Train Cake

I can't believe I made my boys 2nd birthday cake.  Not the fact that I made it... the fact that it's their 2ND ONE!!  It's not suppose to go this fast is it ;) ... yeah, yeah I know the answer to that already. 

I normally take pictures during the entire process of the cake building but this time was different.  This cake was for my boys party so I already had the house decorated and half set up.  I didn't have very much space to put cake supplies and cake to take pictures.  So instead of taking pictures during the entire thing I only took finished product.  Oh and when I thought about taking pictures I decided not to because I thought the cake looked HORRIBLE... then it was finished and if I do say so myself think it was out of this world! 

Disclaimer... This is NOT an original idea.  I searched online for train cake pictures.  When I make cakes I normally get an idea from the client (invitation, decorations, ideas, etc.) and then search for other peoples creations.  After seeing a few I take (what I think are) the best parts from each and incorporate them into mine.  However, when I was searching for train cakes I came across this one and right away knew that I wanted to duplicate it!

These are the little accessories to the cake.  I LOVED how there were 2 engines.  How perfect was that.  One engine for M and one for G!

Normally when I make figurines I do it completely out of fondant or gum paste.  This time I decided to do the figures out of Rice Krispie Treats and then just cover them in fondant.  I didn't want to wait long for the block of fondant to dry and stiffen so I thought I would squish some treats to form cars.  It was SO easy!

The cake is made out of 2 10 inch rounds and 2 8 inch rounds.  I cut a hill (or spiral) down the cake to form the train track.

I piped brown buttercream to make the spiral look like a track.

I piped green grass around the edge of the track and edge of the bottom of each cake.  Then I piped some trees and made some fondant clouds.

I love the steam coming out of the train.

I definitely think there is an easier way to carve a spiral.  I think next time I ever have to make a spiral cake I will 'waste' more cake.  I don't love the seam of the two different sizes.  If I use larger circles I think I can avoid some of the dislikes I have.

Here's the cake the day of the party with it's candles all ready to be lit to sing to M and G.

G (left) and M (right) blowing out their 2 candles.  M actually blew out BOTH of his candles on his own.  G was blowing perfectly but the air was angled the wrong way so Mommy helped a little bit (I don't think he realized... I hope not anyway because they were having SO much fun blowing out the candles).

Train Cookies

I decided that I would take step by step pictures of the cookies I made for the boys birthday party.  I quickly changed my mind.  

I started off doing 'ok' but adding that one more step of taking pictures just made the task almost unbearable haha.  I was in the zone and didn't want to be bothered (or completely forgot) to take pictures.  

The them of the party was trains so of course I made train cookies.  I started with outlining the main color of the train.

and then I stopped taking pictures.  Oops.  I know, it didn't last long.  I do have some random ones so I will leave them for you. 

After piping the outline of the cookie I filled the cookie with the red.  Then I moved on to the other colors on the train.  Most of the cookies were train engines.  I had 3 'special' trains.  I did 3 large engines,  3 passenger cars (pictured above), and 3 coal cars (2 pictures below).

I also made 2 different signs.

The white and black railroad crossing sign (above) and the yellow RR circle sign (never took a picture).

This is where I stopped taking pictures all together.  I didn't even get a good picture of all the cookies on the cookie tray.  OOPS!

This is the best shot I got, but instead of seeing the cookies you see the label.

I remembered that I didn't take a picture of the cookies and I was able to click one real quick before too many were taken.  Sadly this picture is missing the large engine.

Of course I had to get pictures of the birthday boys eating their train cookies.

M 

 G

Most of the kids that ate the cookies did a great job.  Mine on the other hand LOVE to eat all the icing off before actually biting the cookie.  Their cookie beards grew as they were enjoying their cookie.  

After taking the pictures off of my memory card I realized I never got a picture of the cookies so I grabbed the few that were left and threw them on a plate so you could get an idea of what they looked like.  

There were some really nice looking ones.  Of course I don't have pictures of those because they were the first tray I set out.  When they were eaten I started to replace them with the lesser ones.

I read that sometimes red, black, brown, and orange icing doesn't dry well.  I was so excited that I figured out how thin the icing should be the last time I made cookies.  I thought these would come out perfectly since my filling icing came out so great last time.  Again, some did... but others stayed tacky looking.  They look like they didn't completely dry (they were).  O'well, most of them were eaten anyway :)