Hello Helpers

I've got my first cake order yesterday ( soo exited)

the lady asked me to make a cake to feed only 4 persons with the same design as the attached photo

so what round pan should I use ?

and how to keep the same design for this small cake ,, should I make many layers from the smallest size pan ??

please Help ,,

No picture

There's no picture, but I'd go with a 4". But again, it's a blind guess, with no picture.

I have problem in attachment

ok >> it similar to this one in th link but she asked with flower not the bow

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1977400

A 4" diameter round cake serves 6 (two 2" tall layers), so be sure to charge them for six, instead of four!!

I wouldn't make a cake for 4 persons, because every recipe I have bakes a larger cake, I have a minimum charge that everyone has to pay, most of them then take a bigger one and freeze leftovers or eat them the next day

who orders a cake for four people? No way would I do a cake this small. You will spend more in gas to buy supplies and electricity for your oven and mixer than you'll get out of this cake.

Do they go to the grocery and say, "I'm only making 4 sandwiches so I only need 8 slices of bread. How much for 1/2 a loaf?" No. They buy the whole loaf and deal with the leftover.

No way do I turn on my oven for a cake for 4. Seriously, I think they are a little nuts for even requesting it.

Just make a cake for your family with the extra batter and chalk it up to new order excitement.

Let her know this is a courtosy to her for her first order and that you usually require a minimum of $xxx. Sound confident and she will believe you!

I guess the 'price per serving' method of charging for cakes would not apply to a cake this size!

Since a 6" cake serves 12, a 4" diameter should serve 4 people.

CWR41, I thought I was the only one that was that anal. I do percentage comparisons by getting pi(r squared) for one size pan to see how to adapt the recipe to other pan sizes. Example... 9inch cheesecake recipe goes into four 4 1/2 inch pans or five 4 inch pans. I love baking!!!

I agree with Indydebi, no way would I do a cake for 4 people. It reminds me of the call I got a few weeks ago from a woman wanting a kit kat cake (whatever that is) for 3 people for the next day. Needless to say, that was a very short phone call.

If I'm understanding correctly you already told her you would do the cake. So chalk this up to a lesson learned. Take to heart what Indydebi & others have said for your next order. I have learned a lot from them. I actually had someone tell me they were only feeding 5 ppl ... However, they ordered a half sheet because they said the wanted extras for the next few days. So I faired out well. But you will have to educate your customers because they really don't know.

Congratulations on your new biz

Thanks all for your posts ,,

I appreciate your advices

and keep them in my mind thanks all

Hey, I'm no math whiz, but it pays to know how to calculate servings to avoid giving away extra cake for free because it all adds up in the long run no matter how many or few slices. Business is business... it should be profitable!

So you use it to find area for servings, and I use it to convert recipes to different pans. Good idea.

Think of cupcakes. Can you honestly just bake 4 cupcakes, is there evena recipe for that? One cupcake= 1 serving. If your customer pays you only for 4 cupcakes, would you give her eight? If your standard recipes makes 12 cupcakes (mine makes 18 minimum), what are you going to do with the other 8 cupcakes? Also, The gas that you use to drive to get the supplies is the same, as if you would go out and buy more stuff, devils advocate here, you only need to buy the stuff for the cupcakes. The electricity you need to bake 4 cupcakes is the same, those are fixed prices, as is the water needed to wash up, the dishsoap, the towel you have to wash after drying the pots and pans.
I cannot afford to eat the many cupcakes, too fat already, that is why i have a minimum charge and a minimum cake size. If they only want and insist on 4 servings, ok, I'll make a small cake, BUT they still have to pay for the larger one, the stuff is baked up, whether they want it or not

.. hey ppl for customers "servers4 "can be alot different that a "bakers serves 4", when I want a piece of cake, I want a piece of cake!!!!!

I would think ordering a cake for 4 ppl would be like ordering pizza for 4 ppl, you need a pie big enough to serve all for ppl and it's ok to have left overs! You pay for the whole pie, not for how many ppl it will serve. (and cake is not presliced, so you can easily get 4 servings out of any size pan!)

Make a small cake and charge for the cake, not per person.