Hi there, I have a bride who is doing a wedding for 200 ppl. The cake we design was a 5 tierd cake using the following pan sizes 14, 12, 10, 8, 6 which seves 208. Now she wants to know what the cost would be if I made into 4 tiers? But what I think she means is how do we cut down the servings to 150 and but thinks it will still be a 4 tiered cake. Am I missing something? Is there a way to get a 4 tiered cake for 150 ppl with using round pans and having the finished cake 4 inches high? What do I tell this bride?

I hope that I am understanding right. The 4 in tiers should be 4 inches no matter how many of them you have that is what to me is almost the norm??? You can ask her how many servings is she trying to serve so that you can get some clarification. Also is she trying to serve the whole cake or is she trying to save the top tier? That would make a difference also.

She is trying to reduce her servings to 150 and have the cake be 4 tiers. She is not keeping the top for her anniv. If I use a 6, 8, 10 and 12 that puts me at 130, which is not 150. How acurate are you on this kind of stuff? If I use the 8, 10, 12 and 14 that puts me at 196 which is 4 servings away from the 200 that she orginial was at.

You're gonna have to use odd-sized pans (7-9-11-13 comes out at about 150-160 servings) OR 4" tier differential (4-8-12-16 comes out at about 155-165 servings), but it can be done.

One other thing, is 150 the # of guests she's inviting or the # who have confirmed that they are coming? If the former, she'll likely only need 100-120 servings.

Just change the 12 to a 14 in round and that will give you 152 servings.
6 in 12 servings
8 in 24
10 in 38
14 in 78
I am attaching the wilton chart to let you see where I got it from
http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-wedding-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm

Thanks all for you help. It looks like I'll need to go with odd sizes because the type of cake design it is I need the sizes to be in order. I can't swap out a 12 with a 14" it will through off the design of the cake.

A BIG thank you to all that helped, as I struggled with this for most of the day. Your help is invaluable.

What kind of design are you using? I know a four inch difference seems huge but in actuality it is only 2 inches on each side.

In the cake picture she showed me it's a cake that is only has the inch on each side. The two based tiers have draped fondant down the from to make it look kinda of like a curtain, and the other tiers have fondant draped at an angle all the way around.