My cousin contacted me a couple days ago in need of a wedding cake & groom's cake. It's a 2nd marriage for both, so they are going a bit untraditional this time. They are going to have their wedding on their boat, and she has asked me to do her cake as a life-preserver ring; she wants it in all white, I have the design already figured out, I think. But what I need help with is figuring out the size I need to do to get the servings required. Obviously, I need to do a round cake with the center cut out. She wants a small carved groom's cake in the shape of an anchor. She expects to need about 65 or so servings, so I figure I will plan to get about 20 out of the groom's cake and 45-50 out of the wedding cake. Does anyone know what size would be best to make for this? I will most likely do 2-3 layers with filling, so it will probably be about 6" tall. I appreciate any input!!

Thanks!

Personally I'd probably shoot for a 14" round, even though it'll be 6" tall it will still be cut and served and will yield the same as if it was 4" tall. A 14" serves 82 according to my chart, minus the potential 6" round you'll cut from the center (14 servings) you'll have 68 servings before carving anything off to get the rounded affect. I would say that would give you a good 50 servings safely without shorting them!

Thank you so much! I was thinking to just take the servings the entire round cake and then subtract the servings for the size that I would be removing, but needed a little confirmation that my logic was correct. I think a 14" sounds right. Thanks again!

Instead of cutting out the center, what about putting a smaller cake pan in the larger pan so that you are only baking a ring of cake? That way you aren't wasting extra cake. I'm not even sure if that would work, but it was a thought. It would definitely impact the baking time.

That's a thought, too. It sounds logical, maybe I should test it out on a smaller size and see how it works...I imagine I'm going to have quite a bit of scraps with the anchor groom's cake, so any waste that I can eliminate would be great!

Thanks!

I'd love to have a beautiful cake. Those with elegant designs and everthing, that would attract those visitors..

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/1962943/?catalogId=93&bnrid=3180501&cm_ven=Shopping&cm_cat=Froogle&cm_pla=default&cm_ite=default


too bad you couldn't just get one of these!

Oh man, I would seriously go buy one of those if it came in 14"!!!! How perfect would that be?!

Tanstaafl - just an update to let you know that your idea worked like a charm! I don't think I would have thought to do this that way, but thanks to you, I did!!

I put a 6" pan upside down in the center of my 14" pan. I coated the entire setup with pan grease, and filled the ring with batter. I did notice after about 5 minutes in the oven, the 6" was raising up a bit, I suppose from the batter rising. So I stuck a cast iron skillet in the oven on top of the 6" to weigh it down! but it worked! Thanks for such a great suggestion...and I just to report back the results.