This cake was made for a retirement party, after the Barefoot Princess was sold to new owners. I did my best to make the cake look as much like the real boat as I could, and learned a lot from the process.
This is what the actual boat looks like. Three levels, two enclosed, with the pilot house and smoke stacks on top.
I used three 9×13 inch cake pans, baked different flavors…chocolate, yellow and cinnamon. Cake boards are separating all of the tiers with dowel rods placed in the cake for added support. I used a round cookie cutter for the smoke stacks, and a square fondant cutter for the pilot house. I used chocolate icing tinted with black food coloring on the bottom, along with the other accents in black.
To secure the smoke stacks and pilot house to the cake, I used small wooden skewers and punched them through the cake and cake boards. Unfortunately though, while hammering the stick through the pilot house, it caused the cake to sink down in the back part, causing the pilot house to be slightly slanted. We said that the boat is a “racing” riverboat, topping speeds of 9 mph. Watch out!
The letters on the back were made out of fondant. I bought the pre-colored yellow fondant, rolled it out, and cut the letters using the fondant letter cutters. Then outlined the letters in black to match the writing on the back of the boat.
My mother-in-law suggested the Bon Voyage, since it was for a retirment party…perfect! I added the blue icing for more effect and to make the boat look like it was cruising town the river. Next time I make a cake like this, I’ll use bigger pans to evenly distrubute the pilot house and smoke stacks, and also to have more room to add railings around the outside of the boat. Bon Voyage, Barefoot Princess!
