I am to do a Thomas cake for my nephew's 1st BD next month. I don't want to buy a specialty pan. I would love to do a 3D cake. Could someone give me an idea on how to cut up a cake to make it? I saw soooo many in the gallery that fabulous!!!

I am no expert but my nephew wanted this for his birthday also. I used a loaf pan and baked a cake and then got one of those icecream cake rolls for the front. For the wheels I used oreos and for the steam thing I used a little cupcake. It looked ok. I used pull n peel twizzlers for the things that hook the wheels together on the sides, and lines across the top. It did not look exactly like Thomas but he did know right who it was. I even printed a picture of thomas off internet, cut out the face and used that on the front. However I now have the Wilton train cake pan, only paid $11 for it so I didn't think that was too bad. Like I said it was only the 3rd cake I have done so I am no expert.

What is an ice cream cake roll? I'm new, too, so excuse the lack of knowing what's available... Would you be able to send me a pic? I have a storage issue, so buying alot of shaped pans is out of the question for me, unless I can justify it's future use... thanx for responding and welcome to CC!!

Steph - yes I used a loaf pan cake on the bottom, 1/2 of a loaf pan cake up and down for the back and then the ice cream cake roll for the front on top of the loaf cake for the bottom, I had to cut it down but another idea I had was to use cookies w/ ice cream in them like the ice cream sandwiches you can get at the store, I was just worried about how I would keep them hooked together, could use frosting though I guess. I will have to dig out a picture and see if I can figure out how to get it on here. A cake roll is just one of those cakes from the store maybe devils food and it has ice cream between the layers rolled in a roll. Not sure how to explain it. I bought it though.