What are the pan sizes for a 1/4 sheet cake (9x13?), 1/2 and a full.....I know it is a stupid question but when I went to buy pans last week (going tomorrow to retry so please answer) I was confused...because they had 13x9 vs. 9x13 etc.....TIA

No...there are no dumb questions when it comes to cake decorating. I didn't know this either until someone asked me for a full sheet cake a while back and I had to dig around and look! A full sheet cake is two 12 x 18 cakes put together. So a half-sheet is one 12 x 18. I know I like to do the 11x15 a lot but people often ask me for a cake that serves 40 people and it just isn't big enough. I hope this helps!

Donna

Sorry..yes..1/4 sheet is 9x13.

This drives me nuts too. I refuse to use the terms "1/2 sheet" and "quarter sheet" because most customers have no idea either. They will ask me how much is a 1/4 sheet cake and I will ask them "Depends ...... how many people do you think that serves?" They then hem and haw around trying to figure out how much cake they need. Once they FINALLY come up with a number, then I know what size cake they need.

I swear to God one lady asked me about the price of a quarter sheet cake and when I went back with the "how many people" question, it turned out she was planning a shower for 75!!! Oh right! A quarter sheet will feed 75..... no problem!!

It's my never-so-humble opinion that customers use these terms because they hear "quarter sheet" and "half sheet" from the bakery industry but the average consumer has no idea what those sizes are .... .they use these terms out of habit instead of out of real knowledge. To know what the different "sheets" are, you have to know what a full sheet is divided into quarters or into halves. And the average consumer on the street has no idea.

I called a local grocery bakery to get an idea of their prices. The guy gave me a price for "a quarter sheet cake". I asked him how big was that cake.....what were the dimensions?.....because I had to know how many people it served. He couldn't tell me!!!! He had also been so ingrained with "quarter sheet" and "half sheet" that he had no idea what the sizes really were! Guess I'll pick up that quarter sheet for my party of 75, huh?

Well this was probably a little off topic, but it's six in the morning and i'm the only one in the office, so I thought I'd get on a roll first thing!

There are varying sizes and opinions, but this is what I use:

9 x 13 quarter sheet

12 x18 Half

18 x 22 full

HTH Janice

Ugh..I know..And you never know how people are going to slice the cake. I cut monster-size slices. And a 9 x 13 cake is just not very big.

Thank you so much because I thought, as I was standing in front of the rows of pans, what am I gonna do now??? I don't even know the sizes of these cakes...So basically go by how many pieces of cake they need..and go from there? I hope that they just ask me for a cake that will serve such and such and I can just figure it out like that..but when I remembered the 1/2 . 1/4 and so on I got confused. Thanks a lot for the info!!!

I have many 9 x 13 pans.

To me, one of them is 1/4; two of them is 1/2; and 4 of them is a whole.


I like using the 9 x13's b/c it's easier to make more flavors for one cake.

A whole sheet cake could be 4 diff. flavors.

WEll it can't be too stupid of a question b/c it gets asked all the time!!! We need a "Frequently asked cake questions" area.... for stuff like this and some basic pricing and storage times for fondant, etc.. I think it varies too but I used two 12 x 18 to make a full sheet cake. I wish they would write on the pan "half sheet", "full sheet", etc. - why not makle it easy for those of us buying the pans?? Heck they could probably make the exact same pans and just label them "half", "quarter", "full", and sell them and I bet you a ton of people would buy them just b/c they were labeled that way instead of 9 x 13, 12 x 18, etc!! Where ARE the marketing people in the cake pan world?? Make it easier and you'll sell even more! Hmm or maybe it's a conspiracy - if they don't tell you then you'll buy the wrong pans and then you'll have to go back to the store and buy MORE pans to get the right size....... just joking - I'm not a big fan of "conspiracy theories!" But I do think they could start labeling the pans that way - shouldn't there be a standard in the baking industry for sizing sheetcakes anyway?? Why leave it up to everyone and anyone to make up their own definition for what a half, quarter, etc. sheetcake is?? Just make it standard across the baking board and then label the pans that way!

Hmm if only the world would listen to me we'd be in a much better place LOL!!!!!

I hear ya...and what about all the gadgets....NONE of them have directions on them...for us newbies that havent taken classes but are self teaching there is nothing unless you buy tons of books....Yep conspiracy...Lets see how many people can look at these things and decide how they really work lol...

I called a local grocery bakery to get an idea of their prices. The guy gave me a price for "a quarter sheet cake". I asked him how big was that cake.....what were the dimensions?.....because I had to know how many people it served. He couldn't tell me!!!! He had also been so ingrained with "quarter sheet" and "half sheet" that he had no idea what the sizes really were! Guess I'll pick up that quarter sheet for my party of 75, huh?

INDYDEBI:

How about the same thing happened to me!!! I was in a Super Wal-Mart this weekend (spying on the cakes; I'm a newbie and I can do better roses than they can), and I asked a lady what size pan do they use for the 1/4 sheet cake; she gave me the deer-in-the-headlights look and then told me she didn't know!!!!

Anyway, let me get this straight, I promise I'll write it down this time:

9x13= 1/4 sheet (how many does this serve?)
12x18= 1/2 sheet (how many does this serve?)
(2)12x18 or (4) 9x13= whole sheet (how many does this serve?)

edited to say, I guess I can look up the servings on this website!!

I am really hoping I never have to make a full sheet cake.....it's scary to think about getting it out of the pan w/ no help at all without it falling to pieces...ughhh

I have always believed the only stupid question is the question not asked. I struggle with pan size & cutting.

It's my understanding that the grocery stores and WalMart, etc get their cakes delivered frozen in one big huge sheet (full sheet) then hunk it up in half, quarter, eighth, whatever they need. One lady I know said when she first started out, she had one of those gold cardboards and the plastic 1/4 sheet box from the grocery store. She would clean it and reuse it for her practice stuff that stayed home. When she baked a 9x13, it was too big for the board and the box! Who knows what sizes they sell, they obviously don't know either. I go by servings too. I had somebody order a 1/4 sheet cake from me and she only needed 10 servings I told her she could either have lots of left-overs or go for an 8" round.

BTW...I also use 9x13 for "1/4 sheet"