Relay for Life asked me to make a sheet cake for 200-300 people. They want a chocolate layer and a yellow cake layer w/ butter cream filling and the the Relay for life logo on the whole top of the cake. What is the BIGGEST pan I can get that will fit in a home oven and where do I find it? I would like to have as few seams as possible. Anyone ever done a huge cake like this? As far as transporting the cake, I was thinking of putting it on covered OSB board or something. Any suggestions or ideas will help! Thanks!

In my humble opinion, if you are not doing a tiered cake it would be better to do this in two or three separate cakes. One could be with the logo. The other just decorated with the appropriate colors. I believe the largest pan you can fit in a home oven would be the 12x18.

I recently did several cakes for graduation that needed to feed at least 200. I baked four 12 x 18" cakes and put them together - side by side and double stacked (for a double sheet cake if you will). I put it on masonite board that I bought at the cake store. I also did for another cake buy 2 double strength cake boards and contacted white paper around the entire thing. It was very sturdy! Good luck!

two-layer cake? yellow on top of chocolate?

or single layer cake -- 1/2 yellow and 1/2 chocolate?

-----
if two-layer, then 1/2 the size of single layer

----

single layer would be about 30x40 inches -- yields 300 2x2 pieces

double layer would be 20 by 30 -- yields 300 1x2 pieces (same amount of cake in serving due to double layer)

----
largest pan that fits most ovens -- 12x18

6 of those as a single layer gives a 36x36 in cake and 324 2x2 servings.

6 of those stacked for double layer give 36 x 18 in cake and 324 1x2 servings.

Man, I would be so excited! I'd make the biggest sheet possible rather than one big cake and one smaller cake. Bigger cake .... bigger impact .... especially for a large event like this.

Just be sure you can get it in your van/truck/car and out your door!

P.S. Measure your oven. Some can only get an 11x15 pan. I just measured my home oven and I can fit my 14x22 pan in there.

My only advice is that it may be time to rethink your screen name.

I know this goes without saying on a board like this but make sure your cakes are all level. I only say this because I was at an awards picnic for my kids this weekend and they had a large sheet cake with the club logo on it. I could clearly see where it dipped in the middle where the seam was. The cake halves didn't appear level and they just went with it.

Good luck and have fun!

I made a sheet cake 42" long for a Band Banquet. I just took 2-12 squares and 1-12X18 sheet and bumped them together on a heavy board cut from Home Depot. You could make it longer if you wanted to just make sure to Measure the Car first. You obviously will need help to carry it. I had 3 people one on each end and one in the middle. Just and FYI- this was a very thick board but with the length it still wanted to bend in the middle.
You could use 4 squares and make one large square cake.

Good Luck
Tracy

[quote="I would like to have as few seams as possible. Anyone ever done a huge cake like this? [/quote]

I made one long 300 serving sheet cake for a corporate retirement party without any seams. The trick to delivering it is how the cakes are placed on the boards, and you'll need to be prepared to decorate it (at least some of it) onsite especially when you smooth the seams together when the cakes are joined.

I used three=100 serving sheet cakes (you could buy full sheet cakes already baked from a wholesaler, or you'd need to bake six=54 serving half sheets to push together and deal with trying to cover more than just the two seams).

When you place your middle (center sheet) cake on the board, the cake needs to be all the way to the edge on both ends where the seams will be joined, so you need to trim the cardboard or start with a board that is exactly the correct size width. (the front and back of the cake board should remain the normal size for your border.) Place your left (1st sheet) cake all the way to the right edge of the board, and your right (3rd sheet)cake all the way to the left of the board. Ice all three separate cakes as you would normally do, and push them all together with each board butted up against the next when you set it up, then smooth the seams away.

Add your borders at the venue and any other decorations that need to flow across the seams from one cake to the next.

If you can imagine it, you can do it! If it sounds too scary, separate sheet cakes would definitely be easier.

This might be a bad idea, but if you've got the room to travel with it this way, could you do one really long cake? Put each of the cakes side by side instead of in a large square, then decorate with runners, with a person crossing a finish line ribbon and then the relay for life logo after that. Considering it's a large group effort, maybe if you could have several people crossing the finish line hand in hand.

Considering I just read that this is an event that can last up to 24 hours or so, is this cake going to be outside the entire time?