It's a piece of cake!

Not too long ago we celebrated my sons birthday and I had to come up with a cake. I didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for a toddlers birthday cake, but the insecure little boy in me wanted to do something special; you know, something that would WOW the other parents. Let's face it when the budget is tight you don't have the cash for something flashy, but to come out with a sheet cake still in it's pan with some frosting slapped on it, and some candles wouldn't satisfy me either. Armed with three home made sheet cakes, my mom's famous butter creme frosting recipe, and a plastic face I pulled off a previously massacred children's book, I set out to work. Using a very sharp serraded knife I began to cut the layers from the bottom and work my way up the form. Using a toy as my guide and toothpicks to hold the pieces in place temporarly, I constructed a very useful engine. I used chocolate chips for the coal in the tender, Hershey's Kisses for the bumpers, chocolate mints for the boiler supports, and two sugar-free butterscotch candies for the whistles on the top. Everything on the cake (except the face) was edible... no toothpicks. This was a free standing three layer birthday cake! I stayed up until three in the morning frosting it, but when all was said and done I had made myself happy, and gotten my little one to talk about the cake for weeks, not to mention ooh's and aah's from the other parents. Childish insecurity? - probably.