Need Some Mad Frosting Math Skillz!
Decorating By Kyriosity Updated 15 Jul 2015 , 10:18am by Kyriosity
My church is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and I get to make a cake to feed 800-900 people! My plan is to do ten, two-layer 16-inch squares in a two cakes by five cakes configuration and frost them all as one giant cake -- 32" x 80" x 4". Assuming no torting (just one layer of filling between two 2-inch layers), how can I figure out how much buttercream I'll need? It won't be just 10 times the regular 16" x 16" cake amount, since not all the sides will be covered, and that's quite a bit of difference in area.
Thanks!
~Valerie
One 16" by 16" square cake that is 4 " tall, including one layer of frosting as filling:
top is 256 sq inches
filling surface is 256 sq inches
sides are 4 x 16" x 4" = 256 sq inches
total surface area to be covered is 768 square inches
The big cake is
2560 sq inches for the tops
2560 sq inches filling surface
sides are 64 x 4" plus 160 x 4" = 896 square inches
total surface area to be covered is 6016 square inches
6016 divided by 768 is 7.833
you will need 8 times as much as you would need for a single 16" square frosted on all sides. (I don't know how much that would be - depends on how thickly you apply the frosting!)
Wilton charts are pretty generous but following yortmas' calculations - 11 cups per 16" square × 8=80 cups of icing
Thank you both SO MUCH! I finally made it to the store today to price ingredients, and now I have enough info to apply my own math skills and figure out what this thing's gonna cost. ;^)
~Valerie
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%