Hey, Mary D. - I've had your Pirate Party on my mind it sounds like such fun. I thought about you last night, and had to share this:

A friend passed on a bunch of old issues of Taste of Home recently, and I happened to see a photo and recipe for "Treasure Chest Birthday Cake" in one last night.

Essentially, it is two 13x9 chocolate cakes stacked and covered with a chocolate icing, then decorated to resemble a treasure chest. Fruit Roll-ups were cut and pressed into the sides to resemble a key hole, handles, and iron bars. The top of the cake was heaped with foil-covered coins, candy necklaces, Ring Pops, and brightly-colored candies. A 12 1/2x7 piece of cardboard was covered with foil and propped up with skewers to form the lid of the chest; it looked like more icing had been piped onto the back side of it. The chocolate icing on the sides of the treasure chest was scored horizontally to give the effect of wood. It looked like it would take a bit of time, but it didn't look difficult at all. I thought you might like to consider giving it a try.