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Second birthday and a train cake

Nicholas turned three on Sunday. Yes, three, not two. It’s taken me a whole year to blog about the cake I made him for his second birthday…

Last year Nicholas was mad about trains so it was easy to choose the theme for his birthday party. It also meant I could make him an iconic cake. An iconic Australian birthday cake.

Growing up in Australia there was one book most mothers turned to when their kids’ birthdays came around. I don’t think I’m alone in remembering the excitement of looking through the Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book and either getting to choose the cake myself or wondering which one my mum would make me.

Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book

And in this iconic book there is an iconic cake. This cake is so iconic there’s even a song about it!

So easy decision, the train cake it was.

Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake BookBut for some reason I wanted to make this iconic cake even more amazing. For some reason I always want to make things harder for myself. I wanted to make a train cake with a surprise inside. It took a bit of practising, but I managed to hide the number two and some stars inside the cake. I’m not sure it was worth all the stress and time, but I do think it turned out great!

Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake BookWe had train-shaped sandwiches, healthy carrot muffins, railway crossing fruit skewers and yogurt train carriages, along with a few other nibbles.

Train party food
And most  important of all, Nicholas loved his cake.

happy customer with his train cakechecking the buttercream icing

Although he may have enjoyed the Thomas train we hired more! (My goodness what a difference a year makes…)

Second birthday ride-on Thomas train

Birthday breakfast

birthday breakfast 1

Pinterest is a great time waster, but I do love it for its creative inspiration. I stumbled across a link, from the Australian Kidspot site I love, not long before Nicholas’ birthday giving different ideas for making a child’s birthday special. As his party was on the day of his birthday, I wanted to make his one day magical from the moment he woke up.

We snuck some balloons into his room after he’d fallen asleep so he’d see them as soon as he woke up, and put up some decorations in the dining room for breakfast. They certainly worked in getting him excited!

birthday breakfast 3

Keeping it as stress-free as possible, I defrosted some pancakes I had in the freezer (yes, the fluffiest pancakes make another appearance yet again!), and topped them with sliced banana, honey, chocolate sprinkles and icecream (well, if you can’t eat icecream for breakfast on your birthday, when can you eat it for breakfast?!). Oh, and two candles, so he could practise blowing for later. While Nicholas enjoyed his birthday breakfast indulgence, the adults had dairy-free banana bread.

What's more fun than blowing out your birthday candles? Trying to touch the flame with your fingers!

What’s more fun than blowing out your birthday candles? Trying to touch the flame with your fingers!