Hi all! Have a christening cake going out this afternoon, and im stumped as to how to do the lettering. As the title suggests, the mother wants daughters full 4 names (24 letters) on a one tier 8 inch cake, plus 'on your christening' and the date of birth.

Any ideas, im thinking this is going to look like a doodle board?!

Thankyou in advance!

Sometimes, we have to tell the customer that what they want won't work!

The only thing you can do is to pipe the inscription small!!! You won't be able to use any letter cutters for this.

Good luck.

Well i had an idea to make little cubes or small balls of fondant chains and put the lettering on there, perhaps two names on the top of cake, two on the board, then the date in between facing outwards on the front side of the cake....and contact the mother to see if we can not use the 'on your christening' element, as im pretty sure the cake will say that for itself! thank you!

Or use a fondant plaque and write small. The plaque can be set on the top or placed at an angle against the side of the cake. I've had chapters that customers insisted upon and they looked okay on a plaque. (And charge by the word!)

A gumpaste plaque looks nice and holds a tom of information.

I made this plaque out of gumpaste.
I printed an edible icing sheet and covered the entire plaque. Then I applied the pearl border

I would make a string of beads with the four names piped on for the top of the cake. The string can wave back and forth across the top so that you get more length

But the four names should be in one place.The other inscriptions can go on the cake board.

Hmm. I have four given names myself. If I were putting them all on a cake for myself, I'd go:

James
        Harlyn
                Hayden
                        Lampert

Be thankful that you don't have to do something like "His Royal Highness, Charles Philip Arthur George, of the House of Windsor, Prince of Wales."

The suggestions already given are good to ponder Here is another one: stagger the letters not only close together but one high, one low. There's no way I can show you what I mean but say the name is James. The J is on one level, the A is places close to the J but above it w/the M on the same level or lower than the J and so on. This will make it possible to cram the letters closer together. Not the greatest but this is an example: http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1333779/mexican-theme

Also if you pipe the names, making the letters very tall and thin helps.

I would put the 4 names is a half circle towards the top edge of the cake, and the info under it. Probably best to ask the lady who wants it how she wants it. Chances are that whatever you go with will end up in her complaining. let her know with the book of names that you are writing it won't leave much room for any decorations.

Thankyou for all your suggestions...so here's what i opted for...plus i had already started before the reply about keeping all the names together appeared