I am baking a wedding cake for approx. 100 guests. Using Earlene's chart, I can feed either 95 or 115 guests, I am going to err on the side of caution and go for 115. My choices are 15-11-7 (3 tier) or 14-11-8-5 (4 tier). Aesthetically, which would look better? I am assuming each tier will be 2 layers and approx 4" tall and that top tier would go home with bride and groom for anniversary. Thank you in advance for the advice, I really want this to look right, it's for family.
The 5-8-11-14 will be best since it has nice even spacing, but that is a LOT of cake... way more than 115 servings (I sell that set up as 150 servings). Earlene's chart yields BIG slices, especially for a wedding and most venues cut per the Wilton chart or smaller. Just something I've noticed in my years delivering wedding cakes. There's a local place here that cuts the slices anbout a 1/2 an inch thick so you get almost double the servings... it makes us cake peeps look bad... like we over sold the cake servings.
Most brides aren't keeping the top tier for the first anniversary either so count that in your total. I bake my bridal couples a complimentary fresh 4" cake for their 1 year anniversary and they all love that.
What I would do is a 4-7-10-14 for 115 servings (by my chart) and call it a day. It's a pretty set up and you will have plenty of cake. With the 5-8-11-14 you will have tiers of cake left over.
Ditto on the top tier - count that and offer to make them an anniversary cake so they don't have to save it.
I'd go with the 3 tier. I use Earlene's serving chart but usually round up since I know they're slightly bigger servings. 7/11/15 will look great - and I think you'll have plenty of cake.
Good luck.
http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-wedding-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm
Personally I'd follow the above chart. As was mentioned above venues typically use these sizes when cutting.
6in round = 12 servings
9in round = 32 servings
12in round = 56 servings
So if you serve the 6in then that gives you exactly 100 servings.
Does everyone use the same break down for birthday cake slices as I have friends ask how many a layer serves and I know they do not intend to use the wedding cake size slices. I understand the argument that if they are paying per serving you use the same chart because you would cheat yourself but as a hobby baker I just want to be able to tell my family or friends realistically how many a layer serves.
To me the 1x2 is a realistic serving. Of course I'm tired of the whole lets super size everything thing too.
Usually when my family does birthday celebrations dinner is always involved, so we don't really need or want huge slices of cake. I may go a little bigger, depending on the design, but I won't make twice as much cake needed, just so we can all have super huge pieces of cake, or to watch the cake go to waste cause no one really wants to eat that much of it.
Thanks, sorry to hijack the thread... I don't care for cake so I just wasn't sure on the sizes, it does seem that when friends have cut bigger slices they don't all get eaten, might be more they don't know how to cut it properly 
I could pass out IndyDeb's instructions. Thanks
http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-wedding-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm
Personally I'd follow the above chart. As was mentioned above venues typically use these sizes when cutting.
Agree... it is the industry standard based on 8 cubic inch servings.
I price all of my cakes using the wedding chart too. I tell people that for reference, and 8" cake is designed to serve 20 people (which it will have NO problem doing). For parties I explain that if they have a group of people who LOVE cake and will eat bigger slices they might want to order a slightly bigger cake, but no one ever does and I have never had a complaint that they ran out of cake. I include instructions on how to cut the cake so they get the proper amount of servings as well.
ok now i'm going to hijack the thread lol- i'm making a cake for my parent's friends renewing of vows and they want it to serve 140. would 6"/8"/10"/12" be enough? she's going for the cascading rose look so i wanted to keep the layers close in size to make it "flow" better- is that a bad idea (should i allow more space)? lol tia!
Following the above chart, a 6/8/10/12 will serve 130 at 1x2x4 servings.
My first question would be are they inviting 140 or are there 140 confirmed guests? If the invited 140, you could easily get away with a cake for 100 since you usually will se about 65-70% of the invited quests. If there are 140 confirmed guests then you would want to get as close that as you can. You could do the 6/8/10/12 and have a 6" out back for serving purposes or go a little bigger and have leftovers.
My first question would be are they inviting 140 or are there 140 confirmed guests? If the invited 140, you could easily get away with a cake for 100 since you usually will se about 65-70% of the invited quests. If there are 140 confirmed guests then you would want to get as close that as you can. You could do the 6/8/10/12 and have a 6" out back for serving purposes or go a little bigger and have leftovers.
when i talked to the bride she told me she was expecting 120-140 people, i guess i should talk to her again to see if the number has changed. i think i may make a small cake to keep in back just in case! thanks for the input 
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