Well this past week was a double birthday celebration. We celebrated with some yummy dinners and way too many sweets. (Seriously, I am done with sweets, I always feel so bad afterwards both mentally and physically. Well after this cupcake tutorial maybe.) Thank goodness it was a short week after our vacation because it was a struggle to get back to the real world. We didn’t buy the internet package on the boat because it was so expensive, and all I can say is that I loved the forced disconnect. I think I’m going to start a “vacation” program where I just turn off somebody’s internet for them. (It’s hard to pull that plug yourself.) What a relief to not have the temptation of internet garbage. Not only that but being out of contact with the rest of the world was also somehow relaxing and liberating. (Plus the onboard spa pampering helped.) Seriously though, it felt like the first time I have been able to disconnect in ages. It was amazing.
Oh and I witnessed this while Julius and Patricia were playing quietly in the hotel room before we said we would get up on the day of the cruise:
Julius: I’m so excited today.
Patricia: Me too, but why?
Julius: We’re going on the cruise today.
Patricia: TO DAY?!
Now that we’re back to the real world, Julius has been doing summer camps and Patricia is back at her daycare (with summer water play!) They both have been having a great time. I can’t believe how quickly they are growing. We’ve been desperately trying to improve their eating manners (usually they start with their food on the plate and the food ends up on the napkin, then on the table. They use any surface in front of them as an eating area. And don’t get me started with utensils. Remember how Julius was so excited and proud of himself for using utensils as a baby? Well he gave up on all that and prefers to only eat with his hands. Where did I go wrong? The only thing helping right now is our reminder that “the princesses” (the ones who live in Disney World) will be disappointed if their manners are not up to par. Patricia has started remarking when they (or others) are not meeting the Princesses standards.
Well these cupcakes may not be princess material but they sure are cute. I found these adorable locomotive cupcakes on pinterest. They don’t tell what brands they used to make them, but I would know those dipped wafer rolls anywhere! My grandma always used to have them on hand. Unfortunately for me, they are German (just like my grandma) and very difficult to find in the US. For those who plan ahead, they are called Bahlsen Waffeletten and they are delicious! I went to the usual stores with imported items, but no luck, I couldn’t find them anywhere and I didn’t have time to special order them. So instead I went to my backup plan. I made the trains a bit smaller and used Pirouline wafers for the engine. This meant I had to cut down the vanilla wafer cookies as well. I don’t know a single child (and not many adults under 89) who like black licorice candies so I also sized down the wheels a bit and used mini york peppermint patties and mini brown m&ms instead.
Cupcake Train
What you’ll need:
- Cupcakes (mine were these super easy and delicious chocolate ones)
- buttercream frosting (I’ve been using this one!)
- Pirouline rolled wafer sticks
- vanilla wafer cookies (like these)
- m&ms minis
- mini York Peppermint Patties
- chocolate pocky
- Green food coloring
- Divide out about 2/3 of the frosting and dye it green.
- Using 234 piping tip, pipe “grass” blades all over the top of the cupcakes
- Using white frosting and a moderately sized line tip, pipe a line of train tracks (or you can dye the rest brown, but I didn’t have brown food coloring)
For each locomotive:
- Cut a vanilla wafer lengthwise so it is only slightly wider than a Pirouline.
- Cut the wafer down to about 1.5″ long. Cut a Pirouline down to match.
- Cut the chocolate part of the pocky stick so it it 1/2″ long.
- Finally cut a square of vanilla wafer for the top of the engine.
- Set aside 5 brown m&m minis and 2 mini york peppermint patties.
- Assemble the train. Use the cut down vanilla wafer as the base, then draw a line of frosting on top. Place the pirouline on top of this.
Not the width of the wafers has been cut down, as has the length and small squares have been made to match the new width. Here I am adding the pirouline on top of the base wafer with frosting.
- Place a blob of frosting on one side of the square vanilla wafer, then place on top of the Pirouline on one side for the cabin.
Here I’ve placed the square cabin top of the locomotive and in one the smokestack.
- On the opposite side, place a little dab of frosting on top of the Pirouline. Place the cut pocky stick into this dab of frosting to stand upright for a chimney.
- Place a bit of frosting on the back of a brown m&m mini and gently press it onto the pocky stick chimney.
- Place a bit of frosting on the back of a mini York peppermint patty. Press it onto the bottom wafer on the side with the cabin.
- Place a bit of frosting on the back of 2 more brown m&m minis and stick them to the bottom vanilla wafer base in front of the mini York Peppermint patty as wheels.
- Repeat steps 10 and 11 on the other side of the train. Let dry.
Check out the finished locomotives in the right of this picture.
- When dry, press onto a cupcake on top of the train tracks.
To make the train cars
- Cut down 2 wafers lengthwise like you did for the locomotive.
- Cut the 2 wafers into two pieces 1/3 of the way down the wafer.
- Set aside 4 brown m&m minis for wheels.
- Assemble the car by putting some frosting on either end of the 1/3 pieces of wafer. Lay one of the long wafers down then press a shorter wafer at each end. Place another long wafer on top. Lay flat it should look like a basket.
Assembled coal cars plus one with partial wheels.
- Put some frosting on the back of the m&m minis and affix two to the bottom of a long wafer on either end. Repeat for second side. Let dry.
- When dry, place on top of the railroad track on a cupcake then fill with m&m minis.
In the back of the photo are the cars filled with m&ms the one in the foreground has the layer of icing to allow the m&ms to overflow slightly.
- Put a small amount of white frosting just outside the hole for the m&ms. Scatter more m&ms on top.
Up close of the finished locomotives and train cars.
