I have a bit of a dilemma. It is my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary in a few week and I will be decorating their cake. Unfortunately I will not have time to make the cake but a local baker will be making a 7lb cake (in Portugal cakes are ordered by weight)

I need to know the size of the cake so that I can work out how many cigarellos i will need to go around the cake.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I think I would ask the baker the approx. size. You can times the diameter by 3.15 to find the approx. circumference. A denser cake would weigh more, so it would really depend on the recipe I would guess.

If it's a white, yellow, chocolate, or marble cake, a 6"-7" diameter cake typically ranges from 7.75 - 9.50 OUNCES ea. layer. (.96 - 1.18 lbs. for two layers.)

8" 10.50 - 15.00 OUNCES. (1.32 - 1.88 lbs. for two layers)
10" 18.75 - 25.00 OUNCES. (2.34 - 3.12 lbs. for two layers)
12" 28.75 - 46.00 OUNCES. (3.60 - 5.76 lbs. for two layers)
14" 38.00 - 61.50 OUNCES. (4.76 - 7.68 lbs. for two layers)
16" around 68.00 OUNCES. (8.50 lbs. for two layers)

Full sheets 106 - 124 OUNCES.

or 7 lbs. could be a combination of a 2-tier or 3-tier setup.

How many servings did you tell the baker you needed? I'd clarify, and ask if you're getting one 14" layer cake, or what the plan is.

(I thought that cakes priced by the pound was for finished cakes that included the icing and everything!)

Oh it is so complicated.

I live in the UK and my grandparents live in Portugal, I will be flying out on Friday morning for the party on Saturday. My cousin who lives there is ordering the cake and can only tell me that it weighs 3kg (7lbs) so all a bit mad.

Hopefully the measurements given by unlimited will be ok. I think I will just have to buy more cigarellos than I need and hope I haven't gone too over the top.

Can you see if you can contact the baker yourself?

I did a quick swing through some portuguese sites.

As far as I can see, they sell it by the weight based on 100-110g cake per person. So the 3kg cake would serve around 30 people. One site quotes
"27 cm round shape or rectangular 35 x 25 cm. A 3 kg cake serving 30 people or 100 grams of cake per person.

There are some cakes on this site of that weight ..
http://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&langpair=pt|en&u=http://bolobonito.blogspot.com/

I'd want to know what kind of cake has been ordered. For example, a 7lb fruit cake will be a lot smaller in circumfrance than a 7 lb white or chocolate cake.