So i make my DH a 10" round 5" high black forest cake to take to the office party. I told him to let me know how they serve it and roughly how many it gets cut into. Theres all kinds of food and several cakes. And people just served them selves but he said it got cut into about 12 wedge peices, he cut his wedge in half since it was plenty big. Now i know this was just an office thing, and i didn;t make it to serve 40 but it just goes to show that people see cakes, no matter the size, as being cut into wedge pieces. Other then weddings when a professional is going to cut it, i dont see party cakes as being cut in the 1x2x4 standard serving. It was just an observation.

Pizza programming strikes again.

That is why I give a serving guide with each cake! I also have a visual here of what the cake slice looks like, that way there is no mistake.

Twelve slices from a 10" round 5" high cake?

That is just grotesque.

I bet a lot of people who cut themselves a slice didn't even eat the whole piece if there was lots of other food. Eating With Your Eyes Syndrome

Wow....

Way way back in my early days (more than 20 years ago .... I was still married to first hubby), I had a wedding where they had 2 receptions. A cake-punch reception right after the wedding, where I stayed and cut the cake. Then a bonfire pig roast at the farm afterward.

So they have ALL of this cake left over and the bride starts asking people "Who wants to take cake home?" Before I could stop her, she starts cutting wedges of cake out of the 12" round! OMG, you could have used those pieces of cake as a tire stop on your car!!! So I run over there and try to salvage it, & show her NOT to do it that way.

I saw Martha Stewart one time giving a demo on how to cut a wedding cake. She was cutting it correctly (of course! It was MARTHA!) but she said, "..... just like your mom cut your birthday cakes." I was one of 6 kids. We had two sets of family friends who also had 6 kids each and lots of other family friends with kids, so we saw LOTS of cake in our kid-life. And not ONE mother EVER cut a birthday cake like a wedding cake. So I'm sitting there thinking,"Martha, you sure didn't grow up in MY neighborhood!"

To the average cake civilian, cakes, pies and pizzas are cut in wedges.

I keep a styrofoam cake handy and I've marked it with an ink pen on how to cut the cake. It's a great visual.

indydebi I always enjoy reading your posts...

A dear lady at church offered to "run" my daughter's cookie reception after her wedding 8/2008. We also had the cake (hired out- I didn't know much then- before CC). She said, "I'll cut the cake- I've done lots!" so the BandG cut, then she takes over- starting to cut wedges out of the 14" layer!!! I caught her after two slices, and was able to do OK using the Wilton method.

I did an anniversary cake this Sept 09, and used IndyDebi's method. It works great! I still need to get my "Afro comb"- That's what I can put on my Christmas list!!

I always include a cake cutting guide with round cakes!! Those pieces must have been huge, luckily it was for your DH's work party though!

hey indy, do you use the afro comb to cut the cake or just to aid in plating the cake slices?

Ok, so how do I get my hands on this cake cutting guide? I dont know the method, but would love to! I am a wedge cutter.

IndyDebi says "To the average cake civilian, cakes, pies and pizzas are cut in wedges. "

Unless you get your pizza from Pizza King IN INDIANA....then it is squares with "CORNERS"...lol

oh man, I sooooooooooooooooo could have used that when I cut my BFF's wedding cake...I made such a mess!! The caterers told me to use the cake cutting knife to serve (I knew it wouldn't work with a fondant covered cake), the thing snapped in two!! i went to the kitchen and asked if they had a knife I could use and she said "use the ones on the cake table.....(I held up the broken knife).......oh" then she handed me a big serrated knife (I didn't bring anything myself because cake cutting was actually built into their pricing for the venue and food and I was doing THEM a favor cutting it because my BFF's family considers the cake cutting a "place of honor" and seeing as I bowed out as the maid of honor to be the 'cake lady', my BFF wanted me to be seen in a place of honor)

Anyhow....I was completely covered in cake and went through about a MILLION napkins and destroyed the table cloth with all the cake crumbs

Indydebi, I was trying to view how to cut a cake, but I think it might be the wrong link. Could you try posting again? Thanks!

Thanks Indydebi!! This would have been helpful cutting my mom's wedding cake a few months back! I made a huge mess and lifting wedges is not a simple task.

Not to be off topic, but when I seperated the layers to cut the cake, I lost a ton of the icing off the top as is stuck to the cake board that was sitting on it. Why would that do that?

amy, if you're using a crusting icing, you wait until the icing crusts before you assemble. If you notice on the "how to cut a cake" link (above), you can see the indentation of the plastic cake plates (back when I used plates between tiers) in the icing, which tells you the plates were pressed down into the icing .... but the icing didn't come off when I removed the tiers. My icing crusts very well ..... I cut most of my wedding cakes, since I'm usually the caterer, too, and I've never had an icing-sticking problem.

Another tip is to leave the dowels cut EVER so slightly above the top of the icing (1/16" or less). The upper tiers are just 'floating' above the bottom tier and you fill in any gaps when you apply the bottom border. I wouldn't recommend traveling with an assembled cake with this method.

Some place a piece of parchment or wax paper between the tiers. You mght still get some sticking when you pull the paper up, but it's minimal.

Some recommend sprinkling with an edible material: p.sugar, coconut, cake crumbs, etc. My only recommendation is to check with your client. If I received a cake with just ONE flake of coconut on it, I'd demand a full refund because I'd deem the cake totally inedible. (Yeah, I REALLY hate coconut!)