Someone has asked me to make a birthday cake, two tier, 10in and 6in, round. In addition to the cake, I will be making 12 cupcakes.
She needs it to serve 40-45 people. By my calculations (from Wilton), this should serve around 60, correct?
Is it difficult to get 38 servings from a 10 inch round or 12 servings from a 6in round?
I just want to make sure she has enough cake. THanks
she'll have more than plenty. just remember to tell her that she doesn't cut it in pie wedges but will cut it in rectangles. See the link in my signature (and feel free to print it and give it to her) on how to cut a cake to achieve these servings. The 1x2x4 is about the size of a folded over peanut butter sandwich, so even if she cuts them bigger, she'll still have plenty.
Wilton's wedding servings is 50, but party servings is 40. With the cupcakes and the cake, she should have no problem getting the number of servings she needs, especially if kids will be there.
The difference between party servings and wedding servings makes little sense to me. Why is a wedding serving smaller? Is it standard practice to use larger servings for party servings? What are the rough dimensions for party servings?
Me too. A wedding serving is the industry standard of 8 cu. in. (1x2x4). Same for slab cakes--8 cu. in. (2x2x2). I wouldn't say it's standard practice to use larger servings for parties--everyone is different and does what they want at their party. The Wilton party serving chart is typically for 1.5x2x4 (12 cu. in.) which is 50% larger, so if you use this chart, you give away 50% more cake for free unless you have a different pricing method between "wedding" and "party" servings. Brides will question why "wedding" cakes cost more than occasion cakes of the same size... it's easier to use one chart and one price list.
http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-wedding-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm
This is hard to explain but a serving chart ..... to me .... is LESS about "how many people it will feed" and more about "how to charge for this cake."
A small can of campbell's soup says it is 2.5 servings. yeah....on what planet? But campbell's doesn't price one can at one price and another can of the same size at a different price and then put different serving sizes on it. I decide if that pre-determined servings size, set by the manufacturer as some kind of measuring tool, is what *I* think a serving is. If I think it's too small, then I buy 2 cans.
But in no other industry do we have different prices based on how the customer is going to serve it. I can't think of any other food business that does that.
Why would cakers do it? 
So I used the chart to determine how much I would charge for the cake. Oh, and by the way you can ALSO use this chart to get an idea of how many people it will serve, BASED ON A PRE-DETERMINED SERVING SIZE. If they don't like the serving size, they can buy more cake.
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