Ahoy there, me hearties!

On Valentine's Day our school had a Pirate Picnic for the whole school and all the whānau.  It was a stunning day... clear blue skies... warm but not stifling... and everyone was in good spirits. 

We had boat rides with a 'real' pirate... at least he looked pretty real to the kids!  Thankfully Captain Ron didn't make any of them walk the plank :)

A few of us got together and decided to do a 'bring a plate' style picnic and share our goodies... and considering it had been a while since I'd made any cupcakes I thought I'd bring something sweet.

I did a bit of Googling and came across a few ideas that appealed... colours from one idea... sprinkles from another... and fondant embellishments from a couple of others... and here's what I came up with:

I had a lot of fun making these cupcakes... in fact I often refer to cupcakes as my 'first love' in the kitchen!

These ones were a classic vanilla cupcake with buttercream frosting.  If you don't know the secret to a really creamy, silky buttercream... it's a good BEATING!  I usually whip my butter for a good 10 to 15 minutes in my KitchenAid until the butter is fluffy and almost white.  Then I add my icing sugar in two batches with even more whipping before finishing off with a small amount of liquid to get the right consistency... usually milk or cream... sometimes alcohol lol  

Since these ones were for a school event there was no alcohol... but imagine adding a bit of rum to make them really Piratey!!  

Cakes made and cooled... big fluffy swirls of buttercream on top... and then I added some 'treasure' aka sugar pearls and glitter.

 

Before I made the cakes I'd worked on some fondant decorations... I decided on a treasure map and a pirate hat.  This was made MUCH easier because I was able to make myself some small cutters on my 3D printer.

First of all I coloured some fondant with Colour Mill Pebble and then rolled it out and cut it with my new treasure map cutter. 

I decided it needed a little bit of depth... plus I just like using my air brush... so a bit of brown around the edges was added.

To create the actual 'map' I made myself a mini stencil using acetate... it worked brilliantly!  First the black.

 

Followed by some red to mark the spot:

The maps looked a little 'flat' so I grabbed some chopsticks and bent the maps over them.  The fondant started to crack a little  which initially bothered me... until I realised it just made them look even more rustic!

Next I moved onto cutting out some pirate hats from black fondant. p.s. just in case you didn't know (thanks Google) A pirate hat is commonly called a tricorne hat. It has a triangular shape with three points and a wide brim.

I decided the little tricorne's needed a bit of movement as well so I used a few more chopsticks, but they seemed 'flat' in a different way so I added a brush of edible gold paint.

 

The next morning I realised that the cross bones didn't really stand out so I added a small piece of white fondant behind it... what a difference!

 

So... back to the cupcakes which had buttercream and 'treasure' and now it was time for the maps and tricornes!

The picnic was awesome... the tamariki all had a wonderful day playing, swimming, going on the boat and of course eating (which is what picnics are all about after all).

Thanks for stopping by
Shelley