What kind of cake? In the U.S., the most common sizes are 9"x13" sheet cake (single layer rectangle (technically a "quarter sheet")), and 9" diameter two layer cake, about 4" tall depending on how thick the filling is, etc. Recipes are often given as useable for either, so they're a fairly similar amount of cake, but they cut quite differently. How big is your cake?

Here's a cutting guide for sheet cakes based on standard servings cut professionally. And a round cake cutting guide. also showing how to cut in squares.

From a frosted sheet cake about 2.5" tall, a two inch square is a decent serving, often done when the cake is ceremonial and people full. Homemade, shorter cakes are often cut 2"x3". It's very hard to cut smaller squares. Harder still if there's a hard top that will shatter. Instead, cut long ways about 3" wide, and then cut inch thin slices that lay down. Depending on your attitude toward sweets and towards children eating them, you could do a 3" x 3/4" slice and have happy kids. I've noticed that it's cake they want, and so long as no one is getting a big hunk, they're happy with a two (normally sized) cookie sized portion.

Similarly, you can lay down a slice from a round cake that's less than an inch thick on the outside edge.

Those are the smallest portions. Scale up as you please. :)

It's a good idea to plan on some extra servings to cover the ones that fell on the floor, got take by the dog/brother/father, the kid who didn't get any because he was in the bathroom, etc.

The biggest pan that fits into my tiny oven is 11 x 13 inches (rectangular pan). I'll have to bake several pans.

It's just a plain chocolate cake with simple choc. frosting. Nothing fancy.

I'd like an estimate of how large should a reasonable serving be in inches, so I can calcualte how many pans I need to do.

For five year olds I'd probably figure on cutting it in fourths both dimensions, so you'd need three. That leaves some for the adults.

Thanks FOAS! I'm feeling better already.

A typical 'party size' serving, especially for 5 year olds, is 2" x 2" or 2" x 3". An 11 x 13 pan will yield 20 pieces if they're cut slightly larger than 2x3.

I agree with Stumpy...cut 4 cuts each way giving you 16 quite generous pieces. So make 3 cakes.
Or you could make 6 cuts making each piece about 2 by 2, which is pretty skimpy for kids, but you would only have to make 2 sheets.

Like Momj47 says, they're mostly into the frosting. Double up on it and don't sweat the cake too much.

40 cupcakes, lol

I agree. Cupcakes make it simple. However, if this is a birthday party, for example, plan on feeding siblings who come along a piece of cake or cupcake too.

I hate cupcakes!! There is always that paper to deal with....certainly not the thing for little kids.
Cupcakes are mostly just cake with paper around the outside. Nope....make a sheet cake, frost generously, cut in squares and put on a plate. The kids will eat the frosting and some will eat some of the cake, but none will have to pick it up to remove that paper!
Cupcakes are 3 times harder than a sheet cake.

Just goes to show how experiences are different. I like having them be able to pick up the cupcake to lick the frosting off. I also like not having a bunch of utensils to clean (or throw away if one is using forks). I also think cupcakes are much simpler when serving. I wish you luck as 40 kids with cake and frosting sounds both exciting and scary.

LindaC, I don't hate cupcakes, but I do agree with you that they are more trouble to make and serve with children that age. If they can pick it up and carry it around, they will, with the result being mess everywhere. At least slices of cake kind of keep them in one place. Plus, the kids never seem to eat the cake, just the frosting when there are cupcakes.

I'd make 3 cakes. That way if any child drops their slice on the floor, or spills their drink on it or whatever, there is extra, and the adults can have some too. Plus, I'm never able to get the pieces right, so I don't get as many out of a sheet as I think I'm going to when I'm slicing.

Annie

I'll wash 40 plates and forks any day to having to clean up the crumbs and stuff left by 40 five year olds taking a cup cake out of the paper. I did one kid party with cupcakes....because it sounded easy. Because it was a cup cake, able to be picked up....they did!...and dropped crumbs and goo and papers with frosting and cake bits....next time it was a sheet cake.
Then many many years later, I served cup cakes for a wedding shower, arranged on a tiered plate, fancy frosting....very pretty. But I had the same messy paper thing.
The only time I make cakes in a paper is if it's going to be taken away, like a picnic or a tail gate party.

The little guys will lick the frosting off the cupcakes.

You can use them again!!

You might be able to get them to eat mini mini cupcakes, but that's way too much work.

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Little kids don't really understand how to eat a piece/slice of cake. They can't/don't cut it. They will, at times pick up a really small piece of cake, but, for the most part, they leave cake alone.

Ice cream, they can eat with a spoon, but it has to be contained, in a bowl. If it's on a plate, it slides around and they'll quickly give up. If it's too hard they won't eat it, either.

My great nieces and nephews don't like cake but frosting is a different story. I would do cupcakes and not a big sheet cake.

I hate cupcakes, too! They're hard to eat without getting icing all over your face, are 10x more work to make & frost, crumbs get all over the place and they always seem 'dry'...maybe because they get overbaked? And then there's that icky paper thing to deal with that the dog will come along and pick out of the trash.

All that and you can't sneak 'just one more bite of cake'.

Never understood why they got trendy.

What about making that delicious Texas Sheet Cake where it's baked in a flat pan (jelly roll) and the icing is poured over it when it's hot so the whole piece is YUMMY! Best darn cake I've ever eaten!

AKgirl, it's funny you say that. I just made a cake for Bud's birthday party on Sunday. It's a Texas sheet cake, LOL, but I'm going to decorate it to look like a field with an International tractor pulling a John Deere tractor out of the irrigation ditch. The frosting makes a perfect "field", just plowed! The Princess wants a Hawaiian theme, so she's getting pineapple cake with fondant in tropical colors and hibiscus. Fake ones, of course, this is Michigan, LOL.

Nope, not a cupcake in sight.

Annie

I've baked cupcakes in ice cream cone cones for kids parties. You stand them up in muffin tins or a roasting pan and scrunch foil around them to keep them upright. When cooled you dip the cake-that-looks-like-the-scoop-of-ice-cream into frosting and put sprinkles on, if desired. No papers, no sticky fingers, no crumbs to speak of. You can get kiddie sized cones and they are perfect.

Annie, hibiscus flowers are edible (and tasty). You can buy them dried from Amazon, if nowhere closer.

I know that plllog, but the cake is set for Sunday's birthday party, and it's Friday night. I'm not paying for overnight delivery, so she gets fake flowers pulled from one of the leis she has as party favors. Not that she'll care.

Annie

Oh. I'm sorry. I missed the timeframe. I just love eating candied hibiscus flowers. :) For the cake, I'm sure the lei fakes will be pretty and make her happy.

Annie I love the Intl pulling the John Deere out. LOL

I'd stick with 2x2 pieces. Easier for them to navigate. And yes, as you've seen, 3 cakes are best. Try to have fun. Smiles.

Cute, Oly. Could you put ice cream on top of the cake-in-a-cone, thereby having ice cream and cake in an edible container? (I had a friend who used to serve her son yogurt in a little ice cream cone. Portable yogurt in the days before Go-gurt or such.)

Thank you all!

It's for a kindergarden party without family. Just the kids and the kindergarden teacher and her assistants. She said cake so I'm not going to make cupcakes, as she'll be the one to cope with the mess and it's only right she'll choose what kind of mess it's going to be.

I'll make 3 sheet cakes to be on the safe side. Better have some uneaten cake than not enough.

Olychick, you took me down memory lane. When I was a kid we used to buy a very similar candy - sort of decorated meringue in an icecream cone.

If you're making 3 cakes, I'd make at least one of them not chocolate, because not everyone likes or can eat chocolate.

I love the ice cream cone idea, but what keeps the cones from burning while the cake bakes, or keeps them from getting soggy?

Sally

Sally, it actually crossed my mind (not being a chocolate lover myself) but then I thought it might create trouble for the kindergarden teacher. The more identical the offering in this particular situation - the better.

Should there be the rare kid who really doesn't like chocolate (me!), the experience will only be conducive to the development of a hardy character through exposure to the buffets of fortune.

LOL!! I'm sure you were saying buffets as in getting knocked around, but I read it as buffets, as in help yourself dining. :) Which can be torture themselves. :)

Sally, cakes in ice cream cones (the "cake" variety with flat bottoms) has been around for half a century or more. I can't tell you how it works, but it does. You don't use a runny batter. Most use a mix. Bake as usual at 350° F. My mother made them for one of my birthday parties, but I remember not liking having to eat the cone to get at the cake, and then the cake was drier than it should have been. I'm guessing the cone absorbs some moisture, as you suggested, and then it steams off recrisping the cone, but that's rank speculation.

Plllog, I meant both. It was a pun.

Did the teacher request chocolate? If not, I would make them all white or yellow cakes. My experience with that age, many don't like chocolate.

I never ever met a kid who didn't prefer chocolate over "vanilla"....2 year olds and up. And I was the "Treats Mom" for vacation Bible School for a few years.

Oh! Well, then, I guess I got it even if I didn't catch on. :)

Interesting difference of experience. Since chocolate is a strong flavor, I'm wondering if it depends on whether the parents give them chocolate and tell them it's a treat, or if they mostly avoid chocolate at home?

My daughter won't eat most chocolate, and everyone seems to find that every bit as weird as that she won't eat most pizza, spaghetti, etc. that "all" kids like.

Well, Linda our experiences differ. I have several grands that won't touch chocolate and have been around many pre-schoolers who have the same aversion.

I still remember when I was in grade school we had a milk delivery daily. In the entire school (which consisted of about 80 kids, kindergarten through eighth grade), there were two of us that drank white milk. The other 78 all chose chocolate. Go figure.

A more recent experience was Sunday's birthday party. We had a chocolate Texas sheet cake, a sour cream/white cake and a red velvet cake. All the kids ate the chocolate cake and then pulled fondant off the other flavors and ate the fondant, straight sugar. The adults appreciated the white cake and the red velvet pretty much went untouched.

That said, I'd probably still make white cake, just because the crumbs don't show so much when they are ground into the carpet, LOL.

Annie

I am impressed they can eat fondant plain. That is seriously hard core. Last year, we driving home from school, and my youngest, who liked to watch Nerdy Nummies on youtube (cake decorating) asked if he could taste vomit. I asked him to repeat the question and he really did say vomit. However, after some questioning, he talked about the stuff used in decorating the cakes and we realized he meant fondant. It is pretty but I never could eat it and after that hilarious conversation, I am also certain that I will not be able to even fathom eating the stuff.

Thing is if i make a white cake I'll have to bake 4, because for generous servings I need 3 cakes and I want the servings to be generous. I suspect a white cake will hardly be touched as in my experience kids do prefer chocolate cakes. The teacher will run out of chocolate cake and the kids won't want a white cake if they see their friends getting choc.

My oven is tiny so I can bake only 1 cake at at time, and this already means baking for several hours. I think a white cake will be just a waste of food and work.

Actually it's not even chocolate cakes. They're made with choc flavoured drink mix and the frosting is choc flavoured spread - to be liberally decorated by the birthday girl herself. It's a T&T recipe and kids love it just because it's not real chocolate. Even when I serve this cake - not with choc flavoured spread but with milk choc ganache - they don't stop at the frosting but go for the cake as well.

Well, in that case, it makes sense. To me, white cake is a waste of flour and sugar. I don't know anyone that actually likes it. Yellow cake is good, though.

My grandson did ask for chocolate cake at his last birthday (8 yrs.), but he doesn't like dark chocolate at all.

Chocolate milk is a whole different animal. I still love chocolate milk. Of course, I'm one of those chocoholics.

Thanks for the info about ice cream cone cupcakes. Good to know about them drying out the cake.

Sally

That's interesting - come to think of it my daughter likes chocolate milk, as long as it's from a mix. If it's made with chocolate syrup she won't drink it. I've learned my lesson more than once and no longer allow her to order chocolate milk when out at a restaurant because you never know if she'll like it.

wintercat, I've never heard of a choc. drink mix being used in any baking, so now I'm really curious about the recipes you use. Does the cake look like chocolate cake? lol!

FOAS, just ask your server! With so many people having food issues, most restaurants will gladly provide info on ingredients or how something is made.

It looks like chocolate cake, it smells like chocolate cake, it tastes like chocolate cake - but it definitely is NOT chocolate cake. it's cloying sweet and trashy. Kids just love it. I used to be very fond of trashy things myself when I was a kid. Refined taste develops later in my experience.

Ingredients:

1 cup self rising flour

1 cup chocolate drink mix (1 cup of the powder, of course. Do not use cocoa!)

1 cup sugar

1 cup vegetable oil (but NOT olive oil)

4 large eggs

200 ml sour cream

Method:

Sift flour and choc. drink powder together, mix well, set aside.

In a separate bowl -

Cream eggs and sugar for 4-5 minutes

Start adding oil slowly as you keep beating

Once the oil is incorporated, add sour cream, beat for 1 more minute.

Add dry ingredients in one go, stir just until combined. Pour into oiled & floured pan, bake in 340 F oven for 30 or more minutes until toothpick comes out not smeared with batter but only with a few moist crumbs (and perhaps a smattering of batter).

DO NOT overbake or you'll end up with rubber cake.

Eww.....LOL!! Is that a chocolate drink mix like Kwik....or Swiss Miss?

Yes, it's that sort of drink mix.

I made the cakes Wednesday. Ended up baking 4 because this guy

Have you had the party yet? How did it go? What icing do you use?

And I see that your cake critic is laughing about it now.

He needs a good talking-to.

I hope he licked his feet.....naughty kitty!

Well, he doesn't look sorry, that's for sure, he looks very pleased with himself. And underfed too, LOL.

Annie

The party was last Friday. I'm family so I couldn't attend because it's just the kids, the teacher and her assistants. I got a report that the cake was a "tremendous success". The icing was plain chocolate-flavour spread with heart-shaped sprinkle decorations, as the birthday girl is currently deep in the heart-shaped-everything phase.

That underfed beast sure wasn't sorry. He never is. I ran him out of the house before I started baking. That was in the morning. By noontime he kept scratching at the door begging for lunch (though he ordinarily never gets any lunch because I'm at work). I thought all will be well if I let him in for just a minute and keep an eye on him Did I want to kick myself for that!

He never licked his paws. He was unpleasantly surprized by the still rather hot cake. Serves him right.

Thanks again for helping me figure out the right amount of cake!

So glad it went well! Better that the inevitable spanner in the works came from the jolly catman while you could fix it. :) Congratulations! The cake matters so much more at that age.