Train in the City Cake

The cake this weekend was for a little boy turning four who, after seeing the US Navy cake I made for his granddad, wanted the same thing except with a train and a city.  So... I guess... not the same thing at all, but you get the idea.  He liked the cake with the airplanes, but he wanted a train on his.  And a city.

His mom brought me the toy train she wanted me to use on it, and I got busy making the city.  I made several gumpaste buildings that were to line the sides of the cake, kind of like the animals on Bennett's first birthday cake.  I decided that there should be a few buildings on top of the cake too, so I made some with longer "tails" that would stick down into the cake.

After the cake was iced, the railroad was in place, and all the lights were on the buildings, I began the placement of the buildings.  I lined the entire front side of the cake with buildings and then placed several down into the cake on the top.  It looked awesome.  I loved it.  I was glad I had decided to do that, rather than just line the sides with buildings.  Here's what it looked like:

But.... after a little while I noticed one of the buildings on top beginning to lean.  And then another.  I wiggled them, and they wiggled.  Much more than I was comfortable with.  So I made up some royal icing and gave each building a nice little foundation that would hopefully "cement" them into place.  In case you don't know what royal icing is, it's basically edible super glue.

So after that, I called it a night and hoped for the best.  I woke up thinking about those buildings and wondering whether or not they were still standing.  Um... not.  I walked into the kitchen and found all but two lying face down on the cake.  It was a sad sight.  But thankfully, I was able to neatly pull them out of the cake, cut the "tails" off, and place them on the sides of the cake like I had originally planned.  A little icing, smoothing and adding a second "grassy knoll" took care of the mess that was left, and all was well.  Not as cool as it had been, but still cool.  And Bennett still came in, saw it on the counter and with lit-up eyes, said, "Oh my GOODNESS!!!"  So I knew it would still be a hit with a four year old and his friends.