let them eat (lots of) cake

There are some lessons you learn the hard way. And other lessons made easier by the presence of cake. I'll explain.

For Eviter Lindsay's birthday, I ordered a sheet cake for the office. I assumed the term sheet referred to the shape of the cake — rectangular instead of round, like a sheet of paper. As it turns out, it means the cake you get is the size of a bedsheet. I mean, seriously, look at this thing (see photo above); it's about two feet long! It dwarfs the table! And those are full-size dinner plates next to it!

I read on some websites (after the fact, natch) that a full sheet cake can serve anywhere from 60 to 100 people. There were only about 30 of us, and although we've never been shy around cake, even our valiant efforts only made a dent in it.

So, lesson learned: Always ask about the size of the cake you're ordering. That said, I guess it was better to have too much cake than too little. The birthday girl took a big chunk home, and we were able to treat several other officemates to some frosted goodness. Happy ending.

And for the record, while I couldn't find a definitive online source, various sites claim that a quarter sheet feeds approximately 12 to 20 people, and a half sheet is meant for groups of 30 to 50.

p.s. The text on the cake? It reads "nom nom nom," an homage to the hungry lolcats on the I Can Has Cheezburger? site.

Comments

What's funny is that I am well aware of the whole quarter-sheet, half-sheet, full-sheet concept, and yet I still always seem to order one too large for the occasion.

I think it's due to fear that there won't be enough cake to go around if I get the much more appropriately-sized quarter sheet. (Then again, when we entertain, we always over-estimate how many drinks, appetizers, etc., we need, so why stop with the cake?)

BTW, I just realized today that all the photos on the evite blog have funny alt-tag captions that appear when you hover your mouse over the photo. The cake caption cracked me up!

In all the time I've been reading the evite blog, how is it that I missed those until now?!

Good eye, James!

We were inspired by the hilarious hovertext on Cute Overload to add our own.

I was wondering when somebody would find those. :)

I am so glad someone made my daughter a cake for her birthday. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It is so hard to ship cakes from Kansas to LA.