I'm doing my first BIG cake 
- for our pastor's 50th birthday SURPRISE party this weekend. I've got a couple dilemmas in trying to determine how much to make.
1) We really don't know how many to expect. We have over 2,000 weekly attendance (big church) and we sent the invitation to almost 1,200 (of course, that's households, not individuals). The party's on a Saturday afternoon, so, of course, not everyone will attend. We're thinking probably 250 - 500 will actually attend.
2) I'm planning to do a 3-tiered cake for "display" and to serve the pastor and his family, and then do sheets to serve the masses.
3) I'm confused about servings per each cake. The Wilton book says a 9" round serves 32?! 
Maybe at a Weight Watchers convention! I checked out Sam's Club and they say their 1/2 sheet cake will serve 48 people. I made a 1/2 sheet for my son's birthday and it served MAYBE 20. It just seems like these estimates are WAY off. We're only serving cake, so I want people to get a decent sized piece, and I don't want to run out! How many servings can you realistically get from a 1/2 sheet? The other cakes I'm doing for the tiers are 7", 9" and 12", double layers.
Thanks for any input!!
Servings have got to be the hardest part for me. I did a wedding last year using one chart where a 10" and 12" round cake combined to serve 75 people. We had a ton of leftovers, of course there weren't 75 peolpe there. Anyway, this month I have decided to use Wilton's chart, and that same cake is suppose to feed 95 people. I am panicked that we will run out, but I gave her the serving size and she was going to look up the cutting chart,so I guess I will stick with what I gave her.
I have my 11" x 15" sheet pan down for 40 to 50 people. It is hard to know how much one person can eat, so sometimes it is good if you do the cutting yourself. I have taken a pencil and drawn on the outside, bottom of my pans to check serving sizes. Just some ideas.
Hi LW223, you made me laugh!!!!!!! I always thought the same, Wilton's servings are very small, and I've been having the same exact questions as you are, I'm on the same boat here and was about to start a thread asking the same questions.... so anybody?? Please HELP!
All I know is that for a birthday party I made a round 12" x 4" high cake and served about 30 good size pieces of cake. And an 8" round x 4" high served about 10 - 12. I don't know if I'm cutting the cake in way to big of a slice, but everybody had cleaned up their plates. So, I would appreciate the advice too!!
Thanks everybody and Thanks LW223 for starting this thread!!!
This question gets asked time and time again and I think everyone will have a slightly different answer. Like you mentioned, I too like a decent sized slice. Not a teeney weenie one so I actually took out all my cake pans, measuring tape and paper and made charts for each size.
In my opinion, Wilton's sizes are way too small. But remember that for wedding cakes, usually they are cut by a cateror who will go by the "wedding size" serving which is rather small.
Two layer rounds- approx 4" tall with frosting or filling in between layers.
6" -12 slices
8" -20
10"-32
12"-40
14"-64
16"-76
Two layer squares-
6"-12
8"-20
10"-34
12"-48
16"-88
Two layer hearts-
6"-8
8"-20
10"-24
12"-32
14"-52
Two layer hexagon or petal-
9"-18
Two layer oval-
5x7"-9
One layer sheet cakes.
9x13 ( 1/4 sheet)- 20 slices ( more like 12-14 at my house)
12x18-( 1/2 sheet)- 36 slices
As you can see, some of the different shapes are the same number of servings even though they are not the same size. This is just what I go by.
I still think the 6" and 8" slices are too small but this is what I go by when I do cakes for others. ( at my house I just cut larger slices)
You'll find serving charts on many websites and they will vary greatly in some cases. I think I will be revising my own chart soon because I think some sizes are still too small.
Hope that helps a little.
KimAZ
Hi KimAZ, I really appreciate you sharing this info with us, it is great!! I know there are different opinions on this subject, but I kind of agree with you (just went and checked my pans with a measuring tape), I like a larger slice of cake too! Again, thanks for everything!!!
Thought I'd update - - the party was last weekend. I was so involved with other aspects of the party, too (doing the skit and the video) that I decided not to try to tackle all of the cakes myself. I ordered 5 full sheets from Sam's Club and I made a 3-tier (a 12", 9" and 7") to "display". (We had an even bigger dilemma about estimating attendance when we discovered about 2 days before the party that several hundred of the invitations didn't go out in the mail!) We had probably about 200 in attendance. We went through probably 3 1/2 of the sheet cakes (we froze the full one that was left over for our church picnic, which is next week, thank goodness). I sent the tier cakes home with the pastor and his family. He's got 4 teenage boys, so I figured they wouldn't have any problem finishing them. I'll post pics when I get them developed. Thanks everyone for your input!!
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