A Journey with Bluebell

Before the assembly process began

So today was Isaac's fourth Birthday and as you may or may not know he is a bit of a train geek.
When he was asked what type of Birthday cake he wanted he originally asked for Stepney. OK I thought I can do this he wants a birthday cake shaped like an engine I can do this.


As his birthday got closer I suddenly had a panic, He actually wanted a birthday cake shaped like a steam engine!!! Yep, an actual steam engine. 


Then he moved the boundaries. The conversation went something like this.
Me " So, Isaac, it's your birthday party soon, do you still want a cake shaped like Stephney?"
Isaac "Mummy, I love the Bluebell Railway. Bluebell is my favourite engine, can you make a Bluebell cake?"
Me " So you'd like a cake shaped like Bluebell"
Isaac "Can I have 2 cakes? A Bluebell cake and an Archie cake?"
Me "Isaac you can have one birthday cake - Bluebell or Stepney?"
Isaac "Ok, I'll have Bluebell, Next year can you make me an Archie cake?"


So there you have it, my nearly (& now) 4 year old knows his own mind and wanted a Bluebell 323 engine cake.


So now came the logistics. Do you have any idea how many bits there are to an engine? 


Luckily we spend a lot of time at the Bluebell Railway and I have a lot of photos of Bluebell to compare and work from. We did go again and I did take a lot of photos so that I had things to work from.



 We started with the wheels. I was quite proud of this. I made, from scratch, 4 swiss rolls.
I had never made a swiss roll before and was really surprised as to how easy it was. I found the recipe here and they were very easy and so light when I had to eat the offcuts later!!










So after the wheels then there was the base board. I made a total of 6 sponge cakes to be able to manufacture this masterpiece.


The sponges were a basic 4 egg, 8oz of caster sugar, flour & margarine and baked for 20 minutes in a 180C oven. I used a square silicon pan and a rectangle one to give me shapes that I could cut easily and use to assemble.




Once the base was assembled and stuck together (I used buttercream for that) I had to cut the final swiss roll to form the boiler









I then used the rest of the rectangles and cut them into sections to form then cab and bunker. I sandwiched them together with buttercream and jam to provide some variety in the taste.
I also used 2 square offcuts to form the tanks on the side of the boiler.

The finished item before icing began

 As this was my first attempt at I cake I have to confess that I cheated a little with the icing. I used shop bought ready made icing in blue, black & red.
I used a circular cutter to make the wheel shapes and front of the boiler and rolled rectangles to cover the remainder of the cake. 


I had a slight panic when I ran out of blue icing and it took a while to find some more in Sainsburys.


I also used red around the bottom of the boiler & cab and above the wheels and coloured some white icing yellow to form the dome.

Leftover cake bits

 And here in all its blue, red, yellow and black glory is the finished product. I used ready made piping icing to add the detailing and because I couldn't write Bluebell small enough I wrote it on the cake board where I had planned to put Isaac's name and age

A small boy with the 'real' Bluebell

and with his birthday Bluebell