Viking Ship

Alex likes anything Viking, or so I'm told. Considering his stature, I could see him as a Viking from long ago with the horned helmet, pillaging the country side or on a ship similar to this one... The original thought was to make the ship out of cake, but after researching long boats, I found that they are very long, very narrow, and very shallow. Let's face it, these dimensions are not very cake friendly. Instead we decided to make the "ocean" out of cake, carrot that is, and the ship out of gum paste. The cake was a home-made, from-scratch recipe I decided to try for the occasion, and the cream cheese icing as well. No store-bought here!

I made a negative mold for the boat out of cardboard, fashioning the head, tail, and hull with carving tools. I took a knife down the length of the ship for the boards and painted away. I decided to cheat a little and made the sail out of some white fabric and a bamboo skewer. The ropes are out of #10 cotton yarn in the natural color.

I got a call to say that Alex loved his cake, and the beautiful part about it all is that he can keep the ship for his collection!