Hello,

I'm doing a 2 tiered cake to serve 30-40.  The bottom tier will be covered with ombre buttercream rosettes and the top tier will be iced smoothly with a buttercream border on top and a topper on the very top.  In the past I've done a 10inch/6 inch tiered cake for this customer.  I was following a design that she sent me a picture of, but typically I don't like that big a difference between tiers.  For this cake I mentioned to her that I might change the tier sizes up, which she was fine with.  Initially I was thinking a 9" topped by an 8" but now I'm second guessing myself.  I think I would be happiest design-wise with a 9" and 7", but I haven't gotten around to getting odd sized pans yet and I'd rather not cut an 8" down.  I would do a 9" and a 6," but the customer is expecting (and paying for) about the same amount of cake and I don't want to short change her. If I do the same 10"/6" I worry it will look even more awkward since the rosettes will make the bottom tier look even bigger.   Maybe the 9" and 8" will be okay with the buttercream rosettes making the bottom tier look bigger, and I tend to like tall/skinny cakes anyway.  Thoughts?

A6" and 8" = 36 servings

6' round = 12 servings

8' round = 24 servings

9' round = 32 servings

10' round = 38 servings

in the industry standard serving size.

A 6" and an 8" will be enough cake.  A 6" and a 10" gives away free cake, and no, just no to that idea.  In any event a customer has to give me a definite number of servings.  No 30-40.  What do I charge her for?  30?  or 40?

ATry this ap, it's my go to every day. Cake stacker

Thank you all for replying.  I guess I should have been more clear about my question.  Rather than how many servings, I really was looking for whether an 8" round would look okay on top of a 9" round that is covered in buttercream rosettes.  I've done a 6" and a 10" for her before and she's expecting and has already paid for the same amount of cake, so regardless of how many people she has at the party that is what I'm charging her for.  Reducing the total number of servings isn't an option.    I think I've decided just to trim the 8" down to a 7".  For my cakes this along with a 9" will make the same number of servings as a 10/6.

Again, thanks for taking the time to respond.

if you want to mask the size difference play around with your piping -- if you pipe a line of icing around the base of the top tier and then pipe your roses on top of that and pipe roses just over the top edge of the bottom tier it will disguise the 2" difference -- 

or on the bottom tier round the top edge of the icing off before you pipe the roses --

these are just slight differences that will fool the eye -- doesn't take much