Jen's Crafts and Cakes: The Caribbean Clipper

Ever since he was a kid my husband has loved LEGO. Recently he has gotten re-excited about it, and now not only him, but our two boys are also avid collectors. Markus dug out all his old LEGO and he and the boys spend hours building fire stations, airplanes, gold mines etc. There is LEGO all over the house. Not even kidding. We even have LEGO Duplo, and Mega Blocks for our 2 year old. And they are all over the house as well, but at least they are easier to pick up. I enjoy LEGO as well, although when I was growing up we didn't have the fancy sets, just the good old fashion blocks, a few windows and doors. This puts me at a bit of a disadvantage, since I'm the one that has to put the garbage truck back together if Seth is having trouble with it and Markus is at work. The last time I tried to fix it I pushed too hard in the wrong spot and the whole thing fell apart. Seth was not impressed.

And ever since Markus was a kid he always wanted to build the LEGO ships. With this new found excitement for LEGO he has decided now is the time to start. Currently we have 2 LEGO ships sitting on the mantle and 4 or 5 (that I know about!) waiting to be assembled. I can't wait to see where he puts the one that is 3 feet long.

Since his birthday was coming up I decided to replicate one of these ships, the LEGO Caribbean Clipper, in to a cake. Looking back I probably could have picked something a little easier, like a LEGO block! It didn't start our very well. I didn't make the fondant sails in time to let them dry properly and so I had to make paper ones. Then getting the icing to stick to the freshly cut, boat hull was another issue. And with Seth leaning over my shoulder saying "I don't know if it is going to work Mom." over and over again until I sent him to bed I was beginning to think the whole thing was going to be a disaster! Luckily it started to come together and in the end it didn't look to bad. I ended up borrowing Seth's canons and ladder from his ship and the soldier mini figures from the Clipper. Sleep is more important then fondant canons to me these days!

Seth critiqued it in the morning and let me know what I was missing. Like the ladder, which he let me borrow. And he really thought there should be stairs for the captain to get up to the steering wheel (there is probably a ship word for that...). I convinced him they were on the inside.