Cake makers- help me!! Can I turn Colin the Caterpillar into Thomas the Tank Engine?

[AngeloMysterioso]

It’s DS1’s bday on Friday and he’d asked for a Thomas the Tank Engine cake. I usually do them myself but I’m heavily preggo and haven’t the time or energy for it this year. I had arranged for a local cake maker to make one but she messaged me earlier this evening, and isn’t able to do it because of some sort of kitchen power problem. So I have basically have tomorrow to somehow cobble together a cake. Also I’ll have no car from nursery drop off until I go to pick DC up so will really only have the evening to pick up any ingredients-y type stuff to make it with.
My thinking is… Thomas is largely cylindrical right? And so is Colin the caterpillar… is there some way I can fashion Colin into Thomas without it turning my into some kind of hideous chocolate massacre? Tips and advice needed!

Asda do a Thomas cake, save yourself the hassle!

Yeah Google got my hopes up about this but when I searched on their actual website it came up with a big fat nothing.

Oh no! Sorry for the fake news then 😭

Do you have little Thomas toys? You could buy a plain cake and put some Thomas toys on top? Maybe make train tracks out of fondant or Cadbury fingers?

Buy a plain cake, and some little Thomas toys. Not sure where you are but I can get some on prime for tomorrow.

stick the toys on the cake, buy one of those cardboard ‘happy birthday’ toppers and you are done!

Do an asda photo cake upload a Thomas photo. I did that with a character dd liked but wasn't easy to get hold of

Plain cake. Toys on top.

How old is he? I'd get a Swiss roll, pack of mini rolls, pack of icing pens and some blue fondant. Roll out to cover the cylinder. Draw a face on with icing pens. Draw some black lines on the outside. Mini rolls for the funnels, licorice wheels.

It doesn't matter if it looks shit, if it looks vaguely blue and train shaped with a face it will be fine (ah - is Colin for the face? That could work too.)

Could you do:

swiss roll covered in blue buttercream
mini roll on top at one end for the funnel
giant chocolate button wheels
cheap un iced cupcakes cut in half and balanced centre side down at the other end to form the cab, then blue icing.
finally some yellow and black glacé/writing icing for the details

you should be able to get all that in a mid sized co-op

Ok so now I’m thinking I could grab one of those decorate-your-own cakes that just have plain white icing from Sainsbury’s on the way to the garage, pick up a few different packs of fondant icing from hobbycraft in the evening and attempt to fashion a very poor imitation of something like one of these using a toy train?

You totally could - and if you are in Sainsburys anyway why not just pick up their fondant icing - online they seem to have every colour you need, blue, black, red, green, white - plus kit kats would do your sleepers rather than faff around rolling and cutting them out.

You could do what we've done many times before op - do the cake, decorate the 'scene' - but then buy the model for the top.

We've done this with Thomas, Pokemon, a race car track, Bing, Peppa Pig (and probably others...3 dc). Obviously it costs a bit more but your dc will have the toy to play with afterwards so it doesn't feel too wasteful.

Argos have a toy Thomas train for £10...

I've just seen in your last post that you literally said toy train sorry 😂😂. It works very well ime anyway!

I think the ready made cake with a bit of a fondant upgrade is definitely the safest option! Don't do what I did and get all last minute artistic, as long as it doesn't come out like this, you have no worries 😁

They don’t have any in my local one (did the online stock checker) but hobbycraft isn’t too far away once I’ve got the car back. Great shout with the Kit Kats though, definitely using that idea!

Liquorice laces for the rails!
Green buttercream for the grass
Toy on top
"Happy Birthday" candles on top
Actually Hobbycraft to a cake topper "Happy birthday" banner.

You're golden.

I wouldn't bother trying to make a train out of fondant, as others have suggested, just buy a plastic toy instead. DS will be delighted to get to keep and play with the train on his cake. You can buy different decorations to actually eat.

Previous cake maker here, totally agree with your idea of scene and toy Thomas on top. I have done a Thomas and a Henry in the past but they are really hard to do and faff to get the details right.

Just do this and don't make things any harder than they have to be. I am sure he will still love it - I would have as a kid - it's still cake!

I wouldn't even bother faffing around with fondant. Plain cake, green or blue buttercream, ice the rails on with that chocolate or black sugar icing you can buy in a tube with a nozzle, stick toy on top. Did very similar with a Peppa pig cake once and it worked well.

Plain cake and toys on top. If you could get a Thomas and Friends busy book it could be a lovely scene

😂

I made all DC's cakes by icing a plain cake and creating a scene with toys from their theme. They get a gift as well as a cake and it's cheaper than a professionally made cake