sheet with blue frosting for the water and position Swedish Fish and/or Gummy Sharks around.
3. When cake is cool, cut each circle in half.
4. Use frosting to "glue" each half circle together to make a boat shape. Cut a tiny bit off the bottom so it will stand upright.
5. Frost the top and sides and transfer to frosted cookie sheet.
6. Use "pirrohette" cookies around the edges of the top to form a "wooden railing". Pipe more frosting around the top of the cookies to add a second layer of cookies.
7. Insert Swiss Rolls or Ho Ho's with straws into the side of the ship to form "cannons".
8. Punch holes into white cardstock and slide a straw through to form the "sails".
9. Decorate the top of the cake with a pile of Nestle Treasures for "treasure chests", a pile of Whoppers for "cannon balls" and toy pirate figurines. I also put a pirate bracelet across the front for decoration.

Just have fun with it and good luck!