I am making my first cake for a friends grand daughters 1st birthday. They will have around 30ppl. So I bought a 9x13 pan. Will this be large enough to feed that many?? I don't know. The pan just looks kinda small to me. And I make 2 of these right? So it's 2 layered or do I just tort one? I'm not sure. Can anyone help me out. I'm new at this so this might be a dumb question, sorry!

The 9x13 in a single layer cake will give you 24 servings that are 2x2 inch square. If you make a double layer, you should have 48 servings which are 1x2x4 inches. I have a sheet pan that is 11x15 that gives 35 servings for a single layer. You can get these at WalMart or craft stores pretty inexpensively in the cake decorating section.

Here is a link to the standard size servings for various pans:

http://cakecentral.com/articles/74/cake-baking-cutting-serving-guide-2-in-deep-pans

If you do small 1x2x4in slices that cake pan will serve about 50 people. Birthday cakes typically are cut in larger "party" servings so you are more likely to get 25-30 servings from that cake.

If the pan is a 2in deep pan, you will need to bake 2 cakes to get 2 layers. Bake one cake, level off the top. Bake a second cake, level off the top and then put those together with a layer of frosting or filling. If you do a filling, you need to put a dam of frosting around the edge to keep the filling inside. (Lots of tutorials etc here & on YouTube for this)

If you only do one cake and then split that for the filling, you will have a much shorter cake which means larger cut pieces & fewer servings. The taller 2-layer cake lets you cut more, smaller slices.
HTH
Kristy

The link above for various pans does not include sheet cake size, servings, etc.

This one does:
http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-wedding-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm

Thanks guys!! I think I got it now. I have a 9x13x2 so I'll bake 2 cakes and layer those. I'm alittle nervous about doing this cake. It involves fondant penguins also so that will be a challenge in its self! Thanks for the help

Just a word of caution. Unless you are cutting the pieces, you will not have enough. At most home birthday parties people tend to cut large pieces no matter how many layers.

If it's cut 9 rows by 6 columns, you'll get 54 (a little larger than 1x2x4)servings (9x6=54)... more than enough for 30 people.