Hello Bakers,
I have a question for you all. I have a customer iquiring for a 5 Tier Multi Shaped Wedding Cake for 250 people in Round and Square shaped.

Bottom tier - will be Square shape
2nd Tier ---- will be Round shape
3rd Tier ---- Square shape
4th Tier ---- Round shape
5th Tier----- Square shape

I'm not sure what size of pans they are, can anyone please help???

Thank you in advance...

You could do these sizes that would give you approximately 240 servings.

Top tier square .... 4" serves 8
2nd tier round........8" serves 15
3rd tier square ....10" serves 40
4th tier round.......14" serves 65
Bottom square.....16" serves 112

If you don't like those pans, you could check out this chart to help you decide, however just remember you need at 3 - 4 " difference in the round tier that has a square sitting on top of it. You can get away with only 1 - 2" with a round tier sitting on a square tier. Hope that helps....

http://www.earlenescakes.com/ckserchart.htm

Your best bet would be to cut out flat rounds and squares from lightweight cardboard - (mark them according to size) then position them on top of each other to make sure they would fit. She's right, you need quite a distance between each to accomplish this but it can be done. Also, we all have our favorite cutting and serving chart and my servings are a lot fewer and bigger than the one above so you'll also need to figure that out as well.

Thank you so much srkmilklady!.... I appreciate you for taking the time to answer my question

Other question I have, do you charge extra per tier and how much extra since it's a multi shaped cakes?

Thank you! ~Newbie~

Quote:

Originally Posted by srkmilklady

You could do these sizes that would give you approximately 240 servings.

Top tier square .... 4" serves 8
2nd tier round........8" serves 15
3rd tier square ....10" serves 40
4th tier round.......14" serves 65
Bottom square.....16" serves 112

If you don't like those pans, you could check out this chart to help you decide, however just remember you need at 3 - 4 " difference in the round tier that has a square sitting on top of it. You can get away with only 1 - 2" with a round tier sitting on a square tier. Hope that helps....

http://www.earlenescakes.com/ckserchart.htm

Thank you Denise!...

You're welcome! As far as pricing, that is an individual thing depending on a lot of things. If you are a hobbyist and are not licensed you shouldn't be charging at all. I, myself am just a hobbyist and only make cakes for family and friends and that would be my gift to them for whatever the occasion.

Maybe someone else can weigh in more on how they charge...by the tier, for extra decorations, gumpaste flowers or just per serving. I think I've seen on here that most charge per serving...e.g. $5.00 per person/serving. But again, if the cake will be covered in gumpaste roses, that might impact the price. Sorry I can't be more helpful there.

As Denise suggested, you could either cut cardboard circles or I will sometimes stack cake pans for a visual look of the cake. You could buy cake dummies and do the same thing. However, for future reference, here is another chart that might help you and it shows both wedding servings and party servings. http://bluesheepbakeshop.myshopify.com/pages/cake-serving-charts

Good luck with your cake, will be anxious to see your finished product!

My question is...how much of a 'newbie' are you? If you've never done a tiered cake before there's a whole lot more to consider than just cake pan sizes. You don't have any pictures posted so it's hard to judge where you are in your skill-set.
In order to stack a large tiered cake you definitely need to be doing a lot of research in that area too if you're not well-versed in structure and such.

There is some math that helps to predict the fit of a square tier onto a round tier.

A 6" square needs at least an 8" round

A 10" square needs at least a 14" round

For both these sizes, the corners of the square will be right at the edges of the round. You might have to work with bigger cakes, say

6" square
9" round
10" square
15" round
18" square

First of all check your oven to make sure the pans will fit.

I have never heard of a special charge for the shape of the cake using the regular tiered pans (round, square, hexagon, heart). The petal pans are a little trickier but you are not doing those here.

But there are some other things to sort out.

This cake is going to be HEAVY and you need to use the dowels generously (unless you are using push-through pillars). Look at the Wilton sections online. And use a bottom board rated at least twice as heavy as you think the total cake will weigh--best to use 3/4" thick plywood and cover with heavy-duty foil. Nail strips of wood underneath so that you can get your fingers under to move this around.

If this cake is going to be stacked (no pillars), you need to deliver it un-stacked if possible. Just because you see stacked cakes delivered on TV does NOT mean that you assume it's a piece of cake...carrying finished big cakes probably the hardest part of the project. So driving an un-stacked cake means finishing the decorating onsite--check to see if this is going to work at the venue.