Okay, just got this wedding cake order for a small wedding for 50. Customer would like 3 square tiers... the smallest will be take-home.

Are 6", 8" and 10" tiers too close in size to look good?

By Wilton's party slice, the 8" and 10" feed 50, but of course their Wedding chart & Earlene's chart say that an 8" and 10" will feed closer to 60 or 80 depending on which chart. Ugggg...

Anyway, any suggestions?

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=750353

Here is a cake of mine that is 12/10/8/6, so the top three tiers are the sizes you are contemplating.

I go by the Wilton wedding chart and usually have cake left over. Remember, that a piece of cake is not a meal .... it's a dessert. A Wilton standard piece of 1x2x4 is about the size of a folded over peanut butter sandwich.

The 10" will serve 50 (5 rows by 10 columns); the 8" will serve 32 (4 rows by 8 columns), so even if you cut them bigger, you will have plenty.

Thanks for the advice Debi-- that's a beautiful cake.

which also highlights why you sell be serving, not by tier. if they want three tiers, you tell them that "a" combinatoin serves "y" people and "x"" combination "y" people and ask which they prefer. And then they pay for the total number of servings the cakes make, not the number they want. Rarely does a cake work out to the exact number of servings desired.

jmt, I am frequently asked "how much is a 3-tiered cake?" and my standard response is "I can make a 3-tiered cake to serve 15 .... or I can make a 3-tiered cake to serve 300. How much cake are you looking for?"

Reminds me of a story my husband tells. He was a kid. Bill told Jim to "get me a gallon bucket". Jim brings him a gallon bucket. Bill says, "I don't want one of those LITTLE gallon buckets! I need a BIG gallon bucket!"

Also the old story about the question of "how much does 1 cup weigh?" The answer being "A cup of metal screws or a cup of feathers?"

Yeah....pricing per serving, and that means the servings the cake was designed to serve NOT the number of servings they plan to cut from it!.