Hello,

All the cake pictures that I see online look very tall (around 5-6 inches). Mine do not look as tall. I think my 3 layer cake is around 4 inches tall.  Hence I have a few questions about the height of the cakes:

What size (height) cake pans are advisable to use-2 inches or 3 inches? Does it matter which one to use?

After torting what is the height of your individual cake layer?

What is your approximate total height for a 3 layer cake with fillings? 

Thank you all!!

After torting my cakes are 4 inches high... with just a 2 inch pan...

Thank you Scooper2.  Do you tort your cakes in 2 layers or 3?

The standard cake height is 4", but the trend now is to make tiers taller for appearance. I use two inch pans and torte the layers, so once everything is filled and levelled my tiers are usually about 4 1/2" tall. I'll tell you something, too, the caterers hate taller cakes because they don't fit on the dessert plates as well as the 4" tiers, and  they're a pain to cut. I've seen a caterer saw a tall tier in half and serve runty pieces because he wasn't going to try to balance a tall piece of cake on a cake knife to transfer it to the plates.

I torte mine in 2 layers only.....

My tiers are 4" tall, 2 layers torted into 4.

I also hate the taller tiers.

I agree I started out doing 4" tiers..and then tried out a few 5"-5.5" high cakes; and the response was really good. People really loved the look and even had a few comment's along the lines of "I'm going with you because I like how tall your cakes are".  So its kind of stuck. Taller cakes are defonately more awkward, but I figure if it brings in money and I book a few more wedding cakes because of the little differences between my work and the next cakery then its worth it....though I will say if you do taller tier's you need to charge a bit more than a standard 4" one; so that can put some people off too. 

I agree I started out doing 4" tiers..and then tried out a few 5"-5.5" high cakes; and the response was really good. People really loved the look and even had a few comment's along the lines of "I'm going with you because I like how tall your cakes are".  So its kind of stuck. Taller cakes are defonately more awkward, but I figure if it brings in money and I book a few more wedding cakes because of the little differences between my work and the next cakery then its worth it....though I will say if you do taller tier's you need to charge a bit more than a standard 4" one; so that can put some people off too. 

Like Leah_s and costumeczar, I use two 2" tall layers, tort each layer, and end up with four, 1" tall layers with 3 layers of filling.  Final cake is about 4-1/2" high, depending on the frosting/design.

Similar to this image taken at random from the internet (NOT MY CAKE!):

Image source:  http://www-scf.usc.edu/~jamiecha/products.html        

This new site is driving me NUTS!!!!!!!!!  I can't cut and paste, It won't revert to "regular" black letters after inserting a link....  NUTS!!!!!!!   --apologies to the OP for the rant....

Thank you all for your replies.  I just wasn't aware of the standard height.