I was just asked to make a grooms cake for my friends wedding, and when I asked for how many people, she didn't know. So here is my question to all your experts out there. When you make a grooms cake, how many people does your grooms cake normally serve?
They are having a wedding cake to serve all the guests, and I assume a grooms cake is just usually for like 30 servings or so? Any assistance so I can assit my friend would be appreciated. Thanks!
V
WOW! Okay, I will pass this information along. The actual wedding cake is a tiered cake, but decorated in a Mario Bros. Theme. It's very cute actually, but people keep asking if that is the grooms cake. She thought it would be pretty funny to make the grooms cake look like an actual wedding cake, but she's only wanting 1 round cake - nothing tiered. I think her wedding cake is for about 250 people. That would mean I would need a single round cake that would feed 125 people. 
I'll let her know what you said and let her decide the # of people she wants it to feed.
The grooms cake is whatever size they want it to be! If the groom wants a giant tiered cake, go for it! If the groom wants a 4" round, go for it! There is no requirement on size. I have done some groom's cakes that were sculpted and they only fed a handful of people... it was just there for look more than additional servings. Then the wedding cake served like 400! 
Good luck with this!
ETA: I've also done it the other way with Groom's cakes that were huge, so it can go either way! 
It totally doesn't matter! What matters is what the groom is 'in to'. I mean, if he likes to fish, make a fish shaped cake. Or a carved cake with a guy fishing on it. If he's into bowling, make a long sheet cake that looks like a bowling lane! Make it fun! Find out what he wants, or, many times the bride will order this as a surprise for the groom, so she may have an idea what she wants. If she wants it to look like a wedding cake due to the actual wedding cake looking like a groom's cake, it would be fun to make a mini wedding cake. Maybe an 8" with a 6" on top, decorated to look like a traditional wedding cake. That would be a hoot!! Whatever you do, have fun with it!!
Oh Master Cuppy Mel, I am at your service! And don't forget not only are you baking a cake, you have a little one in the oven that's due in like 26 days. You are my hero. I want to be you when I grow up....hey wait, I think I'm older than you! hehehehe
Thanks! I sent her the serving chart for both round and square. She's asking how a 10"-8"-6" stacked cake would look. Her fiance said they have to have a stacked cake now to make it look real.... 
I think that is okay, but I've never done stacked cakes before so I don't know. What is ya'll's opinion? I'm so excited!
And, like I said before, she wants this to be a traditional wedding cake design since their "real" wedding cake is going to be a Mario's Brother's Theme. They are gamers - BIG TIME - so they thought a traditional wedding cake for the grooms cake would be a hoot. I think it's a great idea and gives me my first experience of doing a wedding cake and a stacked cake - two birds in one stone!
This is fantastic!! You can really sink your teeth into this one! That is a nice size, not too huge and daunting for your first foray into wedding cakes! You can DO this!! Stacked is not that hard... you just have to tackle it one step at a time, and let us know if you need advice or answers! I'm excited for you now!
Mel - I am so excited. Here is a picture of what she wants, but with 3 tiers. She's a friend so I told her that I would throw in the ribbon and the entwined heart cake topper. I'm gonna try doing fondant to make that.
Oh, you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be asking lots of questions. Oh, she's partial to round cakes so she's gonna do round ones instead of square.
Thanks for your support and encouragement!
Oh YAH!! Me likey, likey!! That is a gorgeous cake! You are going to have a great time with this one!! I can't wait to see it when it's all done! How long do we have to wait?
Well, if you do have questions, you know I'm happy to help in any way possible!
I so want to call you Melvira, Mistress of the dark.... every time I see your siggy.
The wedding is June 7th....I'm kinda freaking out. I work full time in an office and am not sure when I should start baking the cakes, etc. I have 6 cakes to make for this order (flavors undetermined at this point)
This weekend I'm gonna make the cake topper so it has time to dry and I'm not rushing at the last minute to make that.
Here's what I'm thinking. Let me know if this will allow for enough time or if I'm spreading it out too much. Remember, I only have my nights to do this and all day on the weekends
Sunday, June 1st - make all the fillings for the cakes and keep in fridge
Monday night, June 2nd - make the 10" cakes
Tuesday night, June 3rd - make the 8" cakes
Wednesday night, June 4th - make the 6" cakes
Thursday night, June 5th - fill all the cakes, make the icing and crumb coat cakes
Friday night, June 6th - ice and decorate the cakes and prep for stacking
Saturday, June 7th - bring to the wedding and set it up there (it's an early afternoon wedding)
What am I missing? Does that timeline look okay? Do I keep the cakes in the fridge until I fill and crumb coat or keep them wrapped up in saran wrap on the counter?
You can call me that anytime! I'm used to it! (That's how I got the nickname... I used to look like her. Boobs and all!)
Anyway... what I would do honestly, to keep your head about you and not pressure yourself is to bake the cakes well in advance, then wrap very well in multiple layers of saran wrap and freeze. Then, the day you want to decorate them, you pull them out, leave them wrapped, and let them thaw. Then dispose of the wrapping. I wouldn't do them much more than a week early, but I certainly wouldn't bake them at the beginning of the week and leave them sitting unfrozen, they will start to dry out. I know some people leave them out for a few days and it's fine, but I am funny that way. I like to make things within 1-2 days of consumption for maximum freshness, because if they keep leftovers for a day or two, they're going to be like, "Man, that's dry!" Not realizing it's not been 'sitting around' for a week and a half! Plus, a short term freezing can actually enhance the moistness of your cakes!! People rave about how moist mine are, especially when they've been frozen at least overnight. (I've been known to do that just for the extra moistness factor, bake the night before and just freeze them for 12 hours.)
Here's the schedule I would try...
Bake the weekend before you can bake that many cakes in 1 day... wrap them all and freeze. (If the weekend isn't an option, bake three layers on Monday, the other three on Tuesday) Wednesday take a break and check on your fondant decorations, make sure they're looking good! Then, Thursday I'd make your fillings and icing. Friday pull cakes out and leave to thaw while you're at work, then after work ice and decorate. If you use the icing tip you don't really need to crumb coat. That's a personal choice though!
If you really want to crumb coat the cakes and let them sit, then make icing and fillings on wednesday and crumb coat on thursday. Just remember that you'll have Saturday AM to work on it too. I'd just hate to see you do all of this and end up with cakes that are done days in advance, just sitting there drying out. But of course, you want to leave yourself enough time for everything!
Ohhhh, that sounds great.
I can definately bake all day on Saturday or Sunday. I've seen people say they wrap up their cakes while they are still warm and put them in the freezer. Is that how you do it? Or should I let them cool off completely before wrapping and putting in the freezer. I've never put mine in the freezer before so I'm clueless. And, I definately want FRESH and if you think baking them that many days in advance and not freezing them would cause them to be dry, I don't want to take that chance. I'll take the advise of the pros!
And, I like your schedule much better. I'd rather bake all in one day and leave myself with some free time during the week! And, then I only have one mess to clean up as opposed to 3 days of baking messes
And, I've never worked with Fondant. The hearts on the cake should be easy to make, right? And, I would make those the day that I decorate the cake right?
Thanks Mel. I think a mini wedding cake would be a hoot, too. I'll suggest that size to her, and tell her my pricing per slice.
Hey, I just realized something. Who's manning the cuppy thread if you are over here????
Okay, don't wanna get on a rant here......but if you're going super mini.....you better not be charging by the slice, those little buggers are a ton of work!!!!!! They need to cost more because they are a lot more work. If someone orders a 4",3",2" mini wedding cake.......you better believe they're paying me more than just 5 servings or whatever it would be worth!! That's a lot of work making a little tiny cake that looks like a big cake!
K - they decided to do a 10-8-6 cakes. I'm happy with that!
Okay, how do I make those double heart fondant decorations that are on the sides of those cakes? I can't find a cookie cutter that would produce hearts like that. Now I'm really freaking out....can I really do this?
KHalstead, you are SO right!! I HATE trying to ice mini cakes! Fortunately she opted for something a little larger!! *sigh of relief*
For the hearts on the side of the cake, I would draw them on some posterboard thickness paper and cut them out, then just lay them down on the fondant and cut them with an exacto knife or really sharp paring knife. You can so totally do this! Stop stressing yourself out! I'm telling you, we'll talk you through it as needed!
And yes, less cleaning is a definite benefit of baking all in one day! I think that's your best bet!! And I do think letting them sit from tuesday to Saturday without freezing would result in a lower quality than what you want. I mean, this is your first big chance to really strut your stuff!! You want to put your best product out there! Fresher is always better, even when it requires a bit of freezing. Some people really don't like freezing their cakes and will go to a lot of trouble to advertise that they don't freeze, but I've found it has NEVER compromised my quality! And when you're busy, it can be a life saver! If you KNEW how many cakes I have next week... and I have been baking and freezing all this week to save myself the heart attack! They will be perfect quality next week when I pull them out!
Ditto on the freezing!!!
And if you don't tell anyone, they'll never know you froze them! I let mine cool completely before wrapping in saran wrap before putting them in the freezer. And if the layers are small enough, I'll put them in ziplocs too. Guess I'm just a little anal.
The lettering on the cake looks like they were cut from fondant using the letter tappits. I use these all the time - saves from having to write on cakes.
You'll have fun with this cake. Sounds like a pretty fun wedding couple too.
Here's the schedule I would try...
Bake the weekend before you can bake that many cakes in 1 day... wrap them all and freeze. (If the weekend isn't an option, bake three layers on Monday, the other three on Tuesday) Wednesday take a break and check on your fondant decorations, make sure they're looking good! Then, Thursday I'd make your fillings and icing. Friday pull cakes out and leave to thaw while you're at work, then after work ice and decorate. If you use the icing tip you don't really need to crumb coat. That's a personal choice though!
Very same thing I would suggest. In fact, when I did my sister's cake last fall, it is the same schedule except I baked the cakes 2 weekends prior and froze them and they came out perfect!
As for the hearts, I was going to suggest doing chocolate transfers. I've never tried it but that's what they remind me of when I see them. That way, you can have the heart design on a sheet of paper and just trace it.
Also, you should be able to get all those cakes baked in one day easy. That's another plus of doing it all at once!
Okay, how do I make those double heart fondant decorations that are on the sides of those cakes? I can't find a cookie cutter that would produce hearts like that. Now I'm really freaking out....can I really do this?
i'm not so great at computer graphics, just some basic stuff on word. what i have done for these tyoes of decoration, is used the shapes that come with word to design my idea. then i print it out, and transfer it to plastic or cardboard and use it as a template.
Yes, chocolate would work too! Good idea! It will just depend on how 'flat' you want them to be against the cake. The chocolate would be slightly more raised, but that would look neat too!
And I agree the names look like tappits.
I just noticed in the photo description you said she wants red instead of teal... that is going to ROCK!!! I love it!!
Oh, and one more thing...if you are making the topper instead of buying it, please make two!! That way, if one breaks you have a back up, also, when you go to set up the cake, you can choose which one looks the best.
Where is the huggy guy when you need him. You guys ROCK my world! I love all of you for taking the time to help me with this. I have tons of work to do at my job, but wanted to say thanks and I'll be back later I'm sure with more questions. Thanks again everyone. You've brought tears to my eyes. I know I can do this....thanks to all of you!
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