I've had a request for my first square wedding cake, but what the bride wants has me a little concerned. They're having a small wedding (around 50 people) so she only wants a small cake. I suggested a 4" 6" and 8" tiers to feed 50 people. The problem with that is that it's going to be such a small cake.
My question is should I add a 10" square dummy to it in order for it to have some size to it? I worried about the cake looking overly small, because it really is small... The kicker to that is I've never worked with cake dummies either.


I'm making myself sound like a real cake newbie, but I swear I'm not...

It's ok if it's a small wedding cake if that's what the bride wants. I think a 4", 6", 8" will be pretty. There are lots of people that do small cakes and they turn out gorgeous!

If the bride wants the extra tier to make the cake bigger, that's fine. You should definitely charge her more though if she decides to go with that.

you could alway do 6" 8" 10"
and it might appear a little bigger.

She didn't want to pay for a 6" 8" and 10" because that's what I first suggested. She said that was too much cake and she's working on a tight budget.

I've just never made a cake that small before and didn't know how it would look. The design that she's picked out is ribbon wrapped around the bottom and the cluster of 3 dots on the sides. It's very simple and pretty.

Go ahead and leave it small...it will be perfect. For my recent wedding renewal we had an 8 and 6, both 5 inches tall, to feed the 50 and it was perfect. There was exactly one slice left over. The cake was everything I wanted.

I've done VERY small cakes for weddings. In fact, most of the weddings I have done in the past two years have had no larger than a 10 inch for the bottom tier, a few have had 8 inch bottoms and one was a mini cake for 8 people...and I still get compliments on the photos of that one. Teeny, yes, but perfect for the 8 people in attendance for that wedding. This summer I have one that is going to be a 12, 10, 8 and 6 and I'm actually nervous to do such a "big" cake! LOL!

Cat

You could do a 6", 8", 10" cakes but she didn't pay for those cakes so in the end you will be the one paying in the end since you profit will be lower. You could use a cake dummy to add to the cake. You could even find a cake stand or something to set the cake upon to make it appear taller than it really is. Sometimes you have to make illusions for cakes.