For my 39th birthday, a friend and I made Roach’s 40 Orange Glaze Cake from Our Flag Means Death! We then set up a little scene and did a photoshoot for it.
More under the cut!
I went a bit wild with buying stuff for this, because I was hyped and it was nice retail therapy to deal with stress at work, lol.
I also wanted to include lots of little references to Our Flag Means Death and the characters without going for 100% screen-accurate as though it was Stede’s cabin.
Cuz I am *Captain* Anndor for a reason, haha. So there’s a tons of my own stuff/interests in there as well, but for the show specific references:
Jim: Dagger
Oluwande: Turquoise beads
Frenchie: Cat
Wee John: Black stars (like his face tattoos)
Swede: "Voice of an angel" wings w/ orange bead for scurvy
Lucius: Sketchbook w/ art :3 (it’s an intentionally poorly drawn dick, censored here because I don’t know Tumblr rules about non-realistic dick art, but it’s uncensored on Twitter! XD)
Pete: Belt horseshoe
Buttons: Mermaid (love this fan theory)
Karl & Olivia: Feathers
Roach: THE CAKE
Fang: Fang necklace
Ivan: Gold "teeth"
Izzy: Swallow tattoo
Stede: Unicorn, fine fabrics
Ed: Kraken, red silk scrap
Blackbonnet: Lighthouse, (bluebird of) happiness while sharing a ship (dish), "Journey into China" book, depression robe fabric
The fern. "Pirates of Nassau" mini treasure chest* (aka from the gift shop in Republic of Pirates after it got touristy and gentrified XD) . Fancy tea set. Purple jacket and blue/silver fabrics for Ed and Stede's fancy party outfits.
*(I actually bought that mini chest IN Nassau, at the Pirate Museum, months & months before OFMD ever aired, haha. Part of the reason I love the show so hard is that it already aligned w/ my interests. That and "it's not too late to find love if even if you're past 40" really speaks to me, lolol)
I made a thread over on Twitter with the entire process broken down, and a bunch more photos! You can find it here: CAKE THREAD!
Did I make a late night trip to the store yesterday and pick up several inane grocery items I’ve been eyeing for months JUST so that I could make arepas con queso and chocolate Santafereño and tajadas and lulada and flan and have a little feast for myself before I officially Exit My Twenties next week? YES. Am I ashamed? A LITTLE. Will I take pics? PROBABLY.
sambaschutte: Happy Birthday to our fearless captain @dvidjenkins!👑🏴☠️ Made the brightest “Roach’s 40 Orange Glaze Cake” possible and he still outshone it🙄🧡
This is Roach's 40 Orange Glaze on Gotland wool, inspired by Roach's cake in Our Flag Means Death :) I have like ten million OFMD color ideas so look forward to that in future batches. There is one braid available in my shop (link in my pinned post!)
now that stede has no money he has to maintain his crew's good will with good behavior and being a good captain because they can no longer live with his ineptitude. this means he has to humble himself and ask for their help, their guidance, place himself in their hands.
which means roach is going to make stede chop so many pounds of fucking onions for insulting that 40 orange glaze cake.
at least twenty pounds.
stede will be like "are there really this many onions in a stew?" while just weeping tears of onion induced pain
roach will be wearing a gas mask. "oh yeah, totally" there will be no effort to explain where or why he has a gas mask.
I recently noticed how much food and drink is mentioned/ on screen in OFMD. I started to compile a list for fun and it expanded QUICKLY. Here it is in its current state.
FOODS & DRINKS
Breakfast
Orange Marmelade
Breakfast in Bed with Doug
Breakfast in Bed with Ed
Whipped Seaweed Breakfast
Good French Bread
Roach’s Peanut Paste
Lunch
Brain Couscous
Queen Soup
Captain Hornigold’s seafood soup
Snake (well tenderized, you could be a chef)
Sammy/Sandwich for the trip
Some of the Crew (young and succulent)
Republic of Pirates Street food Lobster
Dinner
Enby Dinner Smorgasbord
Rabbit (well tenderized, you can barely taste the shit)
Monsieur Prawn’s Dinner
Little Plates (Tapas)
A fine fish
A rat terrier named ‘Pepper’
Finger Foods at the Widow Bonnet’s Art Show
The slop we can afford
Gravy Basket (whatever that is exactly)
Ned the Leopard’s Chicken
Childhood Trauma Goose
Spanish Jackie's a la Carte
Favorite of all the Horses Family Dinner (followed by emotional connection desert)
Tea Time
40 Orange Glaze Cake
Yummy Lavender Soap
Raw Seagull
Another Toe (Carrot Cake in Fondant)
Candied Melon Silk Moth
Drinks
Calypso’s Birthday Cocktails
(Lavender) Tea with a Dollop of Milk and Seven Sugars
Sleepy Chamomile Tea
Haunted Island Coconut Cocktails
Republic of Pirates Coconut Cocktails
Free Drinks for Sea Gods
Blood
Juice from the Nose Jar (nutty)
Izzy’s “Emotional Support” Bottle
Give me Drinks or give me Death (Zheng Style)
Lime Ricky
Lighthouse Fluid
So tempted to procrastinate on my actual work and turn this into a cookbook…
So, we know that Stede told Roach to use 40 oranges for the cake (and another 10 for the glaze!) but noone from the crew has even SEEN the cake or knew about it. I doubt Stede could have eaten a whole ass cake (40 oranges? Must have been hella big) so it leaves me with one thought.
He wanted the cake to share it with someone with a rather sweet tooth. And who do we know for loving the orange marmalade? Also, who, due to his background, was likely not able to indulge in fancy cakes and sweets that Stede was probably used to?
I can see Stede going all "oh you have to try the 40 oranges cake then!!!" when someone special says they like the orange marmalade.