I had a customer order a sheet cake for an event this Saturday that she has been planning for about 4 months. She just ordered it yesterday, but being the nice person that I am I told her I could still do it with only 3 days notice. She said she wanted the same size cake that the grocery store sells as a full sheet cake. I said ok that is a 12 x 18. She wants it to feed 100 people. I explained to her that a 12 x 18 cake won't serve that many people, but she said she would just cut the pieces really small. Whatever, the customer is always right so I said fine She wanted half the cake to be yellow and half chocolate. So she comes to me today and says she wants to make sure she is getting the same size cake the grocery store would sell her. I said yes it's a 12 x 18. She said ok I just wanted to make sure that since you were making 2 different flavors that you weren't going to put 2 9 x 13's together because I need the cake to bigger than that. What?! After the shock wore off I somewhat sarcastically said "a 12 x 18 and 2 9 x 13's are the same thing". I can't believe I actually had to explain that though

She has no idea just how small she has to cut those pieces, does she?

Yeah, those are going to be some tiny pieces of cake! Oh well, not your problem.

No she doesn't I'm glad I don't have to be the one to cut them. The real kicker was I only charged her $50 for the cake because I know her and it was for a fundraiser then she tells me at the end of this whole conversation "and if you wanted to charge me less than $50 that would be ok too". I just pretended like I didn't hear that

I call those moments with customer's-----

Forest Gump moments!

Lu

I would toss in some toothpicks for serving

Mike

I thought a 12x18 is a half sheet? Full sheets I have seen at grocery stores are bigger

i think 2- 12x18's make a full sheet. although some stores around my area sell 11X15 half sheets. if you are making 2 layers of the 2-9x13's though i guess it would feed the 100.

A 12X18 is a half sheet cake here also and the full sheet is larger. I beleive it may be a 15x22 like VetaAl stated.

My full sheet cake (single layer) - and the grocery stores in my area are 16x24. Cutting 2" x 2" pieces this would serve 96 people

Yeah.. I thought a full sheet cake was 18x26?? So it would be four 9x13's.

I know I have seen the big full sheets at BJ's.. they are massive.

Are you sure you have your pan size correct? A 12x18 sounds very small for a full sheet. At the bakery I work at, our 1/2 sheets are 18x13 and our full are 18x26. Our 1/2 feeds 50, and full 100.

You might want to double check the grocery store's sizes so you know for sure what your customer is expecting. It is generous of you to do this on short notice, but how quickly customers forget that and turn angry when things aren't how they thought they were going to be!

Indydebi has a whole post about why she doesn't use the terms half-sheet, quarter sheet, etc.

When people ask for a half sheet or full sheet or whatever, I just tell them "My pans may be different than the grocery store. How many servings do you need?"

Then I make the appropriate size.

I called the grocery that she was referring to and they did confirm that what they call a full sheet cake is a 12 x 18. Actually I guess I could have left all that stuff out because what I was really getting at was that I had to explain to her that 2 9 x 13's and a 12 x 18 were the same thing.

All the grocery stores in my area sell full sheet cakes - 24x18". At 2x2" servings, she should have just enough cake.

Theresa

My full sheet cakes are 2 12 x 18 cakes put together or a 24 x 18. I can't fit any larger pan in my oven. A 12 x 18 is a half sheet.

Jo

I think the sizes vary somewhat between regions. But my sizes are
1/4 sheet (9x13) feed up to 24
1/2 sheet (11x15) feed up to 48
3/4 sheet (12x1 feed up to 72
full sheet ( 2- 11x15) feed up to 96

Oh yeah! and a full-sheet in restaurant and bakery terms is 18"x24".

Cakebelle -

You are right about the size of a full sheet. That is also what we learned in pastry school. I went into quite a debate with the owner of the local shop about this, when I went to buy a half-sheet pan. She insisted that it was 11x15", so I went out to the car and got my class book for reference, which stated clearly that a half sheet is 12x18", and a full sheet is 18x24".

Theresa

If she ordered cake to feed 100 people and requested a full sheet she was ordering the right amount of cake. 18x24 is a full sheet and it feeds 96. There will most likely be problems when she picks up the cake...she is expecting it to be a FULL SHEET and obviously she knows what it should look like but doesn't understand the demensions.

Yeah, I'm worried too that the customer is not comprehending what size 12x18 is (even tho you did clearly give her those numbers) and that is why there was the funny comment about 2 9x13s not being enough cake. Every time you say 12x18" she is picturing that full sheet she wants and does seem to comprehend the size of the 9x13 and knows that 2 won't be enough.

I'm with cakebelle and playingwithsugar on the dimensions. Why do different regions/bakeries have to do this differently from one another and make things difficult?? Thats why I call out dimensions and serving sizes instead of names too.

I base my single layer sheet cakes off of the grocery stores in my area and the size of the cake boards that I order on line (they list on their websites the 1/4, 1/2 and full sheet cake board sizes).

9x13 is a 1/4 sheet cake (serves approximately 24)
12 x 18 is a 1/2 (serves approx 54)
16 x 24 is a full (serves approx 96)
since Wilton makes a 11 x 15 pan I also use this as an in-between to give my customers another size (serves approx 35)
these are using 2" x 2" serving pieces

HTH