I'm making a cake (or cakes) for a baby shower this coming weekend. It's for a relative and my first "public" cake, so I want to make a good impression. I've got the decoration design all worked out, but I'm a little worried about what size to make. The suggested servings given in the Wilton book seem a bit small. There will be between 35-40 people at the shower. Any advice?
There are a few "restrictions" that I'm working with...
* no wedding cake-style pillars because the woman putting the shower on is paranoid about the cake falling over
* preference is to have both chocolate and yellow cakes
* another preference is to have too much cake rather than have to limit portion sizes
* square or rectangle cakes are preferred over circle or oval
* the mother-to-be would like a filling of some sort of custard
Would it look odd to have two 11x15 cakes? Or an 11x15 and a 8" round? The design is based on the baby's bedding which is pink and green with ladybugs and dragonflies so I was thinking of doing one cake mostly pink with green accents and the opposite for the other.
Otherwise, I mentioned the possibility of having a 11x15 cake along with cupcakes and my relative seemed open to the idea.
Another option I thought of is having a double layer 11x15 cake? Is that doable or would it look funny being that tall?
Help! 
Can you tell I'm panicking? 
I would do a 12x18 half sheet (54 2"x2" pieces) and make one end chocolate and the other end vanilla, with the batters marbled in the middle. My clients love it when I do it that way!
Oh, and you could tort it and fill with the custard.
Good Luck! 
I would do a 12x18 half sheet (54 2"x2" pieces) and make one end chocolate and the other end vanilla, with the batters marbled in the middle.
I like to do this, too. That away a person can get what he/she is in the mood for. 
My chocolate batter always seems to rise a bit more than the yellow, so I pour about half the chocolate in first and spread it to just a just a little more than half the pan. Then I pour in half of the yellow, and let it overlap the chocolate just a wee bit. Then I pour in the remainders of each and swirl the two batters together with more pulling of the chocolate into the yellow, than the yellow into the chocolate, so the chocolate takes up a bit more room in the pan. The end result is about 1/3 chocolate,1/3 yellow and, in the middle, 1/3 marbled. It took some practice to get it to rise evenly, but I have done it this way for at least 15 years now. I also use baking strips on my pans. I know some people don't like them, but they work well for me. I hope this all makes sense.
Good Luck!
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