Pirate Cake

I was shown this as an inspiration for the birthday cake I was going to make for my 6 year old brother. He wanted a pirate themed cake and liked the look of this one. So did I as it looks really fun and is covered in sweets and icing!

Pirate Cake from Betty Crocker Recipes

The recipe was on the Betty Crocker sight to used their boxed cake mix and ready made butter icing. I made the cake and icing myself and modified the variety of sweets used. The cake and icing recipes are on this post.

To Assemble the Pirate Cake
The following instructions were taken and edited from the Betty Crocker website.
About 2  double fruit winders or other for red stripes
1 pack strawberry (or other reddish fruit) laces
1 marshmallow
1 miniature blue chocolate bean/smartie
Chocolate disk for eye patch
Chocolate flavour sugar strands
Print out the template from here and cut the cake out as it says.
Cover a large board with foil or use a 16"rectangular cake board. First ice the body using the white icing. Be careful not to get crumbs in the icing so lay on a lot and spread it out with a small palette knife. Lay it at the bottom of the board.
Next ice the head using the skin tone icing, stick on the ears and ice over them too. Then ice the nose, stick it on the face a smooth the icing down so it sticks. Place on the tray above the body.
Spread the chocolate icing over the hat shape. This is a bit stiffer than the others so a bit tricky! You can dip the palette knife in hot water to smooth over the icing when you've got it on.
Now decorate! Lay strips of the fruit winders over the body and cut to size. Use twisted laces for the mouth, hat band, earring and eye patch band. Stick on the chocolate disk for the eye patch with a little icing. Cut the marshmallow in half and stick on the chocolate bean for the eye. Sprinkle over chocolate strands for stubble, using a little more icing to stick on.
Everyone will enjoy the delicious cake!

What would you have as your themed birthday cake?