Train Birthday Cake

You’ll need:
Box cake mix or recipe
Frosting
Assorted, small candies like jelly beans or M&Ms;
Life Savers candies
Black licorice

Lots of little boys love trains. There’s just something exciting, to many boys, about the look and sound of a train. Many young boys collect train sets, books about trains and even train memorabilia. If you have a boy who is crazy about trains, and he has a fast-approaching birthday, consider the train cake. It’s really easy to make, looks fabulous when you get it set up on a table, and will thrill all the kids at his birthday party!

It’s up to you what flavor/color you want the cake to be. Chocolate is a good choice, since it comes closest to matching the color of a train, but you can actually use any flavor. Make a simple box cake mix or use your favorite recipe. Mix and bake a rectangular cake, according to instructions or recipe, then allow it to cool completely.

Cut the cake into pieces which are rectangular – long and narrow – like toy train cars. Make one of the cars a little longer and it will become the engine. Make one of the cars shorter and you’ll have your caboose. Freeze the individual cake pieces for about 30 minutes or so and you won’t have to worry about getting cake crumbs in the frosting as you ice them.

Use a platter or large cardboard, covered with foil or cellophane, to place the train on for the birthday party. If you want, draw a simplistic set of tracks by using tube gel. Just draw a large circle, and another inside of that one, then draw lines linking the two rails together.

Frost each of the cakes with chocolate or other frosting. Frost around their sides (optional) and on their tops. Use a spatula to gather up the engine and set it on the track. Cut a small piece of black licorice and insert it at the rear of the engine. Scoop up the next “car” and set it behind the engine and push it into the licorice so that it links the two cars together. Continue adding another and another cake car to the train, using a piece of licorice to separate each set, and placing the caboose last.

Place jelly beans, M&Ms;, Skittles and similar candies in the frosting on the top of all the cars except the engine and caboose. Pile the candies on so that it looks like the train cars are full of things being transported. You can do other things to the engine and caboose to make them look more authentic. For example, you can place a Hershey Kiss upside-down on the engine car to create the smoke stack. Push Life Savers candies into the frosting on the sides of all the cars to make two wheels on each side. Use fruit leather or other goodies to decorate the caboose and/or further decorate the individual cars.

Your train-loving boy, and his friends, will be amazed at the cool train cake you’ve created just for them. Each car is a serving so you won’t have to worry about cutting the cake. Just have them dig in. All aboard!

Reference:

• See a train cake here: jbcupcakechallenge.com/view/?s=521