Okay, I'm a dork. A really big dork. I volunteered to make the cake for my first grade daughters class picnic before I knew the details. The details being it needs to feed 250. No wonder they always just get sheet cakes.
Anyway, I am looking forward to it because I love how excited kids get about a really neat cake. And it will be good practice for someday when I can have a business!
I would prefer to do a stacked cake vs. sheets, just because I think they are more fun.

Any ideas would be very much appreciated. I really want this to be a fun cake.

Some additional details:
It will be June 2, so it will be hot.
I can't take my van very close to the pavillion, I'll have to walk at least 500 ft. with the cake, I'm sure I'll have help, but the cake will probably have to be assembled (the final part anyway) onsite.
My dd is really really shy, that's why I want this cake to be fun, so maybe it can be an opportunity for her to open up a little.
I'm planning Sugar Shack butter cream with mmf. How do you think that will hold up?

Thanks everyone - you are the best!

MMF and the heat don't play well together. I'd try making real fondant. Michele Foster's delicious fondant recipe from the recipe section here is great and doesn't melt in the heat.

You could do a tiered cake with decorations to match their theme if they have one.. or maybe just a bunch of outdoorsy stuff.. the beach or the pool is a good theme too. Or you could make some sheet cakes and decorate them a little differently to match the theme..

I know that it is not nearly as fun but cupcake cakes would work really well. You could make them in different shapes like a butterfly, catterpiller, sun, any summer design. This would also be very easy to serve since there would be no need for plates or forks. Perfert for a bunch of crazy 1st graders! Just an idea!

I would do cupcakes, I know it is for 250 but would be cool to do a long centipede that is all made out of cupcakes. Even put letters on them to spell out things.

Or do 100 cupcakes and a stacked cake that is in the shape of the school.

Maybe you could spell something out using cupcake cakes. Have them on separate boards and they wouldn't be as heavy to carry from the car to that pavillion. I love ccc and you can do anything with them. And all you need for serving is napkins. No cutting, no mess, no plates.

maurerba, minorfan, and CarolAnn,
Thanks, I had never thought of cupcake cakes. I like the idea, but I've never done them before. How do you do them?

And wow ~ a long cupcake centipede or caterpillar would be really cute. I think maybe that with a hundred or so and a cake would be great! I can actually picture the caterpillar already!

Here is a link to a thread about CCC.
http://forum.cakecentral.com/tutorial-wanted---cupcake-cake-ftopicp-5900836.html#5900836
I hope that it helps. I have never made a CCC by putting the cups in a cake pan and baking them that way but I am interested it trying it! Let us know what you do!

Why don't you do something like this for the big cake.. then cuppies

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1204580

Christi,
Thanks. I think the kids would like that, especially the "shooting stars" coming out of the cake!

Great ideas, just wanna throw my 2 cents in. I've worked with little kids a lot and if you are going to do the cupcakes I would reccomend making sure you do enough so they can all have one and still do the display cake if you want, but I can promise there will be problems if some get a cuppy and others get a slice, from my experience Good luck!

I ran across these. I don't know who did them, but I think they are cute.I typed in graduation. So you might be able to find them and see a bigger picture.

andpotts - thank you. I'll definately make sure I do enough cupcakes for the kids. Then the adults can eat cake.

brightbrats- thank you, those are cute!

Very cool! Make sure you post your finished masterpiece, the kids are going to love it, no matter what you do!

Sounds great please post pictures when you are done. I LOVE to look at pictures!!! Did you try the all in one cake pan or the individual cupcakes lined up? The all in one really interest me. I've got to try it!
I have never made the WASC cake before but I have heard some GREAT things about it. I will have to try it soon.
[sigh] So much to try so many calories!!

I tried the all in one cupcake cake. I think it would even be great for a sheet cake because it really is just cupcakes, no need for forks or anything. Unfortunately we ate all of them before I got around to icing it! I'm going to try again tomorrow.

I'm curious to know what you did. Plese post pictures!!!!

maurerba,
It's not till June 2nd. I will definately post pics! I'm getting kind of nervous though, because I have this massive hernia from surgery I had in January and my dr. scheduled a cat scan for next week because I've been experiencing some issues with it. I was supposed to have surgery in July, but he's "afraid" he might have to move it up. I told him I'm quite busy until the middle of June. He kind of laughed at me.

Anyway,
I've decided to make a medium sized tier cake in primary colors, with some different ideas I've seen here on CC, such as a ruler looking border and crayons with the kids names on. Then I'm going to make a big caterpillar out of cupcakes - one for each child, kind of winding around the cake on the table. Thanks for all your help!

It sounds like you've got a plan, but just one last thought.... did you see the acquarium cake posted today (and another one among the most save photos on CC)? The recent one was made by stacking about 5 9x13 inch cakes and decorating the whole thing like an acquarium. Sugarshack's icing does well in heat, I think, and you could cover the whole thing in that and piped decos (tho in a lot of heat, they might slide. hmm.) Anyway, a cake like that would be relatively fast to do and would feed an army!

Thanks luddroth, I will definately keep that in mind. It's great to have a back up that would be a little easier, especially if I have to have my surgery early.

I love Sugar Shack icing!

Jennifer, I just noticed your signature line and literally laughed out loud. That hernia can't be funny, but you are! I hope all goes well for you.

Just my 2 cents here- the caterpillar sounds like a great idea- how about making it a bookworm instead and the larger sheet cake could be one of the class's favorite stories- the bookworm could have littel glasses and look like he is climbing up onto the edge of the book. Just a thought- have fun with it.

I agreed to make a 50 th celebration cake for our whole school (500+with staff and students) then realized just how much cake that is so I am now making a cake to feed all of the staff and the room reps from each class are providing cupcakes for each individual class-

Sure, a bookworm can still be fun colors. I picture something like Eric Carl's hungry caterpillar with glasses when I think of this. This sounds like it is going to be a fun cake to do. Best of Luck with it.

Okay everyone, here's the cake I made. I ended up just making plain cupcakes because I was quite exhausted. The kids got to eat the cake - I made the bottom a WASC that I separated into different colors and then put into the pans for a tye die kiind of affect. Middle is chocolate and top is yellow. The kids LOVED their names on the cake! I put all 78 names on it. I got the idea from a cake by stacyC3 and just thought it would be great.
Thanks for all your help, you guys are the best!

Oh, I did want to say that this one lady came up to me, this tiny little thing from NY who I can only describe as a "firecracker" cuz she tells it like it is, was asking me about the fondant, saying that she's never seen kids eat fondant before because it's usually yucky and I told her about MMF and what is in it and another lady butted it and said "that's a lot of sugar" and the NY lady said, "yeah, it's a CAKE." lol.

This turned out great!!Wonderful job and all 78 names on it!! Man... your more ambitious than I am. Super job!