I was having a joint party for my 1 and 3 year old boys, and we decided to have trains as the theme. I started looking around online for ideas and ended up on coolest-birthday-cakes.com, of course! I got most of my ideas for the cake on this website.
For the base of the cake, my husband brought me home a 6 foot long board, which I covered with aluminum foil. I started by attatching chocolate twizzlers and kit kat bars to the board with frosting to make the train tracks. I put fruity pebbles cereal in between the tracks to make the gravel. Then I frosted the board on both sides of the track and attatched coconut which I had dyed green to make the grass.
I started the cake by purchasing 7 frozen Sara Lee poundcakes. To make the engine, I cut a diagonal slice off the front, and then I cut another poundcake in half to make the top part of the engine. I put frosting in between the two parts to help it stick. (I kept the cakes in the freezer until I was ready to frost, it seemed like less crumbs got in the frosting that way.) I bought buckets of buttercream frosting at my local craft store and dyed it at home. I used almost 6 pounds of frosting for this cake. After I frosted the engine, I stacked two marshmallows together and stuck a straw through them to make the smokestack. I attatched it to the cake with the straw, cutting the top of the straw off to make it even with the top of the smokestack. I also frosted the marshmallows. I put a piece of floral wire into the smokestack and put a cottonball on it to make the smoke.
To make the cars, I just frosted a whole poundcake for each one. For the wheels, I laid out all the Oreos I would need, and I put an M&M in the middle of each of them with frosting. Then I just attatched them to the cake with more frosting. I used different colored Twizzlers to line the tops of the cars, and then I filled in each one with a different candy…mini M&Ms, Nerds, Skittles, Nerds Jelly beans, and regular sized M&Ms. I used Twizzlers in between all the cars to attatch them to each other.
It was really easy to make, and it only took about 4 hours from start to finish. I assembled and decorated it the night before the party, and then just left it out and covered it up with some boxes to protect it. (I had diaper boxes which I cut the sides out of…almost like the train was going through a long tunnel of diaper boxes!) It wasn’t as sweet as I thought it was going to be, which was a good thing! It was a big hit at the party with the kids as well as the adults!
What a great cake decorator you are! The cake was delicious and was obviously wonderful to look at! Way to go Cathy!!!
You must also win “Mother of the Year” award!!