Train Cake

For this cake you will need a 9" cake drum.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan/gas mark 4) Grease and line two 7" sandwich tins.

Beat together all of the cake ingredients until light and fluffy. Split the mixture evenly between the two prepare tins.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake. Leave the cake to fully cool on a wire rack before decorating.

For the buttercream, beat together the icing sugar and butter until smooth. Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract for flavouring and a splash of milk if the icing becomes too stiff.

Whilst the sponge is cooling, roll out some white sugar paste to the same size as your cake drum and position on top of the cake securing in place with a touch of buttercream. Use a sharp knife to cut away excess icing from around the outside of the cake drum.

Sandwich together your two sponges with the buttercream filling and use the remaining buttercream to coat the top and sides of your cake (this will help the sugarpaste icing stick to the cake) Save a small amount of buttercream aside to secure your cake to the board and the sweet decorations.

Roll out your green sugar paste icing to a circumference large enough to cover the entire cake. Carefully roll the icing on to your roll pin and then drape over your cake, smoothing into place with your hands or a cake smoother. Cut off any excess icing with a sharp knife.

Spread a small amount of buttercream on to the white iced cake drum and position your cake in the centre.

Roll out the brown sugar paste icing into a long rectangle and cut out evenly sized small rectangles (these will form the train tracks) You may need to re-roll the excess icing to create enough for the tracks. Space these out along the outside of the cake and on top of the cake board, securing in place with boiled water.

Roll out the black sugar paste icing into two thin sausage to form the train tracks (you may need to cut these into smaller pieces to avoid breakages) Use the remaining black icing to make the wheels, by rolling out thinly and cutting into circles.

Use the red, yellow, white and blue sugar paste icing to create the train and duck decoration.

Use the leftover buttercream to secure the sweets to the train decoration.