Hello--I've just been asked to do a cake for a family get together--not a reunion (I dont know why that distinction was made, but it was).

All I know is that there are 6 boys and 1 girl...the client doesnt have any color preferences or style preferences, or thoughts on flavor either...

So--I have free reign, which is a blessing and a curse!

I would like to somehow have the 6 boys and 1 girl represented...but other than that, I'm not sure...

Thanks for your ideas!

I've seen a pic of a cake where the person made mmf faces of the family members and used those to decorate the cake. It was very cute and the mmf faces would be easy to make. You would just need to ask for the eye and hair color of the family members. Maybe you could make a simple family tree w/buttercream and the faces would be on each branch. KWIM?

there's an example of a family tree in the wilton course I book, it's real cute.

how about scrap booking type theme? You can scan pictures of the kids and the eldest in the family and do a nice scrapbook-type page. I had seen this idea somewhere, but cant remember. Looked really nice!

I have seen one that is a tree (done on a 1/4 sheet cake) with people's faces in the tree. I think that may be like the one from the wilton book, now that I think about it.

The first thing that came to my mind was also the family tree.

Do you know what the family intrests are? For example: If they are a Farm family, you could use a farm theme incorporating the 6 boys and girl into that.

I really like the scrapbooking idea too. Only problem with that is I don't have a printer so that wouldn't work for me.

Check these links. Hopefully they will help you come up with some ideas.

This one you could maybe put tree in middle with family name and girl and boys around it:
http://www.wilton.com/recipes/recipesandprojects/add_pans/earth.cfm

Maybe this type and use cookies on stick and put each of the kids names on cookies:
http://www.wilton.com/recipes/recipesandprojects/olympics/olympic_poundcake.cfm

http://www.wilton.com/recipes/recipesandprojects/misc/familytreet.cfm

http://www.wilton.com/recipes/recipesandprojects/yearbook/bookedforanotheryear.cfm

If you're thinking of doing a tiered cake then you could make some colorful tiers and then mold some kids and have them walking on the various tiers, with maybe the "baby" at the top...you'd have to know the hair & eye color of each child and maybe even their favorite color to make their clothes.

Here's a link to one of the pics in the gallery (creator - Mahal) for a baby shower but you could modify for the kids....

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=favpics&cat=0&pos=-16146

Good luck!

oh I love the idea of a tree...I feel like thats a "why didnt I think of that" idea!

The one thing that originally came to mind was the old lady that lives in a shoe...I think I saw that kind of cake somewhere, but I wouldnt know where to start making one...

I did a family tree as well however instead of faces I used fondant banners with the names on them.

Edited to remove link to pic as it was added in post!

I like your old woman who lived in a shoe idea! you could do the kids as color flow pieces also to prepare ahead of time and not do fondant.

by the way, I love the 5 tier wedding cake in your gallery - WOW!

I remember seeing an Old lady who lived in a shoe cake, they used an older 3D rabbit pan (it's ears stand up straight) as the shoe. It was in either the 1981 or 1980 Wilton yearbook if I remember right. I would imagine that you could use a lamb pan for the shoe just as easily.

tripletmom-love your cake, but now I'm dying for some chocolate. Oh, the power of suggestion!

I love how you did the trunk on that tree!

The lamb pan is a good idea for a shoe...I might have to take a shopping trip tomorrow to acquire one!

I think I might try to do a 2 tiered cake with a tree going up it and the faces on the tree...or perhaps try to make the cake actually look like a tree (a few 6inch rounds with an 8 inch dome on top? sounds a bit precarious) and have the kids climing the tree...