How to Make a Pirate Birthday Cake

If you are planning a Pirate theme party for your child, this page will help you find many great cake and cupcake ideas that will have your guests yelling, "Shiver me timbers" this is good stuff!

The most popular cake designs for a Pirate party are a Treasure Chest Cake, Pirate Ship Cake and a Pirate Treasure Island cake. I will provide a photo gallery of these cake designs below as well as complete recipe instructions to create some of these cakes.

You will also find cake toppers, edible cake images, cupcake picks, cake kits and other items to help put the finishing touches on your birthday cake. While you are here, check out the links below to many fun and unique Pirate birthday party supplies.

If you are hosting a Pink PIrate birthday party, please visit my Pink Skull Birthday Cakes and Cupcakes page!

Photo Acknowledgement: All of the flickr photos displayed on this page have either a Creative Commons license or I have received written permission from the cake decorator to display their photos here. In either case, you will find a link back to the flickr members photos as required for use. A BIG thank you to all of the cake decorators for permission to use their photos!

• Adventure Cake Topper
• Pirate Ship Cake Pan
• Pirate Hat Cupcake Rings
• Skull Edible Cake Image
• Pirate Island Cake Kit

Pirate Cake & Cupcake Supplies

The Pirate Treasure Chest cake is one of the most popular Pirate party cake designs. There are many ways in which you can create a treasure chest birthday cake. One of the best features of a treasure chest cake is all of the fun Pirate loot you get to fill it with!

Treasure Chest Cake
This treasure chest cake by Family Fun is designed using one 13 X 9 cake and edible treasures, such as chocolate coins, Rolo candies, chocolate almond kisses or Necco Wafers. It is finished off with fruit by the roll and mini jawbreakers to create the hinges. Visit Family Fun for the complete recipe instructions to create this Treasure Chest cake.

Treasure Chest Birthday Cake
This treasure chest cake recipe is provided courtesy of the Taste of Home. It uses two 13 X 9 cakes with a frosted cardboard lid held in place with skewers. It is then decorated with lots of Pirate goodies including fruit roll-ups to create the keyhole and hinges.

Pirate-Treasure-Chest
Treasure chest birthday cake was created by Special Cakes by Tracey. The details in this cake are amazing. The cake was finished off with a Pirate on top.

These are just a few of the different Treasure Chest cakes you can make for your child's Pirate party. While the basic techniques used are quite similar, each of the finished cakes have a unique look. You can have a chest that is completely open and filled with pirate loot or a chest that is almost completely closed with some of the loot falling out. Or, you can meet somewhere in the middle and have the chest partially open. Some items you can add into your chest include: edible chocolate coins, gold coins that are not edible, candy necklaces, real costume jewelry, real candies and more. Just be sure to remove all non-edible items before serving the cake.

Decorating Tip: To achieve the look of old boards or wood, run a fork or butter knife through the frosting. This will give the chest a rustic look.

Pirate ship cakes are always a huge hit! There are so many ways in which you can create a terrific Pirate ship cake. Below you will find recipes, photos and decorating kits so you can make one of these cool cakes.

The cake pictured here is courtesy of Family Fun. This cake is created using two round cakes cut in half to form the base of the ship, wafer sticks to make the gunwales, wafer rolls for canons and paper with skewers to make the ship's mast.

Click here for the full recipe instructions for this fun Pirate Ship cake!

There is also a Pirate ship cake kit available that would help you make your birthday cake. This cake is easy to make yourself using two quarter sheet cakes and sturdy re-usable action figures and toppers. Simply cut the cakes into pieces and stack. Then, add frosting, pipe on the details and place the kit pieces into place. Make the same cake found in expensive bakeries with this kit!

Pull apart cakes, also known as cupcake cakes or pull away cakes, are the latest trend in cake decorating. They are basically individual cupcakes iced and decorated to look like one cake. Once the cake is ready to be served, you simply pull apart the cupcakes and hand them out to the guests.

The two Pirate theme cupcake cakes displayed here were created by Christina & Shayrin of Cupcakes Nouveau. One is a cool pirate island cake featuring a treasure chest, pirate map and skulls & crossbones. The other cupcake cake is a fun pirate face.

You can see more of their beautiful cake and cupcake creations by visiting their flickr photo gallery as well as their website. Enjoy!

Click here to learn how to create a Cupcake Cake for your next birthday celebration!

Pirate Island cakes are very simple to create. Simply bake a basic sheet cake and then decorate half of the cake with blue icing for the water. Swirl the icing around so that it resembles the ocean. Then, decorate the other half of the cake for the beach/sand. Some ideas for the sand include light brown sugar or honey graham crackers crumbled up very fine. You could also make a small island in the ocean area if you chose. Once you have designed the ocean and sand, then you can decorate the cake with pirate figures and pirate loot.

If your child is having a Pirates of the Caribbean birthday party, here are some more cake ideas. The first is a topper set that comes complete with Jack Sparrow and Will Turner figurines, a ship’s wheel, and a 3 piece railing set. You simply bake a sheet cake and then top with these cool decorations. You can place the ship on blue frosting to make it appear as if it is out at sea.

The next is a Pirates of the Caribbean cupcake decorating package. They have everything you will need to create awesome cupcakes for your child's Pirates birthday party. Included in the package is: (9) Re-Usable Cupcake Pics, 1 Jar GOLD Sparkly Sanding Sugars, 1 Red Writing-Decorating Gel-in-a-Tube, 1 Black Writing-Decorating Gel-in-a-Tube and (9) Sea Shell Edible Hard Sugar Decorations. All you need to do is bake the cupcakes and start decorating!

Lastly, there are edible cake images. These toppers are very simple to apply to any cake. They are available in lots of fun designs and can even be personalized with your child's name and age. Learn how to use edible cake images.

There is a Little Pirate cake pan #2105-2078 from Wilton that was released in 1993. It is discontinued, however, it is still available for purchase online. You can create a fun Little Pirate cake for your child's birthday party using this pan. Click here for full recipe instructions to make this cake.

Cake #1: Sandra's Cakes
Cake #2: Linzi's Cakes
Cake #3: Special Cakes by Tracey
Cake #4: Cakes by Sugar Girl
Cake #5: Rosangela
Cake #6: Special Cakes by Tracey
Cake #7: Cake Journal
Cake #8: kellannfuller
Cake #9: Cre8acake
Cake #10: Rosangela