Thomas cake, other cake ideas + cup cakes

[want2change]

Hi i need some ideas for the following plse, and all ideas gratefully received..

How best to make/decorate a Thomas cake?

any other ideas of birthday cakes for boys aged 1 - 5?

good cupcake toppings / decorations for young boys?

many thanks

ds has just had a pirate ship cake for his 4th birthday, he had postman pat's van for his 3rd and a train for his 2nd. Cupcakes are fun with wiggly worm sweets on.

I've just done dd3's birthday cake (3rd) and am hugely pleased with self I made a chocolate log (Nigella's Yule log recipe) and placed on it a fantastically modelled gruffalo and mouse made by dh and dds 1 and 2 at half term when the weather was grotty. Dd3 was in awe and we had bloody good cake suitable for the large numbers of adults attending her party with their little ones.

They were made out of Fimo btw - not cheap but great fun.

I've done plain ones with just the number on in M and Ms ( better than Smarties as bolder colours ) - good for age 1 and 2. I've also done chocolate train cake, Nigella's Ghostly black Halloween cake with jelly lollies ( twice, DS's bday 29 Oct and they all love the black icing) and a chocolate Dalek cake, using choc fingers, maltesers and obscene amounts of chocolate.

For DD's 3rd birthday last year I just did a massive square cake, bought bright pink icing to cover and then got every shade of pink jelly bean and smothered the cake in it. All the girlies gasped.

IME, boys like black icing and chocolate, and girls and boys like sweets on the cake.

Have fun.

Some really good ideas on this site www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/train-cake.html

Lakeland have some great looking cake tins which are lots of small cakes you put together like this train one.