I have a wedding cake to do in October. I was wondering if you all could help me decide how many it would serve. I find that charts online vary so much.

My pans are 2 inches high, square, and I will have two cakes per size. They will be split with a piece of cardboard to give me many slices.

I have a 12" cake on the bottom

            10" cake in the middle

             8' cake on the top

When I calculate this is what I come up with:

8" serves 32 ....X 2

10' serves 50....X 2

12" serves 72...x 2

Total of 308 slices

How much would you charge for this? I am thinking $400.

Thanks!!!

so how tall is each tier?

will each tier be al least eight inches tall?

so top tier 8" square and 8" tall?

and middle tier 10" square and 8" tall?

and bottom tier cake 12" square and 8" tall?

a 308 serving cake needs to be above $924 plus delivery and tax to be respectably priced in my opinion

Yeah... you need 2 layers per tier to hit those servings.  So a two layer, 8" square cake will be about 4" tall and serve 32.  The cake you have laid out will serve 1/2 of what you are thinking, unless those tiers are 8" tall like K8 said. 

How many servings do you need? 

$400 for a cake that size wouldn't be worth turning on the oven.  That would barely cover the costs of ingredients and supports and you would probably lose money on it. 

Justaminute--you are going to sell WEDDING cake for $1.35 per person????? Nicely decorated and delivered?

Go to your local grocery store and see how much they charge for cupcakes with a swirl of icing on top, nothing more. 

First of all some info about servings.  If you bake one cake that is 12 x 12 x 2 inches, that cuts into 36 "wedding cake servings" according to the Wilton charts--read the info at the top of them. 

The Wilton tables calculate servings by VOLUME not linear inches.  8 cubic inches per serving.  You would get 150 servings out of your cake (in which case $400 comes close to a price for the work of iced but undecorated tiers).

And stacking a 2" cake layer onto a 2" cake layer is considered ONE cake not needing a board through the middle. It will need dowels for the next cake up to sit on.  You add a board for every 4" of cake depth.

Sorry guys, my plan is messed up and not what I thought. HAHA.

Just a little information, I am 18 years old and In High School! I am new to this, that is why I ask for your advice :) 

I need a cake that would feed 280/300 people.

The bride wants square tiers. 

If each tier would be 4'' tall that would make each slice each slice about 4X2, depending on how it is cut, correct? 

What size cakes would you do to feed that many people?

I would think an 8",10",12",and 14" each standing at 4" tall one on top of the other. Although It brings me to about 252 slices, they will have a groom's cake and not everyone will eat the cake! 

Hopefully you all are able to understand this! It is so hard to talk over a message! 

Thank you! 

i need to have the bride's decision on:

• how many servings she is gonna pay for

• if the groom's cake is additional servings or combines with bride's cake to make up the total serving amount

i don't make those determinations--i get the bride to do that

Not really following you. 

She needs cake that would feed 300 people. I can do one that serves 232 (and 8",10",12",and 14") and she would have a grooms cake; not sure if I am doing that one. 

Does that make sense?

if she needs cake for 300

1. does she want the bride's cake to serve all 300 servings

and the groom's cake is just additional servings 300+groom's cake servings

or

2, does she want the bride's plus the groom's cake to serve a total of 300 servings

so in #2 --the groom's could serve 75 and the bride's could serve 225 thencombined they serve 300

but bride's is much smaller in #2

so i ask the bride how she wants to slice that

i don't decide that

that's all i mean

at this point you don't have a certain serving count--go ask her is what i do

Have you already got a pan 9 x13 or close (will make about 60 servings).  If you make a separate cake that size in addition to your 8-10-12-14 stack, then you get 300 servings without the grooms cake.  This cake would be the same cake and icing but with only a simple shell border, that stays in the kitchen but gets cut up and served out with the rest.

Please do NOT get into the mindset of "not all people will have cake" --as a cake maker you WANT to sell cake.  If there is a grooms cake, some people will ask for both.  It's not a good idea to count the grooms cake into the "wedding cake" total.  You can't just say to people "take one or the other".  The grooms cake is frequently chocolate and lots of people will go for that if they have a choice.

So talk all this stuff over with the bride.  She is either a close friend or family member--easy to talk to. Get her to find you a picture of what she wants for decorations if possible.

As to price, try to estimate how much time it will take you to do the work. Use the baking times in the Wilton cake charts and remember you will have to use each pan twice.  Plus mixing icing and icing all those large tiers.  You count your time at $10.00 per hour, plus the cost of cake and icing, plus something for having to buy some pans. You will see how that gets you close to $1000 even without any fancy flowers or such.

Here is the table with batter and icing amounts. 

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-party-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm

And make sure you buy the large package of Magic cake strips and use them.  They are the right size for these pans.

Final piece of homework, read ALL the links from here

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/tiered-cakes/

I was 19 when I made my first wedding cake.  You will do OK.

You need to know if you are making the groom's cake, and, if not, how big it will be.  Then you can concentrate on how big to make the wedding cake. 

If you are making the groom's cake, you have 2 cakes to play with to make those servings and it will be easy to get it all in there.  If not... then once you know how many servings the groom's cake will be you can figure the wedding cake.

What I would do for that many servings is to make a cake for 100-150 and have cutting cakes out back to make up the servings.  This way you can have a nice manageable cake and the cutting cakes are undecorated which will save you time and effort. 

I would do a 6-8-10-12 for 170 servings and have cutting cakes to get the rest of the servings.  I usually do round for cutting cakes as they are easier to ice than squares. 

What kind of cake is this going to be? A butter cake or a fruitcake? Just curious because the fruitcake should have smaller servings, right?

Hi, try putting your cake into the cake calculator app called "cake slicer" on http://cakeslicer.bakingit.com. This will show you the different cake slicing options depending on portion size for your cake. You can play around with it too so once you know the best portion sizes you can use the guide for cutting the cake so you make sure you have enough.