I need help determining which cake serving size chart is most accurate. I have the Wilton "Decorating Cakes" reference book and it says that a 9x13 sheet cake (2-layer) should serve approx. 28 when cut in 1.5x2" slices.

On the Wilton website, the same exact cake cut in the same size slices says that it serves 45. Which one is correct--because that can't possibly be possible.

I think Wilton's has a party serving and a wedding serving. I go by the wedding serving size on their website. I have actually marked my pans and I got the same servings as Wilton's wedding cake chart.

I have a very hard time figurig out the same thing. One because you never know who is going to be cutting the cake and how big they will make the pieces, especially when its a round tier cake and most regular folk just slice them like a pie!

I look at some of the charts and I say, "there is NO way that serves that many"...
Therefore I have a tendancy to make cakes bigger than what people ask for! LOL

welcome to CC, the best resource for all things cake!!

A couple of things to watch when looking at a serving chart, is to make sure you know if the chart is referring to a single layer (2" tall) cake or a double layer (4" tall) cake.

The neat part about a square or rectangle cake is that you can do the math to figure serving sizes.

Using the 9x13, let's assume you're cutting the pieces in the industry standard of 2x2x2. That means you will cut the cake in approximately 4 rows (9 divided by 2" = 4.5, so round to 4) by 6 columns (13 divided by 2" = 6.5, so round to 6). That gives you 24 pieces.

If you cut them 1.5x2x2, just do the math that way.

If it's a double layer cake (4" tall), the industry standard is 1x2x4. So the 9x13 would be cut in 8 or 9 rows (I use 8 becuase it's easier to divide and it allows for any cake shrinkage) ..... so 8 rows by 6 columns = 48 servings.

If you cut them bigger, like 1.5x2x4, just do the math with those figures to get the number of servings.

With this "formula" in mind, it's a bit easier to decipher a chart and know what dimensions it's using and assuming.

I had the same issue.. but I finally found a chart that I really like here --> http://www.countrykitchensa.com/wedding/cakechart.aspx I've just decided to stick with it and I let me customers know what the serving size is and supply them with a cutting guide.

What I've recently done is gone with a range of servings instead of saying this cake serves this many. I tell people that depending on who's cutting it, this cake will serve between 20 and 25, for example. The next size up would serve 25-30, or whatever. They can then decide on which one they want, depending on whether they think they want more or less cake. I price them based on the average of the servings, so I have a flat price for each cake that's still based on an approximate serving count. I don't break it out by price per serving anymore, though, since you have no control over how people cut it.

I use Earlene Moore's chart for the smaller number of servings (bigger pieces) and the Wilton chart for the larger number (smaller pieces.)