Ingredients:

  • 2 loaf cakes, frozen for 45 minutes
  • chocolate frosting and/or a few bright-colored frostings
  • Gummy rings or chocolate-covered jelly rings or licorice wheels
  • Gummy rings or chocolate-covered jelly rings or licorice wheels
  • Gummy rings or chocolate-covered jelly rings or licorice wheels
  • Small colorful candies such as jellybeans, gummy worms, Legos
  • Small colorful candies such as jellybeans, gummy worms, Legos
  • Mini marshmallows skewered on a toothpick or 1 twist lollipop or 2 bite-size peanut butter cups, stacked

Instructions:

  1. Using a large serrated knife, cut the domes off the tops of the loaf cakes and flip them over.
  2. To make the train cars, cut one loaf cake into 4 equal pieces.
  3. To make the engine take the 2nd loaf cake and designate one end of the cake as the front and cut at an angle, a small triangle off each side of the cake to form the front end or “nose” of the engine.
  4. To create the engine house, cut a small piece out of the midsection of the engine cake. To do this you are going to move to the middle of the cake and then carve down about half-way to make a small square about 1 1⁄2 inches wide by 1 1⁄2 inches thick, being careful not to cut all the way through the cake. Use a smaller knife to easily cut out this square. Take that piece and place it directly on the cake, right in front of the square hole you just cut out. Secure it in place with frosting.
  5. Using an offset spatula, crumb coat your cakes with chocolate frosting or use chocolate for the engine and different colors for each car.
  6. Chill in the fridge for at least one hour or overnight.
  7. Frost your crumb- coated cakes with a thick coat of chocolate frosting or the same color frosting you used for your crumb coat. Use an offset spatula to smooth it and make sure everything is covered.
  8. Cover a 24 x 18 inch piece of cardboard with colorful or train-themed paper.
  9. Using a long spatula, move the train cakes to the tray with the engine first and the train cars arranged behind it
  10. For wheels you can use gummy rings or chocolate- covered jelly rings placed on the sides of the cakes or you can prop each train car and the engine on 4 marshmallows, one in each corner and you can use frosting as glue to secure on licorice wheels.
  11. Line the tops of each train car with two pieces of licorice cut to size.
  12. Fill the tops of the cakes—in between the licorice lines—with a variety of candy for cargo.
  13. Build a steam stack by skewering a few mini marshmallows onto a toothpick or using a twist lollipop, insert the stick right into the nose of the engine. You can also use two stacked peanut butter cups placed right on the engine nose.

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