Hello, ladies,

Just received my first order from the public library and have no clue how much cake I need to feed 55 people.
Stacked books - 2 or 3... Please help me with the size of the cakes.
Please, please, please...

Hi, you could do a 2 tier cake using a 10" round / 9" square cake and a 8" round/ 7" square cake. The 10" will give you 35 servings and the 8" will give you 23 servings.

You also can do three tiers using 9"/7"/5" which gives you only 54 servings. But I think always its good to have a bit more cake than less.

These are according to the serving chart that I follow.

HTH.

You could do two 9x13 double-layer cakes in the shape of books. that would give you plenty of cake. Most people say one double-layer 9x13 feeds 54. I personally think that's too small a slice and would make two cakes but it's entirely up to you. If you prefer the smaller slices, make just one 9x13 and cut it in half to make two books and then stack it. I have a stack of books in my pics. I did it all in buttercream, but I would recommend fondant, it looks cleaner.

For a book cake I would make it only 2" deep. So for 55 servings you are going to have to go 3 tiers high
I would make two 9x13x2 and stack them slightly off center (twisted); then add a 11x7x2 OR an 8" or 9" sq.
*Always* figure on a 'serving' as being either 2x2x2 OR 1x2x4. If they want bigger servings let them order more cake.
Cutting the 9x13s into 2x2x2 you get 24 servings each. The 9" sq should give you another 16 servings for a total 62 servings each 2x2x2.

Each pan will need 1 1/2 mixes to produce a nice 2" high cake. My *original* WASC cake recipe is perfect for that