The discrepency between the two charts is huge!! Wiltons serving chart seems alittle stingy but earlenes seems like it yields much less. In your opinion which serving chart is more accurate?

I like earlene's..I think it's more realistic

i agree with indydebi about what she says about the wilton chart. Been using it for 15 yrs.

I like Earlenes because it gives a little leeway...if people are used to Wilton's, then there will be plenty of cake...if they are not...then still, I'm sure that Earlene's chart will produce enough cake.

I do use the Wilton's party chart for sheet cakes.

what does indydebi say about the wilton chart?

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-679976-wilton.html+serving+chart

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-672280-wilton.html+serving+chart

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-669477-wilton.html+serving+chart

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-649747-wilton.html+serving+chart

I love Debi!

If a client asks you to make a cake for X amount of people, would you go with wilton's serving chart 1x2x4 even if it was for a birthday party? If you charge your clients by the serving, would you charge less for a birthday party cake seeing that the servings are bigger and charge more for a wedding cake?

There has been some discussion on this recently....where some people on here decide what they want they want to charge "per cake"...and then give a range of servings.

So maybe an 8-inch cake serves 15 on Earlene's chart and 24 (I think) on Wilton's.

Go ahead and decide you will make an 8inch for $XX.XX amount of dollars. (Say...80.00).

That makes it approx. $5.33/slice (by Earlene's chart )or $3.33/slice (by Wilton).

The client is informed it serves 15-24 DEPENDING ON HOW IT IS CUT. Let them decide if they want to buy more cake or err on the higher side of servings. This is when you may want to discuss what else is being served at the event.

You are still selling the same amount of cake.

It was only the last few days that my foggy mind was able to comprehend this concept...and I really like it.

okay so a 10x10 square cake yields 40 servings on earlene's chart and 98 on wilton's. Thats a huge range.

I am referring to Wilton's Wedding chart, and Earlene's chart from her website.

WHen looking at these charts, it is helpful to make note if they are talking about one or two layers. Two layers usually means a 4 inch high cake.

I only use WIlton's wedding chart. I make the comparison to Earlene's wedding chart.

I've used Earlene's chart in the past and it seemed to be about the right amount of cake. I only bake for friends and relatives though, so I don't have to worry about price per serving.

If you're running a business and pricing by serving, I think the industry standard is Wilton's chart. So if you're using Earlene's chart and have less servings per cake, then to make the same amount of profit as someone using Wilton's chart, you have to have a higher price per serving, which may cause you to lose some business if someone is just shopping around by price per serving.

The client is informed it serves 15-24 DEPENDING ON HOW IT IS CUT. Let them decide if they want to buy more cake or err on the higher side of servings. This is when you may want to discuss what else is being served at the event.

You are still selling the same amount of cake.

It was only the last few days that my foggy mind was able to comprehend this concept...and I really like it.[/quote]

Yes, this is what I'm doing now and I just go by the highest number in the range (eg. 15-24 so I go with 24) multiplied by what I want to charge per serving. So an 8 inch, 2 layer buttercream iced cake would be 24 x $3.00 per serving = $72. But I let the customer know it will serve 15-24 so they can cut it as they like.

I use the wilton chart for all of my cakes. I've never had anyone complain that the pieces were too small.

I use Earlenes all the time and is most realistic and however I dont like how she has done her fondant amounts.

thanks everyone for all your help!!

i know this is all confusing. Wilton has 4 different charts to look at. I made a quick online calculator with the Wilton chart data if you want to play with numbers:

http://shinymetalobjects.net/cake/calculator/cake_calculator.cgi

I just put up a new calculator that will determine your total number of servings based on your desired single serving dimensions (e.g. 1"x2"x4" slice):

http://shinymetalobjects.net/cake/calculator/cake_calculator_byVolume.cgi

I hope this helps someone