All aboard!
All aboard! Young engineers and experienced conductors will both love this Thomas the Tank Engine cake! (Okay, sorry - Thomas the Tank engine cake. I had it wrong in my head for years and entered it wrong on the title page.) Anyway – made with simple cake layers, delicious cream cheese buttercream frosting, and the easiest of decorations. No sculpting required; simply cut down an edible image and adhere to the side of the cake!
I LOVE making my nephews birthday cakes – but MAN after we had our second baby last summer - my baking/assembly time is SO much more limited than it’s ever been before. It doesn’t take more than a wail from a baby (who's supposed to be napping) to mess up my perfectly-contrived cake assembly schedule.
Darn you, sleep regressions!
With my limited decorating time in mind, I knew stacked and sculpted cakes were out. I also know from several years of experience that no one in my family eats fondant, so I didn’t want large amounts of it involved in my nephew’s cake. At the same time – I wanted an easily recognizable image on his Thomas the Tank engine cake!
Enter (ta-da!!) the edible image. I ordered a round image designed for the top of the cake, buuut I wanted it on the side. This meant I had to take off the 'happy birthday' on the top and cut down the blue surrounding Thomas, but I loved the way it turned out!
I’ll link the one I ordered on Amazon – plus one or two more similar ones since supply levels can fluctuate. 🙂
Few quick points of advice!
- Edible images are often made to go on top of 9x13 inch cakes, and they can be BIG. Make sure you check the dimensions before you order so you don’t end up with an image that’s too big for your cake!
- I scaled this recipe to make 4 8-inch round layers, so that the cake would be about an inch taller than my 8-inch cakes usually are. Feel free to use your own cake layer recipe – but keep cake size in mind so that your image will fit the way that you want!
- I assembled and decorated this cake the day before my nephew's party - the image did warp just a bit in the fridge overnight. It was - fortunately - an easy fix, but I did have to do a little bit of straightening and removing of wrinkles in the decoration before taking the cake to the party. I recommend applying the image the day-of if possible - but if that's not workable its not the end of the world either. 🙂
FAQs:
“Do I have to make the cake / frosting from scratch?”
Absolutely not if you don't want to! You can substitute 3 of your favorite cake mixes plus the ingredients the mix calls for; keep the baking pans the same! The cake layers will just be a little less rich. Substituting butter for oil, buttermilk for water, and adding an extra egg will help!
Store bought frosting is usually a little thinner than my recipe; add a 1/4 cup of extra powdered sugar at a time until you reach a consistency that spreads and stays in place on the cake well.
Anyway! All of that said – pull out and dust off your baking tools and don your conductor’s cap – we’re about to head out on a deliciously delightful journey with this Thomas the Tank Engine cake recipe!
(Disclosure: As an Amazon associate I may earn from qualifying purchases, and my posts often contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you!)
Don't forget to pin this recipe for later!
Thomas the Train Cake
Equipment
- Baker's floured cooking spray (optional)
- large piping bag + star tip (for decorating)
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake layers
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 1 ¾ cup cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter (3 sticks, softened)
- 6 large eggs (room temperature)
- 2 cups buttermilk (room temperature)
- 2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- 12 ounces cream cheese (1 ½ packages, softened)
- 1 ½ cups butter (24 Tbsp or three sticks, softened)
- 6-8 cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons clear vanilla extract
- 2-3 Tablespoons milk (if needed)
- ½ teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
- 6-10 drops Blue gel food coloring
Filling (optional)
- ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional; see instructions)
Decorations
- 1 Thomas the Tank Engine edible image
- Red sugar pearls (optional but recommended)
Instructions
Cake layers
- Preheat an oven to 350℉ (180℃). Grease 4 8-inch cake pans with baker's floured spray and/or line pans with parchment rounds or silicone rounds.
- Mix together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt) in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle (or hand mixer or whisk) until well combined.
- Add in bits of softened butter, mixing until no lumps of butter are visible and the mixture looks crumbly.
- Whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and mix until no dry ingredients are visible. Scrape down the bowl and beat for another 20 seconds.
- Fill the four pans evenly - I find a kitchen scale helpful for this part, and each of mine weighed out to about 550g. Bake for 30-35 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow cake layers to cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire cooling rack before removing from pans, and cool completely before frosting. Set in the fridge or freezer to accelerate the cooling process if desired.
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- Beat together softened cream cheese and butter; slowly add in powdered sugar alternating with vanilla and milk if needed until frosting reaches desired consistency. Add salt if needed and blue gel food color and beat until well combined.
Assembly
- Once your cake layers are cool, level them (if needed/desired). This can be done with a cake leveler or a large serrated knife and a ruler. Place a smear of frosting on your cake circle (to keep the cake from sliding while you decorate it) and center your first cake layer in the center of the circle. Spread the layer with frosting. Repeat the process with your remaining cake layers.
- (If you're watching the video closely, you'll see I added a chocolate layer and chocolate chips on top of the frosting - this is optional; I wanted a touch more height to the cake without tons of extra frosting. I just mashed the cake tops with a couple tablespoons of frosting and added that mixture between the layers with a couple tablespoons of chocolate chips.)
- Now you're ready to crumb-coat . If you're unfamiliar with crumb-coating, it's just what it sounds like – spreading a thin layer of frosting over the entire outside of the cake to keep crumbs out of your final layer. I usually do this with a large offset spatula. Once your crumb coat has set (this takes about 5-10 minutes in the fridge), add your final layer of frosting and smooth. I like to use an offset spatula and bench scraper for this part. Once your cake is covered, place it into the fridge or freezer to set the frosting.
Decorating
- This is actually where it gets easy! All that's left is adding your edible image and some frosting swirls and sprinkles on top. :)
- If you use the same image I did, you can use the video as a cutting guide. I cut the 'Happy Birthday' off the top, and cut it into two sections to put on the top, but that step is 100% optional. Trim the lettering from the top, then cut a straight line across the bottom below the train wheels. You could technically add the image to the cake just like this, but I thought it looked a little cleaner to cut two more straight lines from the base up to the arch formed when I cut off the lettering from the top of the image. If you're using a *different* image - essentially you just need to cut it to fit your cake! I found it easiest to hold the image up next to the cake and decide where I wanted to make my cuts to get it to fit. I used a sharp paring knife, a ruler, and a pair of sharp scissors to make my cuts.
- With small dabs of frosting, adhere the edible image to the side of the cake. (I found it easiest to start from the center and work out, using extra frosting to adhere the edges since they're the most likely to pull away from the side of the cake.)
- Transfer remaining frosting to a piping bag fitted with a star tip, and pipe a rim of frosting swirls around the top of the cake (I added one larger one above the center of the image as a small frosting 'smokestack.') Add a ring of sugar pearls around base of the cake, and top each frosting swirl with a sugar pearl.
- Annnd you're done! Congratulations - and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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