Baking child's birthday cake... help!

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Sooooo I have this mad idea of bake the cake for my son's birthday party...for 30 children. Where do I start??????
I am an average baker and, in our very small family, I bake small cakes, never completely frosted/glazed/etc.
Has anyone with average baking skill ever attempted a birthday cake? I don't mean to bake one of those with sophisticated decorations, more of an old style type of cake. Literally any idea welcome.
Oh, also, how big do I need to go and what size should the tin be?

OP, kindly it sounds like you are making hard work for yourself. My (cookery teacher) gran used to tell me ‘if you are baking under pressure/ stressed/ mind not in it, it will go wrong. And you are by your own admission only an average baker with no experience of large scale projects-cut yourself some slack, buy a cake for the children’s party and make him a small one for just family ❤️ 🍰

Could you make your usual small cake for candles and then make cupcakes for the kids to take home?

Have a look at tray bakes

I got this tin ages ago -got my money back in no time!

If you cover it in chocolate icing,edge it with chocolate fingers and then cover it in smarties or m&ms it looks amazing.

www.hobbycraft.co.uk/wilton-countless-celebrations-letter-and-number-cake-pan-set/6146891000.html

Like this. Very easy to do and cover up any mistakes!

You can also cover the cake in fondant but that is harder and requires lots of rolling so I’d recommend the chocolate way for ease!

I’d make a lovely standard cake and then 30 cupcakes. Much easier.
best of luck.. I totally get why you are doing it!
I’ve always said I want to make my kids cakes but I struggled to for my 1yo’s bday so I bought a two tier from M&S and decorated it myself. Still felt special. Will probably do the same this year because I’m pregnant and there’s no way I’m baking 🤣

My enthusiasm outweighs my ability, but I've done almost all DD's cakes. I can follow a recipe and I can do cutting and sticking. I wish I could remember how I did the massive one for the 30-kid party but all I can say is I googled how to scale it up. I used ready-made coloured icing and bought cutters to cut out the shapes and other decorations from Amazon. It was good enough for a bunch of 5-year-olds and the collected grandparents and aunties. Give it a go. The worst that can happen is a last minute dash to Sainsburys, but it'll probably be a triumph.

I would make a birthday cake fully decorated as you want then a couple of tray bakes the same but without all the extra decorations. Cut the tray bakes to share out.

how old is your son, what’s he into

This. Normal sized cake for blowing the candles, then cupcakes to take home- either home made or shop bought!

What amazing ideas, thanks so much!
Yes, I know I am making my life much more difficult but I really want to give it a go.

12oz baking margarine, 12oz caster sugar, beat till soft, whisk 6 medium eggs, add to margarine and sugar, beat together, add few drops vanilla essence, then fold in 12oz self raising flour, divide into 36 cake cases, cook on gas 4-5 or about 180 electric for 10-15 mins, leave to cool then icing on top and some decorations on top.

Of course you can bake a birthday cake, OP - I don't know why some posters are acting like you said you were trying to build a working rocket ship!

My advice would be to keep it simple this time and stick to either a square or round shape with simple decoration (e.g. buttercream icing decorated with sweets). Then, once you're confident with that, you might want to be more adventurous with the design next time around.

The recipe will say how many it's supposed to serve and the tin size. You can always double/triple the ingredients (but don't forget to also increase the eggs proportionately - I often nearly forget them as they don't require a calculator!) and bake multiple cakes if needed.

You could also make one simple (iced) tray bake to put in party bags, then have something a bit more adventurous for the main cake to blow the candies out on, so that could always be smaller - it doesn't have to be one giant showstopper cake that serves 30, you just need enough cake for everyone in the end.

The first cake I ever baked was my sons first birthday cake. There’s a calculator on BBC goodfood, where you put in the type of cake you want and the size of your tin, and it generates the exact recipe you need. I followed that and it turned out perfectly.

If you can already bake a cake, why would a birthday cake be any different?

You have probably made this cake already. I think this thread came up for me because I was on a more recent, similar thread. In case not though - I love making my son's cakes but am not much of a baker and find this cake good:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-chocolate-cake

The icing works well. It always makes too much icing but just use what you want and throw the rest. It's not enough to bother fiddling the quantities - just enjoy licking out the bowl. I don't bother with the chocolate decorations, usually buy smarties to make a pattern of number with. It's also fairly solid if you want to cut bits off. Good luck

These are my bakes I've made for my kids birthdays over the years. I'm just an average baker, just what YouTube videos - you will get thr hand of it

Also made these, and tray bakes are great for parties. If you need any help - you can DM me I'll be happy to help

An average baker but I really like making my kids cakes. A rainbow swirl cake is pretty easy but looks great. Make vanilla cake batter (I like Nigella Lawson's birthday cake as it has some structural integrity) then split the batter into a few bowls, colour each one and the plop into your tin and swirl, then bake. Your child can help too.

I also make the cake ahead and freeze it un- iced. Then you can thaw and decorate on for the party.

Make a load of fairy cakes and a cardboard stand so you can stack them into a tower.
You can slot everyone a cake to put in their party bag if you ice a letter on to each one ( the first letter of their first name) which makes it a puzzle to pick their own cake. On the top of the stack have all the candles on the top cake. Keeping it simple!

I’ve made all my little boys cakes, I think it’s a lovely thing to do. Last one I made three Mary berry’s chocolate tray bakes, put two one on top of the other and cut the third in half and then put that one half on top of the other. Did the icing from the recipe in between and on top. Chocolate fingers round the outside, cut a bit out the front and filled it with smarties, bought some little diggers to ‘dig’ the smarties and hey presto!
It was a bloody triumph!