I have an icing smiles cake request that needs to serve 30-40 servings. The request has too much going on but ofcourse its upto me what and to incorporate and what to leave behind. I asked the mom to narrow it down and below is what she replied. I dont want to contact her again to narrow it down even further.. its for a 5 year old boy. Really want to make the boy happy.. need advise

"Definitely Batman and Spider Man. He loves Mickey and Pluto, Toy Story, lilo and stitch, the incredibles, Tarzan and if you can add something from beauty and the beast and Ariel. Ge says that it’s me and sister so i think he would like that and if you have a woody and buzz he can say we’re all on the cake but yes how ever way you can do it we appreciate it so much"

I have never have done the half/half cakes where two themes go side by side on the same cake.. I dont want it cluttered with too much going on.. but if it makes the kid happy to see all his favorite characters on one cake.. why not? And, I cant do gumpaste characters.. lol..

it seems like a lot but it's only ten and actually very doable -- it's making me cry though -- 

but if you can get the figurines already made in the right size -- in a good proportion -- why not -- then he'd have them for afterwards too -- i would so do them all -- i used to do a "this is your life" topsy turvy cake and i put all manner of unique-to-that-person's-life stuff on there -- just dotted all over -- it makes sense to the recipient --

forty servings is a 10" cake or you could do a 9x6 or whatever but think of it this way -- if you had ten flowers for a 10" cake how would that go --

now i'm thinking of the 9x6 -- you could have spidey climbing up the side of the 9" with a net like he does, superman walking into a phone booth on the other side of the nine -- tarzan swinging from a tree on top of the 9" ledge -- i'm actually not familiar with all those characters but there is plenty of room for them all -- just think of a simple idea to go with most of them --

so phone booth for superman -- go to google images and search for coloring book phone booth images -- you could do that on a cookie or a plaque of fondant -- and you could do a simple skyline in the same form, cookie or fondant plaque for spidey and do the same type of search -- you get bold easy to trace lines -- copy and size them and you can use edible ink markers or paints -- hopefully you can find the figurines --

i'd put every dang one on there -- for ariel put a little water behind her with bubbles and a bit of sand, brown sugar --

just little vignettes all over 

"Definitely Batman and Spider Man. He loves Mickey and Pluto, Toy Story, lilo and stitch, the incredibles, Tarzan and if you can add something from beauty and the beast and Ariel. Ge says that it’s me and sister so i think he would like that and if you have a woody and buzz

maybe have batman and spider man on the top tier if you do a 9x6 because those are his favorites -- the incredibles would go by spiderman and batman --  

mickey and pluto could be pointing to other characters -- like to batman and spiderman (or to beauty and the beast-- y'know how  mickey can get all dreamy eyed sometimes)

so one vignette with those guys^^^

lilo and stitch could go above ariel surfing on top of the water (on the nine inch ledge) --for ariel put a little water behind her with bubbles and a bit of sand, brown sugar -- on the side of the 9"

tarzan could go next to lilo swinging from a tree or near one 

another vignette for these guys ***

beauty and the beast could be dancing along there together anywhere -- on the other side of the cake on the 9" from the water scene 

but just make vignettes and think of the cake as your sketch pad -- just put that in there to make the best impact on your lovely friend -- join together things with grass, rocks, sidewalk, flowers, bubbles, dots, zig zags -- but keep these to minimum, understated -- just to fill in a space or two

hope that might help spark something in your creative eye a bit -- early morning musings -- best of the best to you -- thank you for doing this

and you could do a dummy 12" x 2" underneath it all if the proportions of some or all of the figurines you can find are taller -- which they often are -- so there's that too -- so a 12x9x6 -- the 12" dummy  just two inches tall the 9x6 real cake y'know 4 or 5 inches tall -- maybe -- just tossing out ideas is something might stick for you -- plenty plenty plenty of room for 10+ characters

Thanks so much K8memphis. I have some creative juices flowing now.. I am thinking of doing a 5x7x9 three tiered..instead of finding figurines.. I can print them out proportioned to the cake and put them on plaques of gumpaste and using picks to insert them.. I think I will give him every character he wants...it may not be perfect to us cake critics but it will definitely brighten up the kids day.. you are awesome!!!

no -- YOU are awesome!!! love the 5x7x9!

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1318907598244981&id=100003772604628

Thanks everyone! Here is what I came up with. The boy was thrilled...his expression "Priceless"

AWESOME!!!! what great news  and what a great cake -- multiplied congratulations, jiya11  

Wow!  Fabulous design!  I knew the little guy would love it.  Kids are not as demanding or critical as adults.

Thank you ! This is a great forum with wonderful people!