Hi all, 

My train mad nephews Birthday is coming up and im going to try to make him a train cake. I usually only stick to cup cakes so am wary of trying this!

Any ideas?He's mad about Thomas, I was thinking maybe a loaf tin as the engine than cutting a round sponge cake in two for the face?

Sorry like I said I have no idea as have stuck to cupcakes for so long.

Also any idea on where I would be able to get a big enough box as I have to transport it about 2 hours by car! I use the smaller cupcake ones from Millvale but they dont do the larger ones!

My dad recently had a train cake made for his 60th which cost over £70 so I think my nephew may have high expectations but im determined to make him one! 

Also how much would you say its worth practising before I make the final one?

Thanks :-)

Hi Emma

It sounds like you're a but concerned about doing a full size cake, why not make it a bit easier on yourself. 

How about making a hill shaped cake, dotting it with sheep, trees etc, and having a real toy track running around the outside with a battery powered Thomas on it?

Your nephew will think it's the best thing ever because his cake moves, it won't be hugely complicated for you (if that was worrying you), and you will be giving him cake and a present in one 

If you really fancy doing a shaped one, I'd probably suggest buying/borrowing Debbie Brown's Children's Character Cakes as it has step by step instructions on how to bake, carve and decorate a Thomas train. 

Hth 

I'm working on a train cake right now for my nephew's 1st birthday tomorrow.  I used this train car mold:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000UXPCF0/?tag=cakecentral-20

Here's a photo so you can see what the cars look like when they come out of the molds.  I've made fondant animals that will ride in/on top of the cars, and everything will go on top of a 12x18 sheet cake.  I can post with photos of the entire cake once I'm done assembling it tomorrow.  

AGoogle Thomas the Tank Engine tutorial and you should find a great tutorial for a carved Thomas cake. The instructions are really easy to follow and the look on your nephew's face will be worth it. I made this cake for my son's 3rd birthday. His response was "wow, it's a full Thomas."

This is my Thomas Tank Carved Cake.  I carved it out of 4 layers of 9 x 13 cake.  All details are made out of fondant.  Google has a tutorial to make the face, it was not very hard to make.  I mounted it on a circle styrofoam base.

http://cakecentral.com/g/i/3145699/this-was-for-a-2-year-old-birthday-all-buttercream-with-gumpaste-decorations/u/908598/flat/1/

Hi, thanks for all your great posts!

I have been away so havent been on here. Yes I think maybes making smaller cakes may be easier. I recently bought a train cakes mold from either lidl or aldi I cant remember which. Has anyone had much luck with these?I did a trial and they just look like vaguely trainish shapes. 

I used a normal sponge mix, I guess with some icing on they may look better but I think this may remove some of the detail! Any tips on how to make them look better?Its a silicone type mold so i didn't think it needed any grease etc.

Im about to watch the google tutorial so hopefully that will help me out!

Thanks again for all the help.

I tried many different variations using this mold for the cake I just made.  I tried covering them in poured fondant & covering them in candy melts - I didn't like either of those as they didn't really show the details on the cars.  I also pressed fondant over the outside of the molds and then put them on the cars, but I didn't like that either.  I found that the regular cake worked much better for some reason than the pound cake for showing details.  Make sure you "bang" the pan a couple of times to remove any air bubbles.  The best result I had was using regular cake, and then just icing the details on the cars.  Hope this helps!