My nephew absolutely loves trains, and I made this cake for his third birthday. The engine and cars are all just pieces of a sheet cake I baked, and cut into the shapes I needed. The cars were easy (just rectangles, stacked on each other for height), but the engine took a little more work, especially to make the rounded part. I used canned icing to hold the pieces together.
I used melted marshmallow/powdered sugar fondant that I colored with liquid dye to wrap around the cake. Mini Oreos were the wheels, licorice whips were the tracks, and M&Ms and crushed Oreos were used to fill the cars.I also used Oreos to prop the cars up a little above the tracks. I used melted chocolate chips piped on with a sandwich bag to define the front of the engine. An ice cream cone was used for the smoke pipe.
I was really nervous before I did the cake- I had NEVER tried anything this complicated. Some tips I would recommend- Bake the cake a day ahead, cut the pieces then freeze them. It made it easier to work with. Have lots of frosting available- the frosting really helped hold pieces together like glue! And I also made the fondant the night before, separated into four pieces, then dyed it, put it in plastic wrap, and refrigerated it overnight.
Th effort was worth it- my nephew (and everyone else ) loved it!!
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