The Tyler Cooking Show - Project Train Cake

For Tyler's 6th birthday, his mom had a BRILLIANT idea to make him a cake. Not just any ol' cake, but one shaped as trains. She found the train mold at Williams Sonoma and thought, 'This should be easy!' Ty's mom sure is ambitious... maybe a little too much sometimes!



There were a lot of ingredients involved... from the cake mix...



To the candy decorations...


Let's start with the cake mix. Ty explains how to make it!

While the trains cooled...


It was time to set the "scene." Ty's mom got one of those oven drip trays as the base. She mixed green food coloring with frosting to make the "grass" and spread a thin coat on the tray.


Then, she used black licorice to make the "tracks."


She found little Japanese chocolate mushrooms and used them as "trees." Since they couldn't stand up on their own, she dyed mini marshmallows green and used them as "bushes" to keep the "trees" in place.



Now that the scene was set, it was time to decorate the trains. Ty started by using mini marshmallows as the "steam" coming from the engine.


We used gummy lifesavers for the wheels and strawberry sour belts as the bumpers and outlines of the train. Jelly beans, Smarties and lemon candies were used to resemble everything else, from headlights to cargo.


Here's the final product!

And in the end, it was a big hit at his birthday party!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TYLER!