1/4 sheet - 9x13
1/2 sheet - 11x15
full sheet - 12x18

Do you make your sheets 4 inches high or 2 inches high?
How many does each serve? (1/4, 1/2 and full)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks !

Terms like 1/4, 1/2 and full sheet are confusing to customers. (We can't even agree on standard sizing for these terms.)

A no-fail method to make sure that you and the customer are on the same page is to ask how many servings are required. (Just be sure to educate the customer as to what your normal serving size is.)

If the customer wishes to serve larger portions, then more servings will need to be ordered.

Following these guidelines will guarantee that the customer has the correct amount of cake.

Whether you make your sheet cakes 2 or 4" high depends on what your customers want.

Everything you need to know to make, decorate and assemble tiered/stacked/layer/sheet cakes:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-605188-.html

The above super thread has links to Wilton's cake preparation and servings guides which gives batter requirements by pan sizes as well as serving yields (in both wedding and party size portions). And SO much more!

FYI, 1x2x4 and 1-1/2x2x4 are the same size servings as 2x2x2 and 3x2x2.

HTH

I agree with Janh, everyone seems to have a different opinion on what exactly is a 1/4, 1/2 and full sheet cake.

I don't offer sheet cakes, but if I did I would also just ask the client how many servings they need from the cake and let that determine the size cake they need.

Off topic~~~~~JanH.......Congratulations on the new *Moderator* title!

Well deserved *promotion* you're always so helpful to all of us!

I was a bit confused when I saw moderator beside JanH's name,congrats,it's well known that when you reply to a thread,you end that thread,cos you would have answered any question that can be thought of,thanks for being so helpful.Congrats again.

ljdills hope your questions have been answered.

(OT) Thanks so much for your kind words.

Very happy to be able to give back to the CC community.

(Everything I know about decorating and decorators, I learned here.)

For me I do 9x13 as a 1/4, 11x15 is 1/3, and 2-9x13's side by side for a 1/2 sheet.

But as everyone says, there is no true consensous on this topic. Just pick what you want to use and go with it!

Stephanie

I don't think we need to look for a "concensus". It is what it is.

The original pans for a commercial bakery were/are 18x24 or 18x26, ergo a "full" sheet cake.

cut the 18x24 in half ("half sheet") and you have two 12x18's.

cut the 18x24 in 4 quarters ("Quarter sheet") and you have four 9x12's.

I think wilton just invented the 11x15.

I also have a 14x22 which I refer to as "Big Honkin' Sheet Cake!"

But as someone mentioned above, I never never refer to sheets by "half" or "quarter" because no one, especially cake civilians, know what they are. They will order a "half" sheet cake (designed to serve 50) when they only plan 10 people. They use the terms but they've no idea what they're talking about.

Client: How much for a half sheet?
Debi: How big is that?
Client: I don't know.
Debi:

I also just turn it around. When they ask for a price for a half sheet, I ask "how many people are you wanting to serve?" then I tell them what size cake they need.

Because if they order a "quarter" sheet cake and you deliver a 9x13 for a party for 60, they will claim YOU are the idiot.

I actually saw a thread in which a CC'er posted "The biggest pan that will fit in my oven is a 11x15 so I call that the full sheet cake." What the heck kind of logic is that? I can't believe someone "just decided" to establish a sheet cake size based on the size of their particular oven!

......but.......when you buy a 1/4 sheet (magic line)...it is a 9x12 and a 1/2 sheet is a 12x18..however, if you use the extenders (commercial bakeries) for 4 quarter sheets, it does not measure out as a 9x12. Nor does the extender for 2 half sheets. They are smaller. The extenders create smaller quarter sheets and half sheets. I notice this creates confusion for cake civilians. If they get a cake at a commercial bakery, it will be much smaller than the home baker (if you don't trim your cake).

I honestly don't worry about an inch here or there. 12x18 or 12x17 .... that's the approximate size that is generally accepted as a half sheet. Big diff between 11x15 and a 12x17.

18x26 or 18x24 ..... big whoop. It's off an inch on each side. I'm not worried about it. It's still easy to tell that it's NOT a 11x15.

But all of this is still excellent evidence on why many of us just refuse to use the terms. Why fight the losing battle? The guy who asked me for pricing for a FULL sheet cake only needed to feed 10 people. (And this guy worked in the food industry!).

Tell me how many you want to feed and I'll help you figure out what size cake you need. Call it quarter, call it half, it doesn't matter. The client is going to get the size they need ... not the size they "think" it's called.