Parenting & New Baby Advice Blog

Posts Tagged ‘train baby shower’

As with all my cake posts, I'm drooling by the time I finish my research!  Luckily, my husband's birthday was earlier this week so I was able to indulge in a little cake, although it wasn't quite as inspiring as the cakes shown below.  All photos were found on www.flickr.com

The adorable creation shown in the top left is displayed by mandott on Flickr.  The two layer design features a railroad track piped on the cake plate and a train pieced together with fondant chugging around the bottom layer.  The top layer has fondant mountains and the topper is a railroad crossing sign.

The top center photo is a colorful train engine created by bo_n_arro.  The cake was cut and pieced together, then skillfully iced with buttercream.  Although it was time consuming to achieve the texture seen on the cake, the end result was worth the effort!

There are many ways to add a train to your shower cake, as seen on the top right cake made by sharoncakes.  The fancy 2 layer cake has colorful fondant accents, topped with a cardboard train that is decorated with icing.

The bottom cake shown above is my favorite train cake because of the shape, color and display!  The display board was simply decorated by cakeboxsoc with green icing and small, simple flowers along with a curved train track created out of icing.  The train itself was covered in brightly colored fondant, then small details were added with colored icing.  Although the design is not the most complex of the cakes shown here, it's still a successful creation.

The center cake in the collage shown above is a simple sheet cake, iced with a small train design in the center.  The train was modeled after the one on the tableware that was used at Linda's Kitchen's shower.

The top design in the second collage is a large train piece baked and frosted by bluecakecompany.  The large pieces were frosted and decorated with buttercream and fondant.  I especially love the gum paste babies that were along for the train ride!

The bottom left cake was made with cakes baked in a loaf pan, then cut, iced and decorated with cookies, graham cracker bears and candy pieces.  The tracks were made out of popsickle sticks and a toy conductor is perched alongside.  This cake was made by amanda p. wu, and I found a great instructional video illustrating how to make a cake similar to this - sponsored by the Betty Crocker Kitchens and Howdini.com.

The final cake in this post is a professionally decorated piece with zebra stripes and jungle animals riding inside the train cars.  I love the detailed fondant work done by Pacific Pastries.  She actually created the circus train out of rice krispy treats because they are easier to mold into shape than cake. I would love having any of these as a baby gift if I were a newborn!!

More fun cake ideas:

• Theme Baby Shower Cakes
• Theme Baby Shower Cakes II

It's always fun to have little gifts to hand out to your baby shower guests.  Whether they win it playing a game or you give them out at the end of the shower, make sure to have some matching favors that will highlight your train baby shower!

One suggestion is the beautiful crystal train shown here.  Each multi-faceted lead crystal design glimmers in the sunlight and makes a great decoration or paperweight.  My husband loves to buy me lead crystal favors because of the way they reflect light and create rainbows for my boys to chase around the house!  We also have train-themed candles to decorate your tables or to send home with each guest.

You may want to bake train shaped cookies for dessert at your shower, you can either use cookie cutters as a guest favor, or decorate and package each cookie to send home as a tasty guest favor itself!  Edible favors are always a hit, you can purchase a colored favor box, fill it with the mother-to-be's favorite candy and finish it with a personalized train-themed sticker.  Create your own sticker at Zazzle.com for as little as $.32 each.

More Baby Shower Ideas:

• Top 5 Baby Girl Shower Themes
• Top 5 Baby Boy Shower Themes

When decorating for a train baby shower you can go with bold, bright colors or more muted tones.  Since trains are a very popular birthday theme, it should be easy for you to find tableware and decorations that can also be used for your train baby shower.

Once you find train themed tableware that you like, I suggest accenting these pieces with single color balloons, streamers and/or napkins.  Pick an accent color from the design - score bonus points with the mother-to-be if you can use her favorite color!  Many of the train items I found online are appropriate for a baby boy or girl, but most train-themed showers I researched have been for a boy.

I believe that reading to babies makes them smarter from the time they are conceived, so I try to find ways to tie books in to a shower theme.  There are two perfect book selections for a choo choo train shower - The Little Engine that Could and Thomas the Train.  There are a number of Thomas books based on different themes (sharing, friendship, etc).  Purchase one of these books as a shower gift, use it as for decorating or take phrases out of the book as inspiration for a shower game.

If you want to go all out with your train theme, turn the food table into a food train!  Start with a blank tablecloth and draw tracks winding across the table.  Before sketching out the design, you may want to set up each tray to see how wide the tracks should be.  Use square or rectangular-shaped serving platters as the train cars.  Add Oreo cookies or Ritz crackers for the wheels on the cars, and link them together with licorice whips.  To make the display more realistic you can add an actual train engine at the front and a caboose at the end.  You can also decorate the tablecloth with phrases like "All Aboard" or "Thank You for riding [mother's name] Baby Train".

If your shower will include guests that may not know each other, print some train-themed name tags and ask each person to fill one out when they arrive.  You can also create or purchase a choo choo train diaper cake that is filled with useful baby items for mom.  These diaper cakes make an amazing centerpiece and a useful gift for your guest of honor!

More Train Baby Shower Ideas:

• Train Themed Baby Shower
• Thomas The Train Birthday Party Theme

Our first home was close to the railroad tracks.  When I mean close, I mean that our backyard ended where the tracks began.  We were also near a railroad crossing, so the trains heading east would blow their whistles right in our backyard!  Thankfully our firstborn inherited my "heavy sleeper" gene so the early morning whistles never woke us up.  When my husband's work asked us to choose a personal design for our baby's blanket (a standard gift from his office), it was an easy choice - a choo choo train!  The blanket is still in his keepsake chest, a treasured reminder of his birth date and the home where he spent the first 2 years of his life.

Trains hold a special meaning to me - I especially love the old steam locomotives and colorful train cars.  Boys young and old love trains too - from Thomas the Train to The Little Engine That Could to the fancy Silver Bullet.  If you need some inspiration for a baby boy themed shower just start here!

Get your train shower rolling with a ticket-themed invitation like the one seen here.  You can create them yourself, or simply enter the information and order them from Personalized Party Invites.  Use phrases like "All Aboard the Baby Train", "Chugging Along", or "Choo Choo Baby".  You can even ask guests to show their ticket for admittance, then give them a gift if they remember to do so.

For a fun themed shower game, line up guest chairs from front to back and have the guests ride the "baby train".  Starting with the first person in line, ask each guest to name an item they would bring along (bib, pacifier, diapers, etc).   The next guest in line must repeat everything that was previously mentioned, then add an item of their own.  By the time you get to the caboose, there should be a long list of baby items.  If the last person in line can repeat everything that's on the train, reward her with a prize!

Decorate for your train baby shower with train themed partyware and choo choo party favors.  Select primary colors and use Thomas the Train decorations, which can easily be found at a local party store (look in the birthday aisle). Wind a train track or toy train around the food table, for even more fun have the train running on the track during the shower!

Help out your guest of honor by providing her with a list of all the passengers onboard her baby train.  Pass around a clipboard titled "Mom's Baby Train Manifest" and ask guests to fill in their names and addresses so mom has them close at hand when writing thank you cards.  You can even provide the thank you cards for your guest of honor, there are a number of adorable train thank you cards online.

Wrap up the party with a big thank you to all who rode the guest of honor's baby train!  Let them know there were some interesting stops along the way (games, gifts, food) and invite them to the next stop - baby's arrival!

More Train Baby Shower Ideas:

• Train Themed Baby Shower
• Thomas The Train Birthday Party Theme
• Train Birthday Theme Games and Ideas