Going back in time part 2: Devin's 1st Birthday Cake

For Devin's first birthday I was super excited to do his birthday cake-- I spent a lot of time planning exactly what I wanted to do--- and since he is a boy, I wanted to do a train cake. It was a big undertaking. I actually am a bit embarrased to divulge that I did a couple of trial cakes before the big day. With disastrous results to boot. It was a good thing I practiced, otherwise I probably would have had a meltdown the day of the party.

Anyway, my mother-in-law gave me the idea to bake the train engine in a recycled Hi-C can (you know, the juice that comes in a can). It was the perfect shape and worked well, but I had to practice to know how long to bake it. I practiced with a box cake mix and the first time I really undercooked it and when I went to remove the cake, it literally ran out of the mold. Yikes! Live and learn.... Eventually I figured it out.

The day before his birthday I took a vacation day from my full-time job and spent the day baking, cutting, assembling, de-assembling, mixing frosting, buying candy to decorate, preparing the cake board, etc. It was fun!

Here are some pics of the process and the final product.

I was pretty pleased and Devin seemed to like his first taste of cake (from scratch, of course)!