What size pan is a sheet cake pan, and how much would you charge for one. I have never been asked to make one but I now have a bride that needs to feed 300 people, so we are going to do some sheet cakes.

Thanks for your help.

I have sheet pans in 9x13 (35 for 1 layer cake), 11x15 (60 for 1 layer), 12x18 (80 for 1 layer).

The term sheet cake comes from bakeries who bake all of their cakes in an 18x24" pan. They then cut that cake in half for a 1/2 sheet which would be 12x18" or in fourths which would be 1/4 sheet 9x12. They use the batter in the full sheet = to 4 cake mixes. So a 1/2 sheet would be 2 cake mixes and a 1/4 sheet would be 1 cake mix. Most small cake pans available to the home baker are 9x13. If you bake only one mix in that it is not going to be very tall. I have an 8x11 which I use for a 1/4 sheet and it makes it a nice tall cake.

The large sheet cake pan will usually not fit in a standard home oven. You would need to bake 2 of the half sheets and put them together. A full sheet will serve 48 (4x4 pieces) or 96 (2x2 pieces). I usually quote them 65 servings from a full sheet.

Price would be up to you and what you charge. I work in a commercial bakery and we charge $59. for a full sheet cake. I know most home decorators would charge a lot more. I think most home decorators would use more than 4 mixes per full sheet also, so their cake would be a lot taller.
HTH

Yes! What BCJean said ^^^^^
If you match your cake to the size cake board & box sold for each size (1/4 sheet; 1/2 sheet; full sheet) yu will quickly see that a 12x16 OR even 11x15 will fit the 1/2 sheet board & box w/room for a border.
A 1/4 sheet: the 12x8 fits this board & box.
I also use one mix for a 12x8 and two mixes for the 11x15 [even for the 12x16]

About pricing concerns, check members websites for what they charge. You'll notice that most of us charge roughly the same so you can have a good idea of what to expect.

I get a lot of orders for sheet cake style cakes -

For my 9 x 13 Magic Line pan I use almost 2 mixes (or recipes) of batter.

For my 12 x 18 Magic Line pan I use almost 3 mixes (or recipes) of batter - (same for the 12 x 16).

This lets the cake rise above the rim of the pan and I can cut it off level and still have a nice 2" tall cake to decorate.

If I were doing sheet cakes for a wedding to supplement the wedding cake - I would torte and layer 2 quarter or half sheets together to at least have the sheet cakes mimic the real wedding cake.

I would not want to have a piece of sheetcake cake and the next table have a 4 layer piece of beauty from the real wedding cake in front of them!

tell me where is the site that gives #servings for different size and shapes. This may help me. I'm struggling here. THANX

Of course there is a link here on CC.

Wilton has one.

Earlenes Cakes has one.

Now - I am not sure how many of those have sheet cake serving sizes. But sheet cake serving sizes are easy enough to figure. 2x2x2 pieces of cake represents a 2" tall cake cut 2 inches by 2 inches. On a 12 x 18 that should be 54 servings. On a 9 x 13 it should be around 24 to 28 servings.

Now if you double the cakes (like I suggested for the wedding sheet cakes) then you should try to serve a 1x1x4 to be exact - but those are impossible to cut (makes the piece to fragile and it falls apart). I can usually get a 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 x 4 piece fairly easily though and it will stay together. So you should figure on adding at least 50% more servings to a double layer sheet cake.

HTH

sugaah, you can look in just about any wilton book or go to the wilton website, I think it is wilton.com and get exact number of serving sizes and how to cut your cake to get the exact servings.

indydebi's cutting chart is much better and simpler the wilton's www.cateritsimple.com However, I don't think you need a cutting chart for a sheet cake.

It is simple to figure how many servings you can get form a sheet pan.
Simply turn the pan over OR cut a piece of paper the size of the pan; mark off the size servings you think is the right size (2x2x2 OR 1 1/2x2x2 OR whatever you want) and count up the servings.
If you are making a dbl sheet (4" high) then the servings size should be 1x2x4 OR 1 1/2x2x4 etc.

tyty, how small are you cutting those pieces? Based on standard serving size of 2x2x2, a 11x15 single layer yields 35, a 12x18 yields 54. Am I misunderstanding something?

what size pan do most of you use the 2" or 3"? I'm new to all this and I need to buy a couple of pans but I'm not sure which one I need.

Since industry standard is 4" tall, I use 2" pans.

I agree w/indydebi.

okay.....thanks!

The cutting charts are all so different. I sat down with Wilton, the local grocery stores chart, and Earlene's, and they were all different. This makes it difficult. I don't think that Wilton's is right at all. I will keep working on it.
Suzycake, I agree, I wouldn't want a simple piece of sheetcake when my neighbor has a piece of beautiful cake. Thanks for the tip.

Thanks for the help with the sheet cakes.

Interesting all the variations of the sheet cake with amount of cake mixes used and number of servings quoted, etc.

My standard answer is this:

9 x 13 serves 15-20 and I use 1 cake mix

11 x 15 serves 30-35 and I use 2 cake mixes

12 x 18 serves around 50 (54 if you do 2 x 2 pieces) and I use 3 cake mixes

I agree 1 cake mix would look better/taller in a 8 x 11 pan but I've had my 9 x 13 pans forever.