AI've been asked to make a camera cake to feed 30+. These are the dimensions of the planned cake...7.5 inch tall x 3.5 inch deep plus a 6 inch deep x 4.5 inch lens. How many would this feed. I worked it out as 14 serving from the main body and 8 from the lens. Is that about right? So in that case I need to make it bigger... any help would be very much appreciated :) x

First of all, find out if this is for a party where this is the dessert. 

In that case you would get 8 servings from the body. 2 more from the lens.To make a bigger cake, you could put your present design onto a 9 x 13 sheet cake. 

Confirm this with your customer before you even start giving a price quote or getting any further.

If the whole cake has to look like a camera, start with a 9 x 13 x 3 inch cake and add a 7"  diameter lens.  You will get your required servings out of that.  There are pictures of similar cakes in the gallery, they look just as lifelike as the "life size" version.

I've made many camera cakes. This is what I start with to make one to serve 30 guests. I bake extra since there will be some waste. I have the sized  templates if you want to email me.

For 30 servings prepare 4 batches of cakes (48 servings).

Bake ONE 12x18” and a 5”, 5” and 4” round. 

Cut the 12x18” rectangle into FOUR 6”x9” rectangles 

AI suggested that but yes she wants the whole cake to be a camera. When you say bake a 9x13x3 inch cake and put a lens on it, would it not need to be deeper than 3 inch to be realistic. This is where im a bit stuck as she wants it as close to the real thing as possible obviously. At the size you suggest I'm guessing it would need to be around 6 inch deep. That's giant! Haha. Oh I don't know...

AOk Thankyou very much. I might message you in a bit if that's ok?

AThankyou. Yes I've got a few pics of the real thing. Just trying to find the dimensions. Thankyou for your help :)

AHow many servings would you get from a 9x6x3 cake?

What type of camera does she want? I assumed you were making a DSLR. Most of those are similarly sized.  A cake to serve 30 guests will be larger than life. I go online and get the camera from all angles -- front, back, side and top. Then I blow up the photo to the size I want to make the cake. That makes it very easy to begin carving the cake. Here is a blog post I described the process. http://www.sweetgrace.net/2012/04/15/how-to-make-a-custom-camera-cake-nj/

Could you email me your template for your camera cake? I would greatly appreciate it.

[email protected]

Thanks