Please Help Me Figure Out What Size...

Decorating By Howiesmom Updated 19 Aug 2008 , 12:30am by leah_s

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Howiesmom Posted 18 Aug 2008 , 2:30am
post #1 of 7

Please help me figure out what size cakes to use to yield 160 servings for a wedding. Round...normal wilton pans...no bigger than 14"...PLEASE. I think I'm having a brain fart tonight cause I can't seem to get it close to 160. The best I can do is 14,12,10,8=196 or 12,10,8,6=130. I think I'm just sleepy. And one more question...we all know that the WASC recipe makes ALOT of batter...thus I can charge a cheaper price. I usually charge $3/serving for a WASC wedding cake. This bride's dad had my choc/choc chip cake at a party about a year ago and they want the entire wedding cake choc/choc chip. The only problem is, #1 I use Ghiradelli chips and #2 the recipe doesn't yield nearly as much batter as the WASC recipe (C/CC doesn't have me add the extra cup of flour and sugar)...so I need to charge her more for this flavor. Do you think $3.75/serving is too much? AND...do you think that I can modify my C/CC recipe to add the flour/sugar without changing the flavor much? I'll put my recipe below for reference...

Thanks so much for helping. I know that I can always come here for good advise! My brain is just fried tonight...we had a really long day. Let me know if any of this doesn't make sense.

Chocolate/Choc. chip cake (Darn good choc cake from Cake Doctor)
1 devils food cake mix
1 sm pkg instant choc pudding mix
4 lg eggs
1 c sour cream
1/2 c veg oil
1/2 c warm water
1 1/2 c semi sweet cc

6 replies
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indydebi Posted 18 Aug 2008 , 3:03am
post #2 of 7

http://www.wilton.com/wedding/wedding-cakes/wedding-cake-data.cfm

Wilton wedding chart, which is what I go by, shows:

14 = 78 servings
12 = 56 servings
8 = 24 servings
Total = 158 servings

If they are saving the top tier, you can add a 6" to this (12 servings) for a total of 170 servings.

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Howiesmom Posted 18 Aug 2008 , 3:26am
post #3 of 7

Yeah she wants to keep the top tier...the bride got married in California but lives in Raleigh, NC so she's having a party here. She didn't get to keep her topper in CA so she wants to keep the NC one. I've always thought that cakes would look weird if they...geez how do I put this...so a 14, 12, 10...etc is 2 in difference in diameter and they're even...do cakes that are 14, 12, 8, 6 look good with varying diameters? I've made probably 150 regular cakes and this is probably my 6th wedding cake. I've always made wedding cakes that had the same difference in diameters. I'm rambling. Am I making ANY sense? HAHA

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indydebi Posted 18 Aug 2008 , 3:49am
post #4 of 7

It's a very good question to ask!

Here's a pic of a 6/8/12 .... http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1232880 . What I want you to notice is the two sides of the cake ... on the plain side, you can see the differences between the tier sizes. But on the side with the flowers, it's not really that noticeable. It's a good example of how it can work, especially with floral decor, if you're concerned about the space differences.

Here's another 6/8/12 with flowers: http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1216689

This is a 6/10/12/16 http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1238098 . 4 inches between the top 2 and the bottom 2, but only 2 inches between the 2 middle ones. Notice on this one how the flower petals fill in the space on the larger bottom tier.

hope this helps give you some visuals on the different tier sizes! thumbs_up.gif

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Howiesmom Posted 19 Aug 2008 , 12:10am
post #5 of 7

Thanks so much indydeb! Now...how about my question about altering the recipe? and pricing? Please icon_wink.gif

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indydebi Posted 19 Aug 2008 , 12:21am
post #6 of 7

Not being a scratch baker and never having made the WASC, I can't help on the recipe alteration. icon_redface.gif

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leah_s Posted 19 Aug 2008 , 12:30am
post #7 of 7

You need to compute your batter on cost per cup. That keeps everything comparable. How much does WASC cost per cup? (Total cost of however much batter the recipe yields / number of cups ) Then do the same calculation for the C/CC cake recipe.

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