3D Thomas the Tank Engine Cake

My son turned 2 years old and one of the things he really likes is Thomas the Tank Engine. Since it was a small kids party I decided to be brave and attempt a version of Thomas in 3D!! **gulp** I was nervous for about a week. So nervous that I didn't even want to start baking it! I knew I needed to make a very stable cake that would carve well. The best thing I could think of was a chocolate cake from scratch. They are always more dense and never break apart. Their are a lot of people who say that a cake from scratch is better than a boxed cake mix, then you give them a cake from scratch and guess what? They don't like it!! They say it's too hard, too dry or "not the same". This was my dilemna, I knew a scratch chocolate cake would not go over well, so I had to compromise the taste for structural integrity of the cake. I started by making the face out of fondant. I used a circle cutout and made it about 3 1/2 inches in diameter. Then I made the chocolate cake. It was resting on a full sheet of cake. 1/2 was Tres Leches (Three Milks) and the other half was white pecan cake with coconut cream cheese filling...duh. LOL

I used my sons little Thomas to copy the facial features. Then I stacked and filled the chocolate cake with cookies and cream buttercream filling.

I really needed to concentrate so I put the kids to bed, then I grabbed my big serrated knife and started chopping off the front of the cake and trying to copy the shape of the train. Then funny enough I ran out of chocolate cake. All I had left was a box mix so I stuck it in the oven and then froze it for an hour so it would be firm. Nope, I could barely carve that sucker, it was not sturdy enough at all! Buttercream icing to the rescue!! I crumb coated my cake and stuck it in the fridge. The next morning I finished decorating the details on the tank and also on the full sheet cake. Well, my son saw the cake and screamed "Thomaaaaaaaassss!" Mission accomplished! :)