Thomas the Train Cake

The Thomas the Train Cake was my first BIG baking project.  It was for my nephew’s 3rd Birthday.   He loved Thomas the Train and I figured what the heck I would try to make it.  These pictures are cringe worthy to me.  At the time I was so proud of it, but now all I see is how I could have done it better.  My husband accuses me all the time of being too hard on myself, and I know I am, but I also know now that I have had more experience, I could do a better cake.  Anyhoo…enough of my self-confidence issues.

How to Make a Thomas the Train Cake:

I bought the Wilton Choo Choo Train Cake pan, rolled up my sleeves and went to work.  Once the cake was cooked and cooled I set it up right for decorating.   I started by making black frosting.  This was my first time using black frosting, and I found out what most people already know black frosting tastes bad.  You have to use so much of the food coloring it changes the taste of the frosting.  I now only use black icing as an accent.  I put the black frosting on first and then did the blue.   I used thin red licorice to make the accent lines on Thomas’ body.

I knew that there was no way I would be able to recreate the face, so I went online, found of picture of Thomas’ face, printed it out, and then laminated it so the paper wouldn’t absorb the frosting.

I frosted Golden Oreos for the wheels and then accented the train with some yellow frosting.  After it was done, I loved how it looked (see earlier comment for current feelings) but I knew it wasn’t going to be enough cake for the party, so I baked a couple of cakes using a loaf pan.

One of them, I made into a coal car.  After I baked the cake in the loaf pan, I took it out and leveled it off, so it was even across the top.  I frosted it yellow and smashed up Oreo cookies to represent the coal.  I used mini Oreos as the wheels.

For the animal car, I did the same thing only I painted it blue.  I went to Michaels and got the animals in a tube to use on the cake.  The posts that I wrapped the licorice around to keep the animals “penned” were just Wilton Lollipop Sticks that I cut down and pushed into the cake. I again used the thin red licorice as a decoration around the base of the train car. I also used the mini Oreos for the wheels.

To tie the whole train together, I laid down black licorice with Kit Kats to make the train tracks.

My nephew LOVED his cake.  He’s 7 now and he still talks about his Thomas cake.  In the end, that’s all the matters.  I made something fun for someone I love very much.