It was my friend Jemma’s birthday yesterday.

I sent a message to her boyfriend last week to ask him if he was planning on us making her a cake this year…. he responds… this week (cheers Neil) to say yeah, how about something Thomas related? She LOVES Thomas the Tank Engine… yeah… she’s 29. But who are we to deny her what she likes for her birthday? Especially as I have a little soft spot for that little locomotive too!

So I did a bit of a search for some ideas and saw this one. Thought I would give it a go!

I stopped off at Toys R Us one night this week on my way back from Bath, and bought this.

Then made some cake….

It was constructed just of 2 square cakes and then a cake I baked in a jug (for height)

I trimmed the jug cake slightly, so that it would sit on the corner, and flattened the inner edge so that there was a place for the tunnel opening…. so I covered the cakes in green icing, then freehand cut a dark grey piece of icing to form the tunnel, and some little rectangles of grey, brown, and reddish brown…

The track was made out of a base of beigey grey, then strips of grey icing for sleepers…

The rails themselves were strips of grey icing that I brushed with a bit of pearly lustre for a bit of shine… and made some trees and rocks….

To add to the extras, I piped some leaves using a small leaf tip, and also some bits using a grass tip….

One day I might listen to one of those food styling tips and take pictures against a plain background…..

I think it turned out ok, not quite to the standard of the original… but Jemma loved it! And this time round I didn’t have to mutilate the toy to construct it, I think she may have been upset if I had!

Present-wise, other than the cake, I made her an apron:

Using my favourite apron pattern. I had bought some nice tape:

So added that to it too!

I think she suspects we’re conspiring against her… I also made her a jar of hobnob mix to go with the apron, and someone else got her a christmas spice cake mix! Haha! She WILL learn to cook!