Aaargh! Tis the pirate!

Talk like a pirate challenge: accepted! 19 September be always a favourite on me calendar – International Talk Like a Pirate Day! 
If you haven’t discovered this website already, it be worth a look – me fav part be t' pirate translator. (I actually once even submitted a resignation in pirate speak … ) "

So talk like a pirate day was on t' Sunday, and I had it all ready t' take into work on t' Monday – except I forgot t' brin' t' cake! Whoops! T' one bonus was this did give me time t' track down a gold doubloons – t' piece de resistance that me bucko in Canberra didn’t quite manage. 
In all modesty, I officially award meself t' winner in t' challenge, for findin' t' starboard piece o' eight, and t' special ‘Freddo o' t' sea’ insignia on pirate’s hat! "

Duh.... I'm the captain. My son is Bart*

Sunday 19 September was International Talk Like a Pirate Day and to celebrate, Betty and I decided to bake the sad pirate cake in The Book. I can’t speak to Betty’s experience, but I found him really quite easy – the only issue being my own stupidity. You see, I baked the cake (thank you, Green’s Classic Chocolate cake mix) and made the amateur mistake of trying to carve out the pirate hat while the cake was still warmish. Turns out it was too soft and crumbly, but I think I managed to salvage it, mainly. I left the ear and the cake out to cool down and dry out a bit overnight and cut up all the candy for our sad pirate’s face.

I tried using my leftover fruit sticks to make his hair but alas! They too had dried up and were too stiff to trim. I think it’s time to have a candy audit of my bucket and get rid of some old stuff. Anyway, I had two yellow snakes left which I used to good effect, had a trimmed down Monte biscuit for his eye patch, smarties for his nose and good eye, and liquorice (red and back) for the rest of the details.

After making a complete abortion of a skull and crossbones from liquorice allsorts, I resorted to the black construction paper originally recommended in The Book.

I also have to admit to pretty bad laziness here – not only did I use a packet mix (which was completely legitimate, bootcamp wiped me out) but I also decided to finish up the Frosting of Death to decorate it (hence, I can only believe my colleagues when they told me he tasted good – I am not going near that stuff ever again). It has a pretty great texture for spreading, and it gets even more pliable when it’s adulterated with buckets of food colouring.
Overall, I think he ended up looking pretty cute – now I’ll leave it up to Betty to follow up with her awesome version.

My version:

The Book version:

*for Simpsons fans...