Cars and Trains First Birthday Cake

January 05, 2020

This cake was for the little boy of a colleague of mine. Technically she was still on maternity leave, but she came by and visited us regularly. And eventually, she asked me to make her baby's first birthday cake.

We looked at several baby's first birthday cake for boys before she decided she wanted a cars or trains theme. I also noticed that her favorite cakes had bright primary colors.

As for the flavor of the cake, we went back and forth for a while. She originally wanted one layer vanilla and one layer chocolate cake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream. But by the end, she changed her mind to two layers chocolate cake with raspberry filling and raspberry buttercream. We can work with that.

First, I stuck the first layer of chocolate cake to the cake board with raspberry buttercream.

Then I piped a circle of buttercream around the bottom layer and filled it with raspberry jam.

And I stacked the top layer on top.

I crumb coated the cake in the raspberry buttercream and chilled it for a few minutes to let the buttercream set up.

And I frosted it one more time with the raspberry buttercream.

Then I rolled out some white fondant and covered the cake with it.

And I trimmed off the excess with a sharp knife.

For the trains and cars, I mostly freehanded the form, but I first measured how much space I had on the cake and marked it so my figures wouldn't be too tall. I cut out the wheel holes with the smallest piping tip I had.

I made the train and cars out of red, yellow and blue fondant.

Natalie helped me pick out the sprinkles we wanted to use on the cake.

Then we lined the bottom of the cake with the big sprinkles, but only used the blue, yellow and green ones. I left out white and pink sprinkles, as I didn't feel the belonged on this particular cake.

I continued this pattern all around the cake.

Then I placed the train on first with its two box cars, as well as the wheels.

Then I placed the cars all around the cake.

I rolled out some pale blue fondant really thin and cut out domes less than an inch high and cut them in half for the windows.

I also used the same colored fondant for the top of the train engine as well as the smoke coming from the smoke stack.

Then I used those same bright, primary colors to make very thick fondant blocks and placed Tim's name as well as the number 1 on top of them.

I love this cake. I think any little boy under the age of 8 would like this cake. It's very boyish.

But this cake was really fun to make and a huge shoutout to the parents who stuck with me through a crisis or two of leaving the cake carrier on the train and dealing with sick children. Best clients ever! Order a cake from me anytime! I'm here for you.