Hi, there!

This is my first post and cake on Cakes Decor and I’m excited to share it with you. I’m a self-taught, novice baker and decorator who, for about 18 months made a “go” of the home business aspect only to realize that the hours were horrible and the pay even worse! And so I have decided to return to caking for my family and very-select group of friends. Much less stressful.

This cake was for my 6-year old son whose party was pirate-themed, complete with treasure hunt. I was so incredibly pleased with the final look. I sort of just plowed through it with only a glance at a couple of tutorials that gave some basic tips. Ultimately, it was a case of trial and error and, fortunately for me, it turned out well. I wish I’d thought to document the progress but, when I am “in the zone” I don’t often stop to snap photos. I did use, if I recall, one 9″×13″ pan which I cut into two layers plus a little extra to create the slope for the top layer, which was baked in a loaf pan and split and filled.

The bottom layer was chocolate and the top was vanilla, both gluten-free and both filled with SMBC (my new love). They were then covered in a layer of butter cream, smoothed and finished with homemade MMF and painted with diluted gel paste coloring to get the wood-grain effect. The map was made of MMF and drawn on with edible markers and the lettering was hand-cut.

Thank you!