My nephew Will turned 4 years old a week ago. We knew the cake would have to include Thomas the Train. He is obsessed with trains, especially Thomas. Will kept insisting that he wanted a train shaped as Thomas, but we knew better. What he would like more is a cake with a real train that he could play with, and we were right! The cake was a HUGE HIT with ALL the kids. They loved the fact that they could really play with the train and the rocks were chocolate rocks that tasted so delicious.
The cake assembly is very easy. You will need the following items:
1. A large rectangular cake
2. A chocolate bunt cake (try to find a pan that has similar ridges like a mountain would have.
3. Thomas WOODEN track set (the wooden set is smaller and will allow you to a good size loop.
4. The Thomas Birthday Train or any Thomas & Friend train. (Note the birthday train does not include the third car on the end. I added that so Will could place with the chocolate rocks.)
5. Ganache to cover your “mountain” with.
6. Frosting tinted green for the grass
7. Tinted cocoanut
8. Chocolate candy rocks
How to assemble:
1. Bake both the rectangular base cake and chocolate bunt cake and allow to completely cool.
2. “Map out ” your track. One you have that decided the placement of the track. Place under wax paper and outline the track. (You will place this under the track so your wooden set doesn’t get dirty.)
3. Make your green frosting and frost the big rectangular base cake.
4. Make your ganache and set it aside for a while so it can thicken a touch.
5. Place your wax paper and track on you base cake.
6. Cut your bunt cake in half. place half on the outside in two or three pieces
7. Stack the other half of the bunt cake in three or four pieces on top of each other, in the middle of the track, creating a canyon for Thomas the Train to ride through. Note: you want to make sure Thomas can fit (you might have to shave a little of the outside cake- this is easier before you ganache it.)
8. Pour your ganache over the chocolate bunting. This will hide any imperfections or cracks and makes it look more like a mountain with that rich deep chocolate color.
9. Add the small details of the colored cocoanut and candy rocks.
10. (optional) Add a birthday flag attached to a wooden skewer. Free download is available below. Enjoy
***Note recipes will be in tomorrows post…. so stay tuned!
Will just stood there looking at his cake. We told him he couldn’t play with it until it was finished. It was torture for him! He just got his stool and stood there staring at it. As you can see from the next photo it didn’t last long. Soon his little hands were making the train go and loading up his rocks.
We were told “Thomas is on a schedule!”
