This was the first time I had ever done this technique and I learned alot. One thing I learned is that the bottom tier needs to be 3-4 inches larger than the top.....because I did not do that, I ran out of room for the tracks. Outside of that, I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. I did use a sturdier cake for carving (pound cake) The train is actually legos, the 3 is gumpaste and everything else is buttercream. TFL