My nephew has asked for a Polar Express theme cake, and his party is this Saturday. So I am in need of simple ideas fast! I've thought about doing the train free hand and filling in with stars, but any pictures I've found have soooo many little details. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Why not try one of the train shaped pans (Thomas, or 3-D) , then modify colors to look like the polar express and put white icing,powdered sugar and/or coconut for snow around it

Make a large silver bell. Use the ball pan and cover it with grey fondant and paint it with silver luster dust. Just use a real bell/picture of one as a guide.

What about a sheet cake that looks like the ticket and just the front of the train coming out of it. you could probably make the train front out of fondant in advance. Not really 3-D but could probably be done easy enough.

Here's an idea from Kraft:

http://www.kraftfoods.com/main.aspx?s=recipe&m=recipe/knet_recipe_display&u1=keyword&u2=polar%20express&u3=**1*1&wf=9&recipe_id=68942

I read this on this forum and one member(sorry I don't rememebr the name) had a terrific idea to make cylinders by baking cakes in a soup can.
You can make a train engine using cake cylinders and frost it in gray on a sheet cake frosted in white. You can decorate the sheet cake with silver dragees and add a sleigh bell.

Thanks, Pink Panther, for the idea from Kraft. If may be a little young for him (he's 12), but it might work very well for my son who will be turning 3 this summer and loves trains.

I think I'm going to have to pass on a 3-D cake, because I've never tried fondant and they don't have any train shaped pans close to where I live. (I'm an hour from the nearest store that would carry them and can't get there this week.) I did trace a picture of the Polar Express onto waxed paper using a Sharpie. I'm thinking of tracing that with melted chocolate, freezing it, peeling it off the waxed paper, and placing it on top of the cake. Then I'll fill it in. Does that sound like it would work or be a disaster???

What are you planning on filling it in with? If it's buttercream, you might try the frozen buttercream transfer. You would fill it with BC first, then freeze. Here's an article on how to do it:

http://cakecentral.com/article12-How-To-Create-a-Frozen-Buttercream-Transfer.html

Or, if you want to fill it in with melted chocolate, you don't even have to freeze it. Just set it aside until it hardens, like in the Whimsical Bakehouse books suggests. HTH!

Did he choose the Polar Express because he likes trains or because he likes the movie? If it's because he likes trains, I think you're on the right track. (Oh, sheesh, I honestly did NOT plan that pun!!) If it's because he likes the movie you could also consider the bell (as someone else mentioned) or a cariboo or the train engineer w/the long beard (I just love him!). I think your chocolate transfer sounds great!

Thanks for the great ideas! I think I'll try the frozen buttercream transfer. Maybe I'll still use melted chocolate to pipe the outline and let it harden before I begin with the buttercream since I've never tried one and am a little nervous about smearing everything together. We'll see how it turns out.