How I Made A Train Cake

It was the tripolatas birthday last Wednesday and I decided to make a cake rather than buy one. I spent a lot of time searching for ideas, mostly on Pinterest.

I saw lots of great cakes, especial superhero cakes, but most of these were covered in frosting or fondant, two things I didn't was to use. I also saw a lot of trains cakes, some looked a little complicated, but a few were very simple and I knew that I would be able to pull it off.

I've made this post not as a full on tutorial, but a basic guide on how I made my tripolatas train cake.

*Apologise for the quality of the pictures, those of the finished product were not taken by me*

Here's what you'll need:

2 x square cakes (mine were baked in a 21cm cake tin)
Butter cream frosting
Food colouring (3 different colours, I used blue, green and purple)
Flavouring (3 or 4 different kinds, I used vanilla, coconut and banana. I would have also used almond but I'd run out)
Chocolate
Icing (for writing)
Sweets to decorate

For the cake itself I made a basic all in one cake. All you have to do is weigh your eggs and use the same measurements for all the other ingredients (self raising flour, butter and sugar) plus 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/4-1/2 tsp of vanilla extract or other flavouring. Place all the ingredients in a mixer, whizz on low speed until all the ingredients come together and then on high speed for a few minutes.

Once the baked cakes have cooled completely,  wrap them in cling film and place in the freezer for a few hours or overnight.

The first stage to making the cake was the crumb coating,  this helps seal in the crumbs so that non would get into the chocolate layer.

The cake was taken out of the freezer and left to soften a little. Using a sharp knife, I cut the edges to get rid of the brown parts and levelled off the top of the cake. I put one cake on top of the other to make sure they were the same size.

*I didn't take too much off the top of the cake as I didn't want it to be too small*

I cut each of the cakes in half, leaving me with four rectangles.

I divided the butter cream into four bowls and added the food colouring and flavouring to three of them.

Using a spatula I smoothed butter cream over three of the rectangle. These were put aside to set a little, once set the crumb coating was smoothed out with the back of a spoon.

The last rectangle was for the drivers cab. I measured 6cm along the top of the cake and cut it off. I then placed this upright along the cut edge, using the plain butter cream to glue it in place.
I then cover the whole cab with the rest of the butter cream, and left it to set a little before smoothing it.

When finished I put the cakes back in the fridge for a few minutes. They were then wrapped in cling film and put back in the fridge until later that night.

Once the tripolatas were in bed and I'd finished making all the other things for the birthday picnic, I melted the chocolate in a bowl, took one of the cakes out of the fridge and poured the chocolate over it. I used a spatula to ensure it was completely covered. Then did the same same for the other cakes.

When the chocolate was set I used icing to write each of the tripolatas names on  a carriage and to work an edging along the sides back and front of each carriage. I worked windows on the front, back and sides of the drivers cab and wrote a number four on the top and sides.

I decorated the cakes using snowies (as the wheels), Smarties, white chocolate buttons (for headlights and the top of the cab) and smiley faces to represent a tripolata sitting on a carriage. The decorations were stuck to the cake using the remaining melted chocolate.

As a base for the train I cut four rectangles out of shoe boxes and covered them in foil. If we weren't going to the seaside I would have used liquorice or cola flavoured laces as train tracks.

On the day itself the cake was placed in a cooler with ice packs and despite the fact that it was a hot day, the chocolate and decorations stayed in place.

I'm glad the cake turned out well, since I didn't get too bed until about 3:30 and was woken at 6:30 by a phone call. The only thing I would change is the icing that I used for writing their names. The texture was too gel like and it didn't set properly.

I'm already thinking of ideas for next year, if you make or have made a train or any other themed cake I would love to see pictures.