Arrrrrr, Mateys! It be a Birthday Cake!

My son's birthday is this Wednesday. I decided to go for a pirate theme. I found this cake idea on the Betty Crocker website when I was searching for birthday cake ideas for my son last year. However, since he was only turning one year old last year, I didn't think he'd really appreciate the cake then. This year, on the other hand, he's all about the pirates and whenever you ask him what a pirate says, he will answer "Arrrrrrrrr!"

We celebrated his birthday at my mom's house tonight. I will be making another (much simpler) cake for our own small family celebration on Wednesday night). We also did a Caribbean themed dinner--which was fantastic--I'll be blogging those recipes very soon.

This cake doesn't really require a specific recipe...just a game plan and some creativity. I had so much fun making this cake. I was worried that it wouldn't work out, so I made some cupcakes too, but as you can see above, the cake turned out bee-yu-ti-fully. I'm really quite proud of it!

In addition to the Betty Crocker website, I did a Google search for "treasure chest birthday cakes" and found a plethora of ideas to draw from. Some people created cakes that were far too elaborate for my current skill level. There were adorable cakes and absolutely lifelike cakes too. Some people used frosting, and others used fondant. You could honestly go crazy with all of the options. And don't even get me started on pirate ship birthday cakes! If you do a search for those, you'll find a ton of cute cakes. But again, those ones surpassed my skill and energy level...at least for now!

I'll start by sharing the original Betty Crocker recipe and then I'll tell you what changes I made.

Have fun!

1/19/2011 Update:

Here is a picture of the much simplified treasure chest cake that I made on my son's actual birthday when we celebrated with my husband's side of the family:



Above: This is simply a Betty Crocker strawberry cake mix, topped with Duncan Hines whipped white frosting, sprinkled with the generic store-brand vanilla wafers that I made into "sand" by pulsing it in a blender, and topped with a tin treasure chest, coins, and beads that I purchased at a party store (Zurchers). Still pretty cute and a whole lot less time-consuming! Everyone really liked the addition of the vanilla wafers. As my husband pointed out, it is the perfect topping for people who aren't in love with frosting. The cake was still frosted, of course, but the vanilla wafers added a nice texture, a subtle sweetness, and a way to tone down the frosting a little bit.

Treasure Chest Cake

To see the recipe and picture on the Betty Crocker website, click here.

Brimming with candy coins and jewelry, this rich cake is a clever addition to a pirate-themed party.

Makes 15 servings.

Ingredients:

1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist chocolate fudge cake mix
Water, vegetable oil, and eggs called for on cake mix box
Tray, 24x20 inches
Yellow and orange paste food colors
1 container (1 lb) Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy creamy white frosting
Red pull-and-peel licorice
Gold foil-covered chocolate coins
Candy necklaces
Round hard candies
Gummy ring, halved

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit (325 degrees for dark or nonstick pan). Spray bottom only of 13x9 inch pan with baking spray with flour. Make and bake cake mix as directed on box for 13x9 inch pan, using water, oil, and eggs. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

From center of cake, cut one 3-inch crosswise strip. Cut the strip diagonally in half to make two 9-inch triangular wedges. (Discard 1 cake wedge or reserve for another use.)

On tray, place a 9x5 inch cake piece. Stir food colors into frosting to make a golden yellow.

Spread 1 tablespoon of frosting on 1 edge of triangular wedge of cake. Attach wedge, frosting side down, to 9x5 inch cake piece on tray, placing wedge along top edge of larger cake piece. Freeze all cake pieces 1 hour.

Spread 1 tablespoon of frosting on top edge of triangular wedge of cake. Attach remaining 9x5 inch cake piece to cake wedge to look like partially opened treasure chest. Spread remaining frosting over entire cake. Pull fork through frosting to look like wood grain.

Use pull-and-peel licorice to make handles and straps. Fill chest with chocolate coins, candy necklaces, and other hard candies. Add gummy ring half for clasp.

Tips: This treasure chest can be turned into a jewelry box for a princess party. Tint the frosting pink, and use colorful hard candies for gems and strings of candy for necklaces.

You can substitute a white cake mix for the chocolate.

Nutrition information: Calories: 350 (Calories from Fat 160), Total Fat: 18 g (Saturated Fat: 5 g, Trans Fat: 2 1/2 g), Cholesterol: 40 mg; Sodium: 360 mg; Total Carbohydrate: 5 g (Dietary Fiber: 0 g, Sugars: 33 g), Protein: 3 g.

Source: Betty Crocker website.

Notes: See my version of the recipe below.

Treasure Chest Cake--my version

Ingredients:

Betty Crocker cake mix of your choice (I used Devil's Food Cake since that's what I had in my pantry already)
Water, oil, and eggs called for on box
2 large containers of frosting (I used Duncan Hines chocolate frosting because it was the frosting that was on sale!), or homemade frosting of choice
Chocolate gold coins
Rolos
Ring Pops
Metallic beaded necklaces
1-2 rolls of Fruit by the Foot

Directions:

Bake cake according to package directions. Remember to coat pan with Pam Baking Spray with Flour.

Once cake is finished baking, turn over onto a foil-lined baking sheet and allow to cool completely.

Cut a 2-3 inch section out of the middle of the cake. Slice this section diagonally to create two wedges.

Before frosting the cake, experiment with the way you want to place the pieces so that it lays just right to look like a propped open treasure chest.

Place one half of the cake onto your tray, serving platter, or foil-lined baking sheet. Frost this piece. Place the two wedges on top of the cake to help prop up the other half of the cake. Frost these pieces, being very careful not to break the cake apart. This takes a lot of frosting and a careful touch so that you don't turn the wedges into crumbs. This doesn't have to look pretty and it doesn't have to be completely frosted--just enough so that it will hold the top half of the cake in place.

When you are finished frosting the wedges, place the remaining half of the cake on top. Frost the entire cake. Smooth out the frosting and then run a fork over the frosting to look like wood grains.

Cut the Fruit by the Foot to fit your cake. Wrap it around the cake (as shown in the picture) to look like leather chest binding. You can use a fork to push the Fruit by the Foot under the cake and under the top lid of the chest.

Press golden candy coins, Rolos, necklaces, and Ring Pops into the frosting to appear like they are spilling out of the treasure chest. Sprinkle any remaining candy and necklaces around the treasure chest on the tray.

Notes: When I looked at other versions of the treasure chest cake online, I decided that I liked the look of chocolate frosting better because it looked like darker wood...and because I love chocolate frosting on chocolate cake. I also opted to use Fruit by the Foot instead of licorice because I thought it would be easier to handle.

Speaking of handles...I was going to use canned black frosting to create a handle on the treasure chest, and then I decided to skip it altogether. It looks great without a handle anyway! I saw Rolos on another treasure cake picture I found online and liked the look of it because it looked like gold nuggets. We were going to do candy necklaces, but I was having a hard time finding them. I was starting to have second thoughts about whether this cake was going to work or not (I had visions of it crumbling into pieces as I tried to cut it into pieces and reassemble it), so I started looking around for pirate party stuff at a local party store (Zurchers). They had a bag of plastic gold coins and metallic necklaces for $5, so I bought that to use instead of the candy necklaces. Zurchers also had a little treasure map for $3 and I bought that to place the cake on. I figured that my son would have a good time playing with it afterward anyway.

I originally planned to make homemade frosting...but let's face it, life is busy and I'm also pregnant. With a busy Saturday ahead of me combined with pregnancy exhaustion, I had a hunch that I might not want to make homemade frosting. Sure enough, after getting my son to bed later than usual (we've been transitioning him from his crib to a toddler bed), I broke out the canned frosting that I had bought on sale just in case.

I like the notes at the bottom of the Betty Crocker recipe. If I ever have a daughter, it would be fun to make a jewelry box cake. You could use a strawberry cake mix and strawberry canned frosting.

This really was so fun to make. I had a blast doing it...and when I finished...I just stared and stared. I was so proud of myself! Besides, don't we all have a fixation with pirate treasure?