Help! I have had a request to make a 3D train cake for a little boy's first birthday. I have found the Wilton Choo Choo Train Pan in my Mom's cabinet... but the directions are hard to read due to the pan is from 1983!! So, I wanted to find out some tips about making this kind of 3D cake, because it will be my first attempt at a 3D cake!

What type of cake? I would like to use a box mix since they are usually not as moist as homemade.

How to fit the pans together?

Any other tips that would make it easier and fail-proof?!?!

Thanks!!!

I think you might be talking about the same pan that Kiddiekakes is using at present, to make a 3-D cake. I am certain if you Pm her she will help you with the instructions.
There is a post about this under General. You need a good dense cake for many of these stand-up pans. A pound cake works well. To dense up a cake mix cake, reduce oil to about 1/4 cup, reduce milk or water by about 1/4 cup, add 1 package of complimentary instant pudding, 1/2 cup sour cream and follow the rest of the box instructions. You may need more than one cake mix or cake recipe to fill this pan properly. A Duncan Hines makes about 4.5 cups of batter. The extendacake recipe will work well too.
Here is a good dense chocolate cake recipe for these kinds of pans.
Chocolate Cake
3, one ounce squares of Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate, chopped up or grated
1/ 2 cup of butter, sliced or chopped
1 cup of boiling water
2 cups of granulated white sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup of commercial sour cream - don't use the reduced fat version
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups less 2 tbsp. of unbleached all-purpose flour (you can use regular all-purpose instead)
1 tsp. baking powder
You will only be using the mixer to beat the 2 egg whites separately. You will need 2 bowls besides.
In one bowl, place chopped or grated chocolate, and butter. You grate or chop the butter and chocolate because it is much faster to melt it this way. Pour the boiling water over and whisk until all is melted. Now whisk in the egg yolks and the 2 cups of sugar and vanilla. In a larger cup, mix the baking soda and sour cream - the soda will cause the sour cream to almost double so make sure your cup is large enough or it will foam all over the place. Add this mixture to the chocolate mixture. In a separate bowl, stir the baking powder into the flour. Add gradually to the chocolate mixture, whisking to blend well. With mixer, beat egg whites until stiff, not dry. Stir 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. When fully blended, add remaining egg whites, folding into mixture with a spatula until you can no longer see egg white. Do not over mix.
This will give you about 5 cups of batter. This cake is not a high riser so you may want to use about 1/2 to 1 cup more batter than the Wilton charts or your cake pan may call for. The one recipe can be baked in a tube or bundt pan that has been greased and floured. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Cool in pan for 15-20 minutes and remove. For a 16' round 3" deep pan you will need about 3 1/2 recipes. Bake at 325 for 3 " deep pans, approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes.
When cool, I torte cake and fill with the following. If you bake in a bundt pan or tube pan, I use this as the icing.
For a larger cake, double the recipe to fill. For a tube pan, this recipe will frost a cake that hasn't been torted.
Filling/Frosting
2 tbsp. butter
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 tbsp. whipping cream, un-whipped
1 1/2 cups sifted icing sugar (powdered sugar)
1 tsp. vanilla
Place all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over minimum heat, 1 0r 2 on my stove. Stir constantly until smooth. If you are frosting a cake, use immediately. If you let it cool too much, it becomes fudge like. If you are using as a filling, remember to place a bead of buttercream icing on the outer rim of your cake so the filling won't seep through. As a filling, you should cool to room temperature, whisk and pour onto cake. Let it set a few minutes before placing top layer over filling.
I make this cake up to 3 days before the wedding or bake it and freeze it for up to 6 weeks. It is actually easier to torte it when it is frozen. It seems to be everyone's favorite wedding cake, birthday cake.

When I used this pan for my Thomas cake I just used a box of regular cake mix and a box of pound cake mixed together (just follow instructions from each box). I have used this for all my 3D cakes and as of yet have not had a problem. I am at work so I don't have the instructions for the pan with me, but I do remember that I had to fill the bottom pan all the way up and tie the pan together with string. I am going to have to try the recipe from SquirrellyCakes though! HTH!

I used this pan to make 2 3-D train cakes. For the cake I simply used Duncan Hines Devil's Food and used milk in place of the water and added an extra egg as well. It worked very well. Just be sure you secure the pan top and bottom together well. I didn't and my first cake pushed the top up and made batter ooze out all over the cookie sheet I had it on. Next cake I used butcher's twine wrapped around it several times and it held them together very well.

For the directions for the pan you can also go to the top of this page and click on Wilton Pan Instructions and you should find what you are looking for there.

Good luck!