I have never made a wedding cake before. I have noticed that you need to use 3 inch deep pans instead of 2. How much cake batter do I need to make then? I have these recipes to use but they are for 2 inch pans. I am supposed to make this cake for a wedding in March. Also, if they wanted cake for 200 people including the top cake, I would need approximately 5 layers, when I asked her what flavor cakes she wanted she said strawberry, chocolate, and marble and she said I could pick for the other 2 so I'm just wondering what the most common flavors are? I was thinking of doing one just white since there will be a lot of children there. Anybody that can help I would appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Thanks again~
Beth

Hi Princess Beth...don't be confused!! You do not have to use 3" deep pans, the 2" ones are fine. You would bake two layers for each tier, level and stack the two (with icing in between) and you have a 4" high cake before icing the outside of the cake, which is just perfect for a wedding cake. The amount of batter depends on the size of the pan. Look under the "Articles" tab of this website, scroll down to the "General" section and find the article titled "Pan Size Conversion". This will give you all the info you need for the amount of batter and so on. Make sure you do don't count the top tier in your number of servings, since that is typically saved for the first anniversary. The other two flavors could be a yellow one and a white one...that way each tier would be different, but that is a matter of choice...there are no rules there! Hope this helps! Happy baking, Missey

Hi Beth~

I am no expert, but you can use a 2" cake pan instead of a 3". My first learning experience on making a wedding cake... you need 2 layers per tier no matter how deep your cake pan! hahaha I cried when my friend told me I need 2 layers and "didn't you know that?" hahaha NO.. but it was all good.

As for your flavors, yes, I too would do white and maybe a spice or lemon. Whatever you choose I am sure it will be a hit!

Have fun and happy baking!
Debbie

Thank you so much. Very helpful information. I appreciate it a lot.

~Beth~

Actually a lot of folks make only one layer with the 3 inch deep pans and torte them and fill - you can torte once or even twice. Making a 6 inch high cake for a wedding, though gaining in popularity recently and considered trendy, is still not the norm. The reason is it is very hard to cut wedding cake size portions in a 6 inch high cake and also because many of the traditionally used plates are a little on the small side for this height of cake.
The thing is you can still bake the same amount of batter you would normally put in a 2 inch high pan, into a 3 inch high pan. A lot of bakeries do this. Now even though you use the amount of batter for a 2 inch pan, the cakes will rise higher than they would in a 2 inch high pan with the same amount of batter - proven fact. The nice thing is though they rise higher, you don't get much of a crown if any, so levelling is an easy chore.
I do all three, 2 inch double layers from 2 inch deep pans, whatever height they end up being when you put the 2 inch high batter amounts in the 3 inch high pans, 2 layers, 3 inch single torted or double or single untorted. There are no written rules.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes