Whose do you prefer and why?

I'm doing a cake for a wedding in Nov. She wants 125 servings. According to Wilton's I can do a 12", 9", " and 6" and get 127 servings. (She's not saving the top tier.) With Earlene's chart, it would have to be a 14", 12", 8" and 6" resulting in 133 servings. Grrr!

Earlene's charts are a more generous serving than the Wilton charts. I always figure wedding cake servings based on the Wilton chart--I think it's just a personal preference!

Determine what serving chart you're going to use FOR PRICING PURPOSES!!! and stick to it.

I use wilton FOR PRICING PURPOSES because I get more money this way. I tell them it's a standard wedding size serving .... and if they plan to cut it larger, then they need to order a larger cake.

I dropped a cake off today and the hotel staffer asked me if it was designed to serve 200 (yes). He asked "Two inch piece?" I said, "200 servings based on wilton's 1x2x4 standard serving size." He said, "Oh, ok."

I go by Earlene's. I would hate for my customer to come short on cake b/c the cutter didn't cut each piece perfectly. I would rather give them a little extra than not enough-but thats just me

First off, I ask the bride how much food is going to be served at the reception. If there's a good amount of food, then I go by Wilton's due to the fact that people are not going to want much cake after eating all the other goodies....

If the cake is the main thing and not much other food at all, then I go by Earlene's... I absolutely WILL NOT run out of cake because it doesn't matter how many the bride ordered for, if the cake runs out, then everybody looks at the baker as not knowing how to prepare for enough people. Not one time will you hear anybody say, "Well, the bride must not have ordered enough cake." I am very protective of my reputation in this area and I certainly do not want the reputation of being money hungry and not knowing what I'm doing.

I think that with a wedding cake, wich usually is 4 inches tall, a one inch slice by 4 inches tall is considered pretty generous..But if you are doing singles then I might think different..
Edna

I generally use Wilton party for party, and Earlene for weddings. I always have people say they have cake leftover (of course I overestimate with carved cakes to make sure I have enough servings once carved down). Only once did I have someone complain the cake wasn't large enough, and it was a guy. ha.

Bonjovibabe once posted a picture of wooden pieces her hubby made to show the actual slices.


Here it is....

Well, my dirty little secret is that I have used Earlene's in the past, but wasn't making enough of a profit, so I moved back to Wilton.

Most venues have a cake cutter going by the Wilton chart, as I understand. I did my niece's wedding at a very busy place in Norther KY, and each slice was perfectly 1X2X4. If it's different, either you have to cut it yourself, or let the venue know. The standard in the industry is 1x2x4...anything else, even as well as Earlene is known in our industry...is going to require instructing.

Personally, compared to the dinner the venue at my niece's served, I preffered the cake.

I am sure Indydebi doesn't have that problem when she caters the whole thing!

I would also charge according to Wilton, it is an average adult serving.

Definitely Wilton. 1) I make more $. With Earlenes charts, youre giving away cake for free. 2) Every caterer in the country is gonna cut to Wilton's chart anyway. It's the on they ALL know and use. So no matter what you provide, it's gonna be cut per the Wilton chart. 3) The Wilton chart sizes are plenty of cake. It's not a little piece like some peopel think. It's a reasonable piece.

I use wilton,,,,
never heard of earlene before but wilton's always worked perfect for me

I use wilton (pretty much) I just round it down for round numbers. Earlene's is too big for weddings and like Leah said.. caterers/cake cutters cut the wilton slice regardless of what you tell them. If there is a bunch of cake leftover people can get upset.. they think you robbed them or something when in reality.. you robbed yourself.

I sell by the wedding slice.. if you need more because you are looking for bigger slices then you can order more.

Like most of the others, I use the Wilton chart in order to make more profit. It truly is a nice dessert size. If someone wants more, then they can always take another piece.

In response to this:

I have never had a bride ever complain there wasn't enough cake. More times than not I hear "the cake was fabulous, everyone loved it so much, there wasn't any left!!" The bride feels she gave her guests a good dessert and got her monies worth.

indydebi and mamajan

I was asked to bring a cake to my Aunts 50th birthday party. She wanted me to bring a 2 layer, 8 inch Hawaiin Pineapple Cake. I asked how many people would be there. She said 85!

I said well let me bring a half sheet cake then.

Nope. She said someone else is bringing brownies and cookies and cupcakes.

I asked if I should bring a chocolate cake as well then.

Nope.

We were sitting at the table with some distant elderly relatives and they were talking about the cake and how was that supposed to be enough for every body, etc. I told them I brought the cake and I asked over and over if I should bring more cake, a bigger cake, etc.

But that my aunt kept saying, no we will be having brownies and cupcakes too.

The distant relative said no matter what else is here, almost everyone is still going to want a slice of the birthday cake. They were worried they wouldn't get a piece.

Hardly anyone touched the cupcakes cause they melted.

But I felt the same way, like it was MY Fault there wasn't enough cake even though I asked her repeatedly if I should bring more!

Maybe it's the area I'm in... I don't know... but to be honest, I'm in "Redneckville"... it takes months to gain a good reputation, but it takes about 5 minutes and running out of food for these folks to ruin your name.... I've seen it happen to many decorators and caterers in this area. I do some light catering, but mostly cakes.

Nobody in this area gives a rip about your consultation with the hostess/bride. They're just worried about that almighty cake/food... It's amazing... I've had to have some of my servers to stop the repeated visits to the chocolate fountain table... I had one guy go back SIX times to my Lobster/Crab dip.... I finally had to step in on that after my server reported it to me... I'm 6'2" and not afraid to step in when needed....

I don't know if it has to do with this area... or not, but I know if I'm going to continue to maintain my rep, then I've got to be very careful with the quantity of cake/food that I bring to the table.... Welcome to the South!

I started out using Earlenes, but realized the Wiltons servings chart was more "realistic" so I am now using Wiltons.

I do an in-between of Wiltons and Earlene's. If they say they want "real pieces of cake" I tell them to order more cake then.

Most places (almost all of them where I'm located) do not have the staff cut the cake but have someone who's a guest at the wedding do it. This can cause problems, big cake cutting problems.
I've only made a few wedding cakes but have been asked to cut a lot of wedding cakes since I was a teenager. *You all would scream if you saw what my mom considered a tiny slice of cake---it's a small brick. I call them Jethro pieces (off of Beverly Hillbillies--man, I loved that show.)

Of course what some people fail to realize is that a bride may have invited 300 people and she orders cake for 300 people but in reality only 180 show up ( IndyDebs 60% rule) so they are going to have plenty of cake anyway...they just don't know it yet...

CakeRN, had a call from a mom yesterday shopping for catering pricing. She needs an estimate for 250 people. I asked her "How many did you invite?" She said, "250 people". So I explain how she can save about $2000 by figuring food for those who might actually show up, instead of food for everyone who they invited.

I explain that to them also. Then I also have to explain, once they have their rsvps that yes, you need to buy cake for all those who said they're coming. You need a chair, a plate of food, a drink, and dessert for each person. "But we don't want leftovers." Well the options are run out or have leftovers. You will not be able to figure this exactly. There will be food left over on the buffet, there may be some cake left. That's just the way it is when you're dealing with real people and trying to figure how much they will eat.