I have to make ONE cake for 2 birthdays... Its a 50th b-day surprise and a 98th birthday... 98 year old is throwing the surprise for her 50 year old grandson and she is very excited that she is pulling this surprise out and she is a saucey old lady... acts like a crazy 70 year old...

Any thoughts ??? Im thinking something in tiers.. but really I dont know... its my great gma and uncle and have free rein to do what I want.. but im at a loss.. so help would be appreciated...

TIA

I just did a sweet 16 birthday in tiers. One of the tiers was hexagon shaped with a surround of black and white photos, one per side inside of a film strip. You could do a tier with the hex pans. Maybe the bottom for the 98 yr old, the middle with photos of the 50 year old. The top one could have a topper with a photo of each.

The photos will show them as they grew up, then and now. That could even be a saying......Name, then and now....98!

I did the photos on vellum paper on the computer. Its hard to explain, but take a look at my photos to see what I mean.

You could stack them or make them each on on lifters. then get other photos of them from years gone by and scatter them over the cake table as conversation starters. (of course make copies -- don't want the originals to get messed up).

Good luck

Ok, I know I'm not one to offer much advice as I haven't designed a cake yet....BUT how about a two tier cake with the side of the first tier "happy 50th birthday" and then the side of the second tier Happy 98th bday. Then maybe for the first tier you could make some fondant accents that relate to your uncle (fishing, you know, things that he likes) and then maybe do the same for the second tier for your great grandma.

Any way to do a family tree kind of theme and have their image be larger or emphasized in some way? Like if you did a cupcake to represent each person, make the ones for the birthday people bigger in some way or add some of those cool stars on the ends of wires that stick out of the cake? Or if it was a sheet cake with piping or fondant to do the people, make theirs different or have stars and candles or something? Just thoughts . . .

im loving the photo idea.

im loving the photo idea.

Do you work with fondant or gum paste? Could you do a little sculpture of her holding him on her lap when he was a kid? Or since you say she is "saucy," maybe make it of him today - you know to show that he's never to big for grandma's lap?
I like the photo idea that others mentioned too...

Here's the photo featuring the hexagon cake. I actually did not get the pans, but carved it out of a square. I was thinking of layers hexagon surrounded by photos of the two bday people.

retrying the photo

I love the idea of the photo cake. It's stunning!

I love the photo idea... I might have to run with that...

Thanks!!!

sj, how did your cake come out? love to see a picture of what you came up with.

Aztomcat,
Could you explain more about the vellum paper photo strip? Do you prepare the back at all with anything so it doesn't soak through? Where do you get that paper? How did you get it to look like a film strip? As you can see I want the full details. LOL!
Thanks for any help you can give me. What a neat idea.
Susie

Vellum is a paper that we use at work. It is very sheer and you can get it at paper stores or at business supply stores. It is 8.5x 11 in size and perfect for making a film strip.

I let me buttercream fully crust and then added it. There was no seapage at all. You could line it with wax paper. As far as the design of the film strips, I can send them to you in a word document and you simply have to remove my black and white photos and add yours. The mother of the birthday girl actually created the graphic.

I simply sized it to the height of my final cake then printed the sheet out on my computer and cut it to size and taped a few sheets together.

Ok, I think I know what you mean a little about Vellum. I think I've heard of it to do with scrap booking.
I would love to have you send the word document. It will give me even more of an idea of what it is all about.
Thanks so much and what a unique thing you've created.
My email link is at the bottom.

Susie

Here it is...

Thanks aztomcat and everyone for your help and ideas... Here is what turned out for my 50th and 98th birthday cake..

For the photo strips instead of vellum or parchment I printed them on transparencies that I had at work and they worked perfect.. I think just used a little piping gel and they stuck right to the cake...

dont mind the crooked cake.. my dad decided to help me stack them and he is the type to just do it.. and not take time!!! Gotta love him for helping!!!

tell me what you think!

Here it is...

Thanks aztomcat and everyone for your help and ideas... Here is what turned out for my 50th and 98th birthday cake..

For the photo strips instead of vellum or parchment I printed them on transparencies that I had at work and they worked perfect.. I think just used a little piping gel and they stuck right to the cake...

dont mind the crooked cake.. my dad decided to help me stack them and he is the type to just do it.. and not take time!!! Gotta love him for helping!!!

tell me what you think!