A friend of my husband's wants a purse-shaped cake to feed 10 ... obviously, I will tell her that a purse-shaped cake is more likely to feed ____ (insert number here), and that is what I can do. But as I have never actually done a purse cake before, I have no idea how many servings to tell her I can actually provide, or for that matter, what size cake to actually start with for the carving. I know there's a tutorial here for purses, and I've found others as well, but still don't have a good grasp of how many a purse cake would likely feed ... help please!!

What kind of purse cake are you planning on making? Round? Square?

Start with the shape and then figure out what size pan you want to use.

I am sure that if you search wiltons for a serving chart you can find out how many servings based on pan shape and size.

HTH

Thanks, guys, I appreciate your posts. I actually do use the serving charts quite often, and am pretty comfrotable with them when it comes to straight-forward squares or rounds. But I have no idea what size cakes to even bake for the purse shape, if that makes sense. I suppose I can just start baking and go willy nilly on it, but I was hoping for a bit of a guide to know what size I would end up with, since carving will take away from the end number of servings ...

my babyphat purse was rather large. I made it from two 9x13 inch cakes. I really didn't have to carve away that much on it either with the shape of the cake. It easily would have fed 10 or more. You will probably have to figure out what size you want it to be. Figure the cubic inches and how many servings from that you can get. It does depend on the size servings you plan for her to serve as well.

I have a purse in my photos. How I figured my servings was whatever pan I used...I used a 9x13...and then after cutting it into 3rds I measured the size of the cake before carving. I know this sounds confusing...but if you have an extra layer or something then you have to account for that also. btw, if you are carving it you are going to have to realize that you will probably shave a few servings off of the cake.

good luck!

My boho bag was a 12 in and I didn't cut a lot out of it but, I guess it depends on the actual shape or kind of bag you are planning on making, maybe if you give us more info we could help you more

That's very helpful, guys, thanks! It gives me a bit more of a starting point. She wants the Coach Sabrina satchel ...
http://www.coach.com/online/handbags/-handbags_feature_madison-10551-10051-5000000000000049554-en?t1Id=62&t2Id=5000000000000049554&tier=2

I'll need to look for a close-up of the clasp so I can approximate the design. Thanks again for all of your help!

-Emi.

This is a nice large picture of what claims to be a Coach Sabrina satchel.
http://runwayfashionsnyc.com/images/RFNYC11068.JPG

My leopard print handbag was made from a 9x13 sheet cake and with 2x4 inch pieces it could have easily fed 30.

I could have made a much smaller version of it and made it serve 15 I guess. Maybe thats the solution for you?

Great! Wonderful! And thanks, 7yyrt, for the big picture of the actual bag. All of your cakes are so inspirational ... I'm going to have fun with this one. Thanks again to everybody for all of your help! I ended up telling her I would probably feed about 20, and I'm planning on using a 9x13 and shaving it as needed (shouldn't need too much carving) .... thanks!