okay. I have a graduation cake to make for 4 girls from my church. The cake needs to be big enough for approx. 200 people. All 4 girls are active in sports and our church. Anyone have ideas how I could decorate this cake. Would also like ideas for shapes/sizes of pans.

I read your post a bit ago, and kept it in my watched topics, to see what other folks thought, but since no one's piping up *grin* I'll give it a go...

When you posted this, I immediately thought of a 4-tier cake, with a figure of each girl on her own cake. The cake would match whatever the girl was into, and probably have her name on that tier? Just thinking out loud here. And it might be a nice touch to get the girls' favorite cake flavors/colors and make their tiers the right flavor/color combo for them.

As for size... I always make too much! LOL But I'd think that a 16, 12, 10, and 6 would do just fine. I kinda see them in the paisley pans, though I think there are only three of those. (Each girl could sit in the little crook of the paisley on her tier...)

Ah well. Those are my thoughts. Feel free to disagree, build off of, totally discard, or whatever.

Good luck! I can't wait to see what other folks come up with.

I just had to check to see if this person was a member here (I know her from another site mostly), and it turns out she is indeed a member. One of her cakes immediately came to mind when I saw your post. Here's the link to her website at webshots.com: http://family.webshots.com/photo/2613648560048684272HcexbP

Her username is sewsweet2 and she's done this cake a few times. I think it's a great way to make one cake and have four different sections.

Let me know what you think.

sugar_plum_fairy what size squares do you think those are? Thanks
That has possibilities, but what if you didn't want to do the basketweave? I can see four different school colors , and different sports if they do different things. I can't wait to see what she picks to do. Please post us a picture. I have to do one for a group at church also.

sugar_plum_fairy That woman has some nice cakes on that site. Lots of ideas. Thanks!!!!!

DoniB-thank you for the tiers idea. I really like the figure idea, but when I saw the cake that sugarplumfairy linked, I fell in love with it. This is just an awesome cake. I think it will fit my 4 girls since I can devote one square to each girl. I'm just not sure how this cake is put together?

Sugar Plum _Fairy-thank you for the link. I have 2 ideas tell me what you think. I could make each "square" look like a quilt, incorporating sports #'s other memorable things on each block of the quilt. Or I could use fondant to model some basketballs, volleyballs, I would love to do a figure of each one but I'm not good at figures. Anyway someone let me know what you think. I'm just sooo happy that you all answered my post, I was scared no one would, and then I'd be totally stumped

I just looked at that cake again. Is it just 2 square cakes the same size with 1 having a square cut out of it? Or is it one square cake with 4 smaller square cakes stacked on top? By the way I looked at the rest of this lady's cakes and she does an really great job. You said she is a member here? Do you know her username? I would love to pm her.

sugar_plum_fairy said it's a 16" square , so I'm wondering if she didn't bake 2 of them cut them in 1/4's and stack how ever she wanted them for heighth? Just wondering. Can't wait to see your cake tonimarie.

See, I thought of a 4-tier cake w/each tier respresenting the college they will be going to.

All though my design hardly compares its the same idea. I baked two layers and cut the square from the second layer and put it on top. You should definately dowel and level (I didnt know about that when I did this cake). But you should be able to pull it off.

I dont really know what to tell you to make this feed 200 people though. The largest square pan I have (that wont even fit in my oven) is 16" and serves a max of 128. However if you can fit that 16" pan in your oven, you could do this design in a 14" and put it on top of a 16" which will give you enough servings.

Thank you guys for all the feedback, I would be lost with out you all! I will definetely put up a picture on this post when I do it in May!

I did it I did it I did it hooray! I finished the cakes and am pretty proud of them. The families were worried that one wouldn't be enough so I actually made 2 different cakes. I will try to attach the pictures, but if it doesn't work, they are the orange cake and the white one in my pictures. I don't know why I have such a hard time with attachments. But I'll give it a try! okay I tried and can't do it sorry.

Congratulations, those are terrific cakes! This was a great thread as I learned a new shape, it has tons of possibilities. You did a fantastic job, I bet they loved it.

experimenting with sizing picture to add

i love your design! very simple and sweet.

You did a great job! Those are both wonderful cakes!
What a great design for lots of multiple people, jobs, sports, whatever.

Had to wonder how you decide which girl to get the top spot, and if there was any problem with that.


I'm sure a lot of us will be thanking sewsweet2 for the idea (and SugarPlumFairy for giving us the info) in the future!

veejaytx-it's funny that you mentioned the top spot, because when I got to the party the girls did razz me about that. No one was mad, just gave me a "bad" time! The girl I put on top is my cousin, and she was my flowergirl at our wedding plus she has babysat for us since she was 12. So I decided to put her in the top spot!

I have questions please. when you layer the very top layer is there board under it, to keep form cutting into the other layers and did you fill each layer. To me one side looks like three layer. please help. thanks sammie192

sammie192- This is what I did:
Baked 2 14 inch size cakes and froze them. I brought the bottom layer up from freezer and positioned on my board. I then "dammed" and filled that layer. Then I made a template of the square to be cut out. I took the second layer out of the freezer-used the template and cut out the square. I set the second layer on top while frozen and then filled underneath the square I cut out and set it on top. Then I waited about an hour to decorate until it settled. No I didn't use a plate underneath-I probably should have, but did not. On the back 2 sides of the cake it is a three layer because of the square on top. Hope that helps.

amazing job on that cake, it is a great design, and you can do so many options with it , I might have to try it for my 2 brothers and dad all have a bday this month and we are celebrating this saturday thank you cc's