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Thomas the Train Engine Cake
by Geri D.
(Nepean, Ontario, Canada)
I made this train cake for my grandson Gabriel's 2nd birthday. He loves Thomas and knows each and every name of the trains. The train is made from a scratch chocolate pound cake recipe that I baked in a 3-D Wilton cake pan, rented from the Bulk Barn for 1.99. I had some batter left over and made a smaller cake in case I needed to doctor up the cake. I used some of the extra cake batter to make the caboose a bit larger by attaching two square pieces to the cake with a skewer. The coal at the back was crumbled oreo cookies. I trimmed the smokestack as the mould had a bigger smokestack, I also cut off the wheel impressions on the cake so that I could add the ones I made. I moulded the face and wheels from fondant icing and let it dry a couple of days ahead of time. The roof is also made from fondant. The tutorial for Thomas found on this website was useful in helping me make his face; the wheels were cut with a small glass I found in my cupboard and then I scored them with a knife to resemble spokes. I used a regular buttercream icing for the entire cake, using an icing bag with a large round tip and then smoothing it out with a spatula dipped in hot water.
The "grass" cake under the train was a regular chocolate mix cake baked in a roasting pan. The icing was buttercream, decorated with tip 234 to resemble tufts of grass. All in all, the cake took me about 4 hours to decorate, not including the time it took for the face and wheels. I enjoyed watching it come together and the look of my grandson's face when he saw it, was worth every minute.
