Toby's 3rd Birthday Part II, Thomas The Tank Engine Birthday Cake

As I mentioned before, my nephews' and nieces' birthdays are generally celebrated twice, and Toby's birthday this year was no exception. We combined his big birthday celebration with his older brother's birthday, Nathaniel (their birthdays are exactly one week apart). I had to make two different cakes though for each one of them.

The first Thomas cake M and I made for Max a year ago

Toby LOVES Thomas the tank engine, as most kids do I think. I made a Thomas cake once a year ago for a friend's kid's birthday, Max, who was (and still) a Thomas fanatic. When it was time for the cake to be picked up and carried away, Toby cried watching the Thomas cake went away, he was not even 2 years old then. I felt so bad and decided that this year, I should make him one too.

M's hidden talent is carving stuff. He loves carving watermelon into different shapes and he is very good in helping me carve cakes. I am usually in charge of the baking, frosting, and the whole bit while he will carve it. I will cover it with fondant and he will be the one who puts the tiny details. One thing he has that I don't, is patience, for sure.

M helped me with the Thomas cake for Max. At that time, I was pressed with time and M's mom kindly sent me a train mold that we then decorated it like Thomas. Max loved it so much that he didn't want the cake to be cut. He first thought it was a real train and he tried to move it. We were so proud at that time. We looked back to the picture and decided that we could and should do it a lot better this time, as there were some areas that definitely could use some improvement.

It literally took the whole day for decoration only but we were so satisfied! I have to give most of the credits for the decoration to M as he was very detailed-oriented. We were so tired by the end of the day, I wanted to give up so many times and just slacked off on some part but M insisted. It might not look as much work as it seems but believe me, the little details, different colors, took a long time to make. Toby's reaction was priceless, he LOVED it so much and couldn't take his eyes away from it. M and I were so proud (we still are when we look back) as it was definitely one of the best cakes we've done together. Not that we have that many carved cakes, but we did some too in the past (that is yet to be posted here).

The proud team and the birthday boy

Many of the guests were kids and it was definitely a proud moment seeing the kids admiring the cake. More so for me as I suck at making kids cake (although half the credit for this one definitely goes to M). Will we do it again? For sure! At least one more, as M wanted to re-do the wheels. It should wait for another year though. Happy Birthday Toby!