Pirate Chest Birthday Cake

Did you  know that we have a pirate in our family?  Well, we do.  Our 3 year old thinks he IS a pirate.  He wears a pirate hat EVERY DAY!  He cries when he has to take it to go to places where pirate hats are unacceptable like bed or church.  We read pirate books and sing pirate songs and watch pirate movies.  He even speaks in pirate.

And of course we have all kinds of pirate things to wear:

So when this little pirate turned 3, the choice of a birthday cake was easy.

As always I turned to Family Fun for my cake ideas and found THIS.

And I turned around and made this:

I think it turned out really cute. BUT I'll have you know that chocolate gold coins are impossible to find around here! And when I did finally find them in the bulk section at the 4th store I went to--they were THE MOST EXPENSIVE CANDY THEY SOLD!!! $9.99/lb!!! Its a good thing I found some gold rolo candy to make up the bulk of the gold and then interspersed a few gold coins here and there--cause they were not cheap or thrifty people! But I love my pirate--and so I bought them anyways.

I changed up from the instructions for the strapping on the chest--they have you using fruit by the foot which I didn't like the looks of--so I melted a few kraft carmels and rolled them out and cut them to look like leather straps.   

Then I used colored sixlets for the studs. If I were to do this again, I think I would use whoppers or something brown so it would look more authentic and less colorful.

 

But our little pirate LOVED his cake and that is all that matters.

And I just have to take a moment and tease my hubby (because sometimes he sneakily reads my blog) that once again he has cut off my head in every single picture he took of the birthday party.  Its a good thing I know he loves me or a girl might get a complex of so many years of being headless in all the pictures he takes.  And that is why, my friends, that I am the picture taker in our family.   :o)

Happy Birthday to my little pirate!