Candy Creations Follow-Up - The Train

As suggested by lovely follower, Allie, I thought I'd give you more of a close-up on the train and how that was done.  It started with my mom finding a great Pampered Chef mold for a gingerbread train.  She made a standard gingerbread recipe and pressed it into the mold and baked it.  Once it was fully cooled, I took the engine and caboose and decorated them.  The stack broke off the train but when you make these candy creations you use a royal icing so stiff its like cement anyways so that was easy enough to "glue" together with my main layer of icing.

For the engine, I started with outlining the conductor's window with small red & white round candies.  The conductor is a gingerbread marshmallow man (look for these in the grocery store - they are very tasty!).  Then the first stack on the engine is filled with a piece of candy cane.  Next I used pieces from a small chocolate Hersey's bar to fill in the body of the train and the base of the steam stack.  Blue piping gel fills in the top of the stack and half a yellow jelly bean serves as the light on the front of the train.  I used red piping gel to create the metal grate on the front of the train, and blue and red piping gel to make the wheels.  

For the caboose, I started with a strip of licorice cut in half length-wise and placed along the top of the cap and then lined with blue piping gel.  I used yellow jelly beans to simulate small windows along the top.  I used  small pieces of candy cane as the doorway in the center of the caboose.  Then I cut a yellow gumdrop in half and used each half as a window on either side of the door.  Oblong pink candies are stacked along the back of the caboose to form the steps of the ladder and the tip of the candy cane with just a bit of the curved part at the top serves as the ladder rail.  Blue and red piping gel fill in the wheels, panels under the windows, and details along the top of the windows and door.

Creativity is the key!  Grab a coloring book picture of a train and whatever shapes of candies you have and start experimenting.  Round candies like peppermints would work great for the wheels and the gears could be made easily with red rope licorice.  The most fun is seeing what different things people come up with!