I will soon be working on a wedding cake for a wedding with 160 guests. How many tiers should the cake be, 3, 4 or 5? How much of a difference in size from one tier to another.. 2 which leaves a 1 ledge or 4 which leaves a 2 ledge? I make my cakes a 4 thickness and dont want a short squat looking cake when Im finished and I always agonize about the size. All suggestions welcome.

It really depends on the design on how big of a ledge you will need/want, but here is a guide to help give you an idea about what size cakes to make. HTH

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-726276-.html

Thank vgray. These will help. It's more the look of the cakes in relation to one another that I am concerned with. I want a sleek look. For this cake the ledge with is not really uppermost since I won't be doing flowers, but shells. Its for a beach wedding. Again thank you.

Your Welcome! I don't know your design but here is a video on how to make seashells with butter cream may give it a more beachy (lol) look

http://seriouscakes.com/wordpress/?page_id=397

Very thoughtful. Thank you. I'll check it out.

Hi Karenelli,
I was just having this issue myself so I cheated. I went to my local cake supply and played with all of their dummies. They're super sweet and didn't mind me stacking and unstacking as long as I put everything back.

What I found personally is that a 2inch difference in tier size isn't as visually appealling as a 3 or 4 inch difference. Use the charts posted above to figure out your serving size but for just impact I like 6-9-12.... or 6-10-14... For the cake I'm doing next month, I needed a larger base so I broke down and purchased a 14 inch square. Square cakes feed more than a round so you're able to add servings that way as well.

So for my cake it will be 6-9-12-14 where the 6-9-12 are all rounds and the 14 is a large square. I need the square bottom for design elements. Using the party size servings that should server 140 people. Using the wedding sized serving (industry standard), that cake would serve a LOT more people. From personal experience I find no one (except IndyDebi ) can cut a cake to the true industry standard so I gave them a little extra wiggle room in the servings. If you're doing this for money the industry standard is the wedding serving size. It's just best when you talk to people to show them what a 1X2X4 slice looks like and if they feel that they need more cake they can order extra servings. Good luck with your cake.

Thanks sillywabbitz. I didnt' think of mixing and usng a squareon the bottom. That may work for me. I was thinking of using a 14, 10, 8, 6,
but the 14, 12, 9, 6 may look better. I'll do like you said and try it out first with dummies.