Thomas the Tank Engine Cake

I can safely say this was the hardest cake I have ever made, to date. Yes I had problems with the Princess Cake, yes things went badly for the Toy Story Cake and yes I had my fair share of dramas with the Patchwork Quilt Cake but this one takes the cake (excuse the pun!).

So I was asked to make a 3D Thomas the Tank Engine Cake for a 1 year olds birthday. I had a look online for some pictures and thought to myself, it can't be that hard! I just have to get the shaping of the cake done.

Well after baking three chocolate cakes and cutting them up in various shapes to get the cake looking like Thomas the Tank Engine, I  iced it all in chocolate buttercream, forgetting that I had to ice them separately to cover with fondant! So after taking it apart and covering each separate part in fondant I was finally seeing SOME resemblance to Thomas the Tank Engine.

Carved Chocolate Cakes
Looks More Like a Bus Than a Train at This Stage!

Carved Chocolate Cake

You should know that the whole time I was doing this I had the Thomas the Tank Engine theme song in my head: Thomas the Tank Engine - Original Opening Theme Song

Front of Thomas Cake

I made the face for Thomas a few days earlier but accidentally left it out in the sun and it changed colour! It went from grey to a kind of light bluey colour. I tried to make another Thomas face to stick on but it didn't look any good (by this time I was very tired and worn out) so I just stuck with the old face and dealt with the fact he wasn't the right colour.

Side of Thomas Cake

I think the hardest part after all that was getting the cake to the customer. You should have seen how terrified I was! I was driving 40ks most of the time and kept turning around to see my Thomas in the back seat wobbling like jelly! SCARY!

Thomas the Tank Engine Cake

Once delivered, though, Jo was SO happy with how the cake turned out. It was all worth it! I didn't get to see the birthday boy but I hear he has a fabulous time.

Happy Birthday Zach!