I just found out that my son's substitute teacher's last day is Monday and that his regular teacher returns from maternity leave the next day. I was asked to make a cake/cupcakes for a little "goodbye Miss Alice" party and wanted to make both.....cupcakes for the children and teachers to eat, and a matching cake for Miss Alice to take home.

My thought is to make a bunch of little children out of fondant and perch them on top of a 2-layer 8-inch round fondant covered cake with each child's name written on it (there are only 12 kids in his class, so it shouldn't be too hard if I do them "assembly line") for the teacher to take home and then make buttercream-iced cupcakes for the children to eat during the party.....

has anyone ever seen a cake with a bunch of people on it that can direct me to one to use as a reference? Thanks!

Wish I could help you with that but I can't but I did want to say what a fabulous Idea you have. Good luck

Here is something I found on Wilton. I thought it might give you an idea.

http://www.wilton.com/recipes/recipesandprojects/yearbook/bookedforanotheryear.cfm

I've seen a cake in one of the Wilton YBs that had a bunch of little faces on it. They were rounds cut from fondant and decorated to look like faces with hair, eyes and mouths--no bodies. Then names were piped under them. I can't remember if it was a reunion cake or a school themed cake. It was cute!

It was a family reunion cake with the faces on a tree, I think in the Course 1 book, and there were also cupcakes with the faces too. If you need the pic, let me know & I can email to you.

Another cute idea that I've seen done is to do a sheet cake and decorate it like a piece of lined notebook paper, with a 'note' from the kids written on it. It might be easier if you get pinched for time doing all of your little fondant children.

I found a teacher doll cake idea.
http://www.michaels.com/art/online/projectsheet?pid=e00956

This would be good for a teacher and looks pretty easy

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=29&pos=18

Thanks for all of your suggestions!

I ended up making all the heads a little too big, so when I went to make the children, the bodies had to be WAY too big for them all to fit on the cake!

So what I did was rip the heads off the bodies that I did....and I am just going to put the heads/faces on the cake (on the bottom tier, so that along with a small dot border should cover up my inexperience with fondant....although I still have to put hair on all these heads <grin> Then, on the top of the cake, I think I will cut out fondant letters and spell out "Miss Alice - an A+ teacher!" And then, assuming that I have time and my handwriting cooperates, I will write the names of the children in bc on the sides of the cake

I'll post a picture as soon as I am done!

That sounds like it's going to be a great cake! Looking forward to seeing the pic