I have some questions about a pirate ship I'm attempting to make for a "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" birthday. First I wanted to make it small, like a topper for a 12" round. I was thinking of molding it out of rkt and covering in fondant. Does this sound do-able?

Second, I have looked at many photos of cakes in the gallery. It seems many just use paper for sails on dowels. I was thinking of trying gumpaste, rolled super thin, and left to dry "rounded" on a soda can or something similar to get the curve in the gum paste as it dries. (I know I will have to make holes in gum paste for dowels before it dries.) Will this work, or should I just resolve to use paper? I have not used gum paste before, only fondant.

Thanks for your advice! I only make a few cakes each year, and CC is very helpful!

I made one in Nov. for my grandson and used fondant/tylose for the sails. I rolled them really thin, applied a little texture, and dried them over some mugs and containers.

Here's a link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hjscakes/6313763190/in/photostream

I've made a pirate ship cake. Here's the link:
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1805775/ahoy-mateys

I really like the texture idea that poohsmomma used. I used a combo of fondant and gumpaste, rolled it thin, poked skewer holes and then draped them over something rounded on wax paper. They worked great! I think I added a little ball of fondant below the top hole to keep the sail from sliding down the skewer.

I also think your idea of doing it as a RKT topper will work just fine. I did an RKT ship for a different cake as well.
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2263133/treasure-island

I recently made a pirate cake ans used Wilton's sugar sheets as sails. Super easy!

I think RKT would be the way to go for a ship that size. Mold them as close as possible before hand then sculpt with a bread knife after they have hardened. I also went the gumpaste route for the sails, let them dry for a couple days (I used my violin case) then glued them on skewers with RI.

Good luck!

awesome job on all 4 of those ships!!! I love them! and now I want to make one