Sunday, July 5, 2009

Thomas the Train

So, a few hours ago I blogged about the amazing Thomas the Train cake photos I received from Huy Phan and already I've received complaints about the lack of behind-the-scenes photos in the post. Sheesh, you guys are demanding!.....and I guess I'm a pushover 'cause here I am, about to write another post on the construction of Thomas, lol.

When reproducing real objects in cake form, especially cars and such, I always strive to reproduce them to scale for greater realism. Unexpectedly, Thomas proved to be a challenge from the get-go. Why, you ask? Because there's so many versions of him and each version had differently sized. The infant toy model is short and stout (yes, like a teapot), the real train model of Thomas is slim and long, and everything in between was well, in between. After going through what seemed like a thousand photos (ok, it was more like 50), I found one that was a good representation of the most commonly-sized Thomas the Train.

I actually don't have too many in-process photos of Thomas because once I start decorating a cake, I tend to zone out and the next thing I know, well, the cake is finished. However, I do have two that you guys might be interested in.

One of the first things I do when I start a cake is to cover the cake board and build the necessary supports so that they have plenty of time to dry. The base of this cake is constructed from balsa wood covered in fondant.
Then I started carving Thomas, making sure to use cake for as many parts of the train as possible. Here it is crumb-coated with buttercream.
And then voila!, the finished cake.

Photo by Huy Phan

There, you guys happy now?

Lien Sanchez

www.crazycakecompany.com

3 comments:

SweetThingsTO said...

That Thomas the Tank engine is fabulous! Thanks for posting the "in progress" pics!

Shandi said...

Wow this is so neat. You are an excellent carver. Looks just like Thomas, very cool!

Unknown said...

I love this cake! You are so talented! My four year old, a huge Thomas face, was disappointed when he saw the picture because Thomas is the number 1 engine. The cake still rocks!!