AMy twins are having a birthday party in a couple of weeks. I'm expecting 25 or so kid and some parents. In the past we haven't had as big of a crowd and I've done 2 8" round layer cakes, one for each of them. I used a marshmalow fondant frosting. Last year I did 2 dozen cupcakes and 1 8" layer cake with frosting. I was planning to do cupcakes again this year since I can hit 48 pretty easily, but my kids want a cake! I'm thinking of a single big cake - I'm considering a two layer 9 x 13 or two 8 x 8 layers joined - one white, one chocolate. Questions: How much with a double 9 x 13 feed? How much will an 8 x 16 double layer feed? Can I marshmallow fondant either of these? Is the cake nail necessary/does it work on these size cakes? If I want to join a white 2 layer and a chocolate 2 layer - how can I make sure they are the same height? I'm terrified of torting - please don't make me!!!

Thanks for any advice.

AHave you thought about a cupcake cake? I'm not really the biggest fan of them but since I find cupcakes SO much easier for kids parties I just made one for my son's birthday and it turned out really cute and easy to serve! If your twins are set on a cake here are two serving charts to help you determine what sizes you'll need. The top one is Wilton's party chart - larger pieces than their wedding one - and Earlene's is the second link. I know a lot of people use that one.

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-party-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm

http://www.earlenescakes.com/ckserchart.htm

Torting isn't so bad - if you have a long serrated knife and a turntable you should be fine, promise. But, if you don't want to you can just trim a bit off the top (again, with a long serrated knife) if one of the flavors is a bit higher.

Good luck!

AOh the Wilton one is good. The other one doesn't have a 9x 13. The cups of batter is also interesting because most recipes say 2 8" rounds or a 9 x 13 but the batter quantities doesn't bear that out. I will present the cupcake cake idea, but I think they want a sliced cake. Thanks for the idea.

ASeriouscake has a YouTube video about joining and stacking two flavors of sheet cakes. I cannot remember which one it is called. She does awesome work and her tutorials are very good. Hth