My son will be part of a group birthday party for 5 two-year olds all born in November.

I had initially planned to do this cake:
http://www.wilton.com/idea/Bears-Birthday

but it just seems like a lot of work to pipe all those bears.

And then I saw a cute cake in the Wilton 2010 yearbook using the flower pan, where the petals are actually a ladybug and the center of the flower is a cake that they are all gathered around. Can't seem to find a photo of it. I like the simplicity of that one, compared to piping 5 mini-bears, but I think ladybugs might be a little feminine for a mixed crowd.

Does anyone have an ideas for other group cakes for little ones?

My ds is part of a group of all boys that were born in August 08 (well first one in late July). We had a joint party for them and I think we had 5 in total. I did a ball pit cake with fondant figures. It was my first attempt at people - so I didn't try to match them, just had 1 to represent each boy. Since I did the big cake another friend did 5 simple ball cakes and put each boys name on one. Five 2 year olds spitting all over the big cake did not sound appetizing, so we let them do candles on their individual cakes.

I apparently have not uploaded a pic of this cake - but this looks similar - I did 1/2 sheet cake tho, and built up the sides of the 'ball pit' with more cake. And I did fondant balls.

http://cakecentral.com/cake-photo-1335027.html

I guarantee that 2 year olds are not going to care too much what the cake looks like!

But if you think that the other moms would be disappointed with ladybugs, then choose another theme. Decorating a cake for toddler boys couldn't be easier.........cars, fire trucks, Sesame Street, dinosaurs, or any character they see on Nick or Disney channels. Have fun with it!

Just to let you know there are male ladybugs...

I did a cake for my 3 nieces once and they all have different personalities so I just did a rendition of this cake. You could use the flower pan to get the different rounds. Since I only had 3 faces I used a heart pan with a small round pan on top, then made simple cupcakes to go with it. You can cover sugar/waffle cones with fondant/icing for the hats. HTH!

http://www.wilton.com/idea/Plenty-of-Fun-to-Go-Around

The children having individual cakes was my initial pull to the bear cake. I looked at the mini bear pan again and it is really tiny, requiring only a cup of batter. If I started piping those bears now and stuck them in the freezer, would the bc be ok, or would the stars break off or crumble?

Also, does anyone have any tried and true natural food coloring options? I've only used raspberries for pink and cocoa powder for brown. But I tried blueberries and red cabbage to get a lavender and it just ended up kind of murky.