Oscar’s 2nd Birthday

We live near two train stations and very close to a train tunnel. As part of our afternoon routine we walk to the tunnel so that Oscar can watch the trains go through the tunnel and the boom gates. A train cake would be perfect. He is also keen on the Thomas the Tank Engine books and trains. His favourite is Toby who, he frequently tells me, gets stuck in the tunnel. It was an easy decision to use the Thomas toys to make a cake, possibly more expensive to buy the toys but making a cake tunnel was so easy and the toys are still here for him to play with.

The finished cake, a mud cake tunnel, fondant grass, some Thomas toys and train tracks and a little landscaping with a few plastic succulents. A big white chocolate ‘O’ for Oscar and a couple of candles in cupcakes to complete the cake.

This is how easy it was to make.

Step 1

Make the mud cake in a large tin and then cut it into three pieces, one for each of the tunnel sides and the third for the top. I use double quantity of my standard mud cake and made some cupcakes as well.

Step 2

Tint some commercial fondant and roll it out, I wasn’t worried about it not covering the board and quite liked the irregular shape.  

Step 3

Layout the track so that the placement of the tunnel  could be decided. 

Step 4

Assemble the tunnel, firstly the parts needed to be iced. The icing is chocolate ganache that is whipped when cool to make the frosting. Once the frosting had been spread over the cake I used a wooden chopstick to mark in the bricks. 

Step 5

Once all the pieces were iced I used a little more ganache to stick the top of the tunnel to the sides.

Step 6

The finishing touches were added. 

I think he was pleased with the cake.

Yum, Nanna.