I have friends that are having a joint party in January since ther kids' birthdays are 3 days aprat, and their invite lists are exactly the same... They want me to make the cake, and they only want one cake to feed 50. They're thinking sheet cake.

I have no idea how to do this and make it look nice. I was thinking suggesting maybe a castle cake instead. I would have to make decent fondant figures (never made them before) and I would put each child in a different part of the castle... Or maybe jsut a 2-tier cake with one tier that had a theme based on the individual child's interests.

Any ideas for a sheet cake? Or any other creative ideas?

TIA!

I would probably go with a 2 tier with different but matching themes. Like you could do pink and blue prince and princess...

There was another post like this a while back, and I'm going to give you the same advice I gave then. Do two separate cakes, because those poor kids are going to hate having to share a cake when they get older, which is what this seems to ba paving the way for. They're similar in age now, so you might be able to get away with it, but if you did two smaller sheets or rounds they would probably be ecstatic. They're old enough to know that they're sharing a party already, if they each got their own cake they'd probably like it.

I asked my kids (who are older, but also a boy and a girl) and their comments about sharing a cake were "that's stupid," "Oh no," and "I'd just pay him to give me the whole cake" (from my daughter, who always knows how to work the angles.)

Do you know any of their interests? There may be some common like that you could work with. Like my 4 yo niece would love spongebob or soccer themes just as well as my 3 yo son. Or maybe a disney theme like Mickey & Minnie?

Dependign on what the kids like (and they are 3 and 4 ..... they like everything!), you could split the sheet cake in half and do one side in (for exmple) Spiderman and the other half in Dora. If they both like (for example) Ming-Ming, or Yo-Gabba-Gabba, or Backyardigans, Spongebob, Elmo, etc., then it's easy to do just one cake for both.

I would also suggest 2 smaller cakes but if they really want a single cake then perhaps a theme that appeals to both boys and girls like Dora & Diego, Backyardigans, Mickey & Minnie, Madagascar (animals are always fun).

You could do a castle as you suggested with both knights and princesses. I made my first fondant figure recently and it was easier than I expected.

Have fun!

I'm not sure how many the book cake pan would feed but you could possibly use one of those and do each side in a boy theme, the other page in a girl theme.

I like your idea of the castle cake. I'd make the little girl the princess and the little boy slaying a dragon. One on each side of the cake. Most little children love anything colorful.

You could also do Ariel and Finding Nemo, Dora and Diego, anything from Nick Jr. most have boys and girls characters.................