hi i have an order for a #50 carved cake, and was hoping to get some tips on tackling this cake! 

im unsure of the sizes of pans i need to use , this cake is needing to serve around 25-30 ppl,

thanks

If it were myself, i Would probably bake two quarter sheet cakes (one for each number). A quarter sheet cake feeds about 20 people, so by the time you carved part of the cakes off i would think it would be around 25-30 servings. Hope that helps :)

I also just saw this, and it might help

http://fromthemrs.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-to-make-number-5-cake-buds-birthday.html

I did a #30 cake recently and I used the quarter sheet cakes like chocolatepearl said.  I made # templates out of cakeboards ( a 3 and a 0).  I needed more servings and each # was a different flavor so I baked 2 cakes in 1/2 sheet pans.  Then, I cut each in half, filled and stacked them on top of my templates.  After they chilled for a bit, I flipped them over and used the cake board templates as a guide to carve the #'s.  Then I flipped them back over, iced them and chilled again before I placed them on the presentation board. Once they were on the presentation board, I did the boarders, etc.

I thought it was pretty easy.  My client wanted buttercream so that made it easier.  If you're using fondant, I would suggest not carving out the #s fully and using decor to outline them instead, if that makes sense, because, the 5 would be a bugger to cover in fondant.

You can also google "number cake tutorials" and there are some that show you how to use round and square cakes to piece together the #s.  I didn't use that because my cakes needed to be a certain font.

My lesson learned with this cake...they go on pretty big cake boards, so make sure your cake board will fit in your fridge.  I make my own boards and it was about an inch too wide for my fridge. Once I got the cake on the board, I could no longer chill it. Worked out fine but, I won't do that again :)

hth

I made a #40 cake (it's in my gallery), and it was big.  Each number was 11" x 15" x 4".  A quarter sheet at 2" high sounds perfect for what you need.  I also did mine in buttercream and I put fondant decorations in sections on top of the numbers representing things the birthday guy liked.  I used two boards and pushed them together to make storage and transport easier.  For the size you're doing one board is manageable.  Get good thick foam core for the board.  When you cut the numbers try to maintain as much of the cake as you can.  The 0 is easy, I didn't cut a hole in the center, I just placed a black oval of fondant instead.  The 5 will be a little trickier, but definitely make a paper template to follow.  Good luck!