Punit’s birthday is coming pretty soon in October. We are planning on going to dinner at wd-50 in Manhattan because he has always wanted to go there, but I am also trying to think of what to get him. Any ideas?
The first birthday of his that we celebrated together was two years ago. He had told me that when he was young he was obsessed with Thomas the Train and he had only one Thomas VHS that he would play over and over again, so as a joke I made him a Thomas the Train Cake. YES I made my 26 year old boyfriend a Thomas the Tank Engine Cake! No JUDGING!
It came out pretty sloppy but I was proud of it (since I am definitely no cake decorator), Punit liked it, and it tasted pretty good (cause I used boxed cake mix :P).
Here's a pic...
The Baking
I used...
chocolate boxed cake mix (like my mama taught me, haha)
store bought chocolate icing
toothpicks
baking spray (to make sure it didn’t stick in the train pan)
I got a box of regular chocolate cake mix. I didn’t get the extra moist or anything like that because I was afraid the cake would collapse. I followed the instructions for the cake mix and the cake pan to bake it. Once it was cooled and standing up right I did a base coat of chocolate icing all over. I stuck toothpicks into the bottom at an angle to secure it when standing up. I placed the cake on a tray in which I had no plans to ever try and remove it from.
The Decorating
I used....
paintbrush (new and clean!)
1. Body: Once it was covered in a coat of chocolate icing I printed out a picture of Thomas the Tank Engine and then used red, blue, and yellow pouch icing to try and match the designs the best I could. It obviously didn’t come out exactly the same as the real Thomas.
2. Wheels: I cut circles out from the blue sugar sheets. I stuck them to the sides with icing and used black pouch icing to make the spokes and connect them.
3. Face: The face was the tricky part! Luckily when I went to Michael’s to get the supplies they were having a cake decorating class and even though I wasn’t in the class the lady was super nice and gave me some advice on how to make the face.
a.) I broke off a piece of white fondant (a little more than I figured I needed for the face)
b.) I added one drop of black icing color. I was warned not to add too much! I added one dab and worked it into the fondant until it was completely blended. I added only a little at time and blended until it was the right shade of grey.
c.) I molded the face carefully while studying a picture. I used the end of paintbrush to help make the cheeks, and the indentations for the eyes and mouth.
d.) I made white fondant eyes and a mouth. Then with the paintbrush and the black icing color I painted on the pupils and the eyebrows.
e.) I used icing and toothpicks to stick the face onto the front of the cake.
The face was a lot of trial and error and it took some time to get it looking like Thomas’ face. Also the reason I chose not to pipe the whole cake in icing is because I hate eating black icing, it makes your mouth all black. So I opted for chocolate icing instead.
Last year for Punit’s birthday I made him his own Don Draper/Mad Men bar cart, I will post about that next time!
I still need to do lots of brainstorming for a good present this year! Anyone else have ideas to share?!
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