Ingredients

2 packets butter cake mix 225g packaged sponge roil (see note) 2 quantities Vienna Cream red food coloring blue food coloring purple food coloring apricot food coloring green food colorings 8 lube rings thin licorice chocolate sprinkles colored popcorn I pipe cleaner wooden ice block sticks 20 round chocolate biscuits assorted sweets (as shown) I ice-cream wafer I board, straight or curved, 100cm x 20cm (4Dm x 8In)

Method

Make cakes according to directions on packet, divide mixture evenly be-tween four greased 25cm x 8cm (10in x 3m) bar tins, bake in moder-ate oven 30 minutes or until cooked when tested. Turn cakes on to wire rack to cool. Cut bar cakes in half vertically to give eight equal pieces, reserve five of these to make tops of the four car-riages and back of engine, cut remain-ing three pieces in half horizontally to give six equal pieces, five of which form the bases of the engine and four carriages; cut off one quarter of re-maining piece to add to engine base to extend it, discard remaining three quarters. Cut a 4cm (1 in) wide slice from sponge roll, hold slice upright and cut out smoke stack shape with a 2.5cm (1in ) plain cutter, as shown; use the rest of the sponge roll for engine. Assemble cake, as shown, on pre-pared board. Divide Vienna Cream into five equal portions, tint one portion with red food coloring, one with blue food coloring, one with purple food coloring, one with apricot food coloring and one with green food coloring; cover tops and sides of the eng-ine and carriages each with different-colored Vienna Cream, as shown. Join carriages with pairs of juba rings: split one ring, push the other ring through it, and press on to Vienna Cream. Outline engine and tops of carriages with thin licorice, as shown. Cover top and sides of smoke stack with red Vienna Cream, coat with chocolate sprinkles, position, as shown; with a skewer, make holes through five pieces of popcorn, thread on to pipe cleaner, insert into smoke’ stack. Place whole ice block sticks across front, back and between carriages, as shown, to represent sleepers; to make other sleepers, break ice block sticks into 4cm (1 ½ in) lengths, slide them underne8th edges of cake on both sides. Double strips of licorice on either side of train represent tracks. Position chocolate biscuits, as shown, to represent wheels, stick round flat sweets on chocolate biscuits with a little Vienna Cream. Cut a 4cm x 1cm (lY2in x %in) strip from wafer, press strip firmly on to bottom front of en-gine, arrange pieces of 2.5cm (un) licorice against wafer, as shown, to represent “cow catcher” Pile pop-corn on top Of carriages, decorate rest of cake with assorted sweets Note: The sponge roll we used was 17cm (6 ½ in) in length and 6cm (214in) in diameter. Called French Sponge Roll, it was made by Top Taste.