A Pirate's Life for Me

Ahoy, Mateys!  We set sail on the Never Seas this past weekend to celebrate Monkey's 3rd birthday.  While I HATED baking BK (before kids), becoming Mom has awakened my panache for ganache ;) My first love will always be cupcakes, but my recent favorite,cake pops, made their debut for our "Jake and the NeverLand Pirates" bash.  The initial idea for the cake pops came from Pinterest, but I took it one step further with the help of my very handy, artsy and crafty hubby.  I present to you our swashbuckling crew o' cake pops!

Here's the whole crew!

Directions for Cake Pops:

I used the Hello, Cupcake (my personal baking bible) from scratch vanilla cupcake recipe (you can use any cake flavor) along with my cake pop maker. I found one at Macy's for super cheap after Christmas, and I am glad I invested in it.  There's no way I'm making cake pops the "real" way! After making the cake pops, make sure you freeze them for a few hours with the sticks inserted. They are much easier to decorate!!

Supplies for Pirate Pops:

-red melting chocolates (vanilla flavor)

-white melting chocolates (vanilla flavor)

-"creamy peach" gel food coloring (Wilton) 

-black icing decorator in tube

-small edible pearlized sprinkles

-lollipop sticks

Begin by melting the white chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave, according to package directions, to make the flesh colored layer for the cake pops.  Once chocolate is melted, add a SMALL amount of the creamy peach gel food coloring.  I used only the tip of a wooden skewer, dipped it in the jar with a small layer on the tip and stirred it in -  and that was all I needed for the flesh color.  Stir thoroughly into the melted chocolate.  Dip the frozen cake pops into the flesh colored chocolate and swirl around to cover completely.  At this point, as I finished each pop, I stuck them  into the already-assembled pirate ship for the cake pops to set in the refrigerator. I let the first layer sit overnight in the fridge to harden.  For the next step, melt the red chocolate wafers just as you did the white.  This time only stick the cake pops half way in to the red melted chocolate to achieve the "bandana" effect of the pirate hat.  Once the red is put on, immediately add on the small pearlized sprinkles all over the red chocolate to make the polka-dots. I did this by hand, one at a time.  At this time, I also drew the faces using the black gel icing.  Once completed, refrigerate again until it's time to PARTY!!

Pirate Ship Supplies and Instructions:

-Darice 3-D Foam Pirate Ship kit

-2 small rectangle floral styrofoam blocks

-straight pins

-glue for foam pieces on ship

I enlisted the help of my incredibly handy hubby to make the pirate ship.  He had to rubber band the floral foam together, glue WILL NOT WORK!  He built the pirate ship around the foam and also cut the foam down to the shape of the boat.  You will have to pin the pieces of the boat to the styrofoam because glue will not hold.

Cupcakes:

I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with "Almost Homemade Buttercream" Frosting, again from Hello, Cupcake.  The frosting is made from marshmallow fluff, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. I added blue food coloring until I got the color I wanted for ocean waves.  I piped it on with a #5 tip, added the "Pirates of the Caribbean" cake decorations from Wilton and Voila! Cupcakes worth losing your hand to the Tic-Toc Croc over!!

If you're looking to plan a ship-shape bash for your little swashbuckler, I hope you find some helpful hints :)  If you do use something, let me know how it turned out!


UPDATE: As of publishing week, May 21, 2012:  If you're looking for some fun add-ons to your pirate bash, check out the Dollar Stop at Target.  I went a week too late for our party, but was able to find fun thank you cards.  It's FULL of fun pirate theme things great for goodie bags, gifts for your pirate, etc!  

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