Celebrate your favorite train lover with an easy-to-create train cake! This simple little cake comes together in a snap and will be the star of the show at your next celebration!
Looking for more ways to entertain your train-loving child? Be sure to read about our favorite Train Station Activity, and check out our list of Creative Train Ideas.
My 3-year-old gets pretty bored during the day when his older siblings are at school. One day last month I decided to put together a small train party with him and two friends to help bust his boredom. I pretty much won the “Mom of the Year Award”… and the afternoon was practically effortless!
The “party” was more like a play date, but it was a lot of fun! I had a couple of train cartoons playing in the background while we played with his train set, and we ate a train cake- ’cause it wouldn’t be a party without cake, right?
Popular Train Shows for Kids:
- Thomas the Tank Engine
- Chuggington
- Dinosaur Train
- Mighty Express
- Polas Express
Easy Train Cake
The train cake was their favorite part, and it was probably mine too! It took me about 15 minutes to make, and it’s pretty affordable!
I’ve seen other train cakes online that require purchasing a special train cake pan or carving cake from baked loaf pans, but this cake doesn’t need any of that!
You don’t need to mix or bake any batter, or roll our any special frostings with a rolling pin. This entire cake is made from store-bought snack cakes and candies. No flour, no eggs, no cake mix, no fancy pans or cake tin, no cooling rack needed… NONE of that!
This cake would be so fun for birthdays, too! Stick some birthday candles in the caboose and it becomes the perfect birthday cake!
If you’re making this for a party, you can make it as big or as little as you need!
Here are some helpful tips I discovered and a list of all the candies I used –
How To Make A Train Cake
INGREDIENTS –
- flat piece of cardboard or poster board that will fit the length of your cake
- snack cakes – Twinkies, Singers, Swiss Rolls, etc.
- black licorice, for the track
- pretzel sticks, for the track
- sour straws, to connect the train cars
- vanilla or buttercream frosting or icing in a piping bag – Storebought is fine, or you can make your own Royal Icing with our recipe.)
- candies –
- Gummy Savers, for the wheels
- Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses, for the chimney/ smoke stack
- Topping Candies – Rolos, Dots, Skittles, Nerds + Mike and Ikes
- Other Sweets/ Topping Ideas – Smarties, Popcorn, Coconut, Sprinkles, Animal Crackers, Cookies, graham cracker crumbs, etc.
INSTRUCTIONS –
I put all my candies in their own bowl so it made decorating go faster. If you’re letting little hands help decorate, give each of them a large bowl with a variety of candies and toppings.
Connect several pieces of black licorice to form your track. Trim your licorrice track with kitchen shears or a sharp knife.
TIP: I found that microwaving the licorice for 30 seconds or so makes them easier to form and they’ll harden in the shape you place them. Once microwaved, they become quite hard and aren’t as fun to eat, but it definitely looks better!
Add pretzel sticks to the “tracks” and secure them with a dab of frosting on each end.
Place the snack cakes on top of the tracks.
Cut your sour straws to the desired length and insert each end into the back or front of each sponge cake to connect the carriages.
Add a small amount of frosting to the backs of the Gummy Savers and stick 4 of them on each car for the “wheels”. You can add a pretzel stick to the wheels, too, if you’d like.
Continue decorating each car with frosting and candies until your darling little train cake is ready to go!
So simple, and so fun!
STORAGE –
It’s best to store this cake in the fridge, covered loosely with plastic wrap. If you want to freeze it, place individual train cars in air-tight containers before putting them in the freezer. You can re-assemble while still frozen, but do not serve until defrosted.
HERE’S A PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE –
Train Cake
Ingredients
- snack cakes – Twinkies, Singers, Swiss Rolls, etc.
- black licorice, for the track
- pretzel sticks, for the track
- sour straws, to connect the train cars
- frosting or icing in a piping bag
- candies –
- Gummy Savers, for the wheels
- Hershey’s Kisses, for the smoke stack
- Topping Candies – Rolos, Dots, Skittles, Nerds, Mike and Ikes, etc.
Instructions
- Connect several pieces of black licorice to form your track. TIP: I found that microwaving the licorice for 30 seconds or so makes them easier to form and they’ll harden in the shape you place them. Once microwaved, they become quite hard and aren’t as fun to eat, but it definitely looks better!
- Add pretzel sticks to the “tracks” and secure them with a dab of frosting on each end.
- Place the snack cakes on top of the tracks.
- Cut your sour straws to the desired length and insert each end into the back or front of each snack cake to connect the “cars”
- Add a small amount of frosting to the backs of the Gummy Savers and stick 4 of them on each car for the “wheels”. You can add a pretzel stick to the wheels, too, if you’d like.
- Continue decorating each car with frosting and candies until your darling little train cake is ready to go!
Notes
Nutrition
Other Notes
The little of Swiss Rolls and Twinkies is so cute! What an original idea! I only have granddaughter, no boys yet, but I will save this idea!