Cake Serving Chart Guide – Popular Tier Combinations
As cake decorators, we all need basic cake serving charts, cake portion guide and popular tier combinations. They are necessary when conducting a cake consultation. Being prepared and having these charts on hand makes you look professional and gives you more confidence to conduct business with customers. These charts come in handy for me when I need a quick reference and I hope they will come in handy for you too.
Have you ever wondered
- How much does an 8-inch cake serve?
- How many slices in a 7-inch round cake?
- Or are the servings for round or square cakes the same?
- How much cake do I need to serve – 56 people? or 100 people?
- Which cake sizes can I stack together?
- What are the most popular cake tier combinations?
These are all great questions and ones you need to be asking if you plan to make cakes or become a cake decorator.
Preparing for Cake Consultations
A very professional approach is to do your homework before the client comes for a cake consultation. This means having your cake sizes ready so you would know how many people does each cake serves. Plus, it gives you a better understanding of how much you need to charge, especially if you charge per serving like me. You can read more about cake consultations on my post – How to conduct a cake consultation
Here are some basic chart guides that I find handy when I am doing my cake consultations. I do hope you find them useful too.
Reference, Measure, Serving Size
These charts are based on a wedding cake servings size of 1″ x 2″ portion. It is different from the party size serving a portion of 1.5 x 2 ” or smaller. So, these are wedding cake serving sizes. These are 4″ to 6″ tall cakes, which means each layer is 2″ tall x 2 or 3 layers for each tier
Cakes from 3″ to 6″ high decorated as one cake would give the same number of servings because they follow the same pattern of cutting. So, yes whether a cake is 4 inches tall or 6 inches tall you would still serve it as one slice. You don’t usually split the slice. So while you use more cake, it’s a tall slice of cake and does not contribute to extra servings.
Anything smaller than 3″ tall would give only half the number of servings.
For example:
An 8″ round cake – 3″ / 4 ” /6″ tall will give you 24 servings but
An 8″ round cake – 2″ tall will give you only 12 servings.
Popular Tier Combinations
Additional information to keep handy is the most popular tier combinations. So you know which cakes work best together. Cakes stacked from the border to narrow to the top are aesthetically more appealing. For example, a 12, 10, 8, 6 look more appealing than a 12,11, 6, 5 – just saying.
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Epcibha Oliver
Hi Veena thank u for ur reply…i meant like what can be the height of each tier..does it have any science behind each tier ..for example the bottom layer is 10 inch cake ..how many inches tall should be the bottom tier?..like wise 8 inch nd 6 inch ? Thank u
Veena Azmanov
Ah, Epchibha. The height can be anything from 6 to 8 inches tall based on the design
For example. You could have a
10, 8 and 6 all 4-inch tall or all 6-inch tall.
OR you can make a combination. Let’s say…..10 inch 4 or 6 inch tall with an 8 inch 4, 6 or 8 inch tall and a 6 inch again 4 to 6 inch tall.
I hope this helps
Epcibha Oliver
Thank u so much..
Epcibha
Hi Veena thank you for the informations u have given it’s really useful for me as a beginner.. I’m planning to make a wedding cake with three tiers( 10″ 8 ” nd 6 “) what can be the size of each tier in inches..I’m planning for vanilla cake with black currant filling and going to frost it with white chocolate gananche will this work.can u pls give me some ideas nd suggestions.. nd also want u to suggest which will be firm oil based or butter based recipe. Which of ur recipe would you suggest me… thank you
Veena Azmanov
Hey Epcibha. Not sure I understand your question about sizes but 10 inches- 23cm 8 inches is -20 cm and 6 inches is 15cm
Vanilla with blackcurrant filling and white chocolate ganache sounds perfect. Black currant is tart so it will offset the sweet white chocolate ganache perfectly.
I have lots of cake recipes on this blog – most of these are good for tiered cakes unless otherwise stated.
I like to use butter-based cakes for my tiered cakes so they are more stable especially in summer and bumpy rides.
Thamara
Hi Veena,
Thank you for all the effort that you put in explaining this post. I have a question, though. How tall is each layer within a tier? You say 2” times 3 cakes = 6” tall tier, but that is not accounting for any frosting/filling. So is it 6” in total (and hence the layers are less than 2” each) or is it really more like 7 – 7.5” tall?
Thanks!
Veena Azmanov
Hey Thamara. The chart uses 6-inch in total including frosting.
I usually aim for 2-inch each cake but oftentimes that does not happen. Cakes tend to be short by 1/4 inch or so.
In most cakes I let the extra be. Sometimes If necessary than I make sure each layer is 1 3/4 inch.
Similarly, If you bake two 2 inch-layers – and torte it into 4 – you can get about 5 1/2 to 6-inch cakes.
Caral Cassidy
Hi,
My daughter needs internship, she has done some short courses and with me we are running a home business by the name of Cassidy’s Food’s.
Our FB page is by this name.
How can I get her international work exposure. We are living in Pakistan.
Please answer by mail so I can get to explain in details.
Thanks
Veena Azmanov
Hey Caral. Congrats on doing it all self-taught so far. It’s a big achievement. I’ sure you have a catering school that has cake decorating as an internship. Perhaps she can apply for that. As for Facebook. You can share your work in FB groups and on your page. Be active and maintain communication with the readers on the page. Take part in collaborations with other cake decorators. Recently, I think, I saw some cake decorators had a collaboration that was run by some Pakistan based cake decorators. all the best.
Irene Carroll
Hello Veena
Thank you very much for sharing so much with us. I found your article/s about cake serving sizes very informative but I do have a dilemma. I have to do a 3 tier wedding cake for 200 people but that would mean a massive 16, 14, 12 inch cake that will take me over 200 servings.
I thought I could do 3 layers per tier but you explain that this doesn’t change the number of servings!
How can I do this – what size cakes must I use (round cake tiers).
Kind wishes, Irene.
Veena Azmanov
Hey Irene. Congrats on doing a big cake. Make sure you plan well in advance.
Yes, 200 servings is a big cake. And it depends on what the customers want? Often the customer may not choose to have all these servings on the center cake but as extra sheet cakes that get served from the kitchen. Sheet cakes are more affordable as well as easier to make.
Having said that, as a person who sells cakes, the tall tiers do not add extra servings they just give taller slices but you still have to price them more than regular cakes.
For example, if I were to charge for a 6-inch cake that’s 4 inches tall as compared to one that is 6 inches tall – the servings are not more.. but the price is more. I hope that makes sense.
If you want a 3 tier wedding cake I highly recommend you take a closer look at the tire sizes. 16, 14 and 12 may make the servings but may not look aesthetic. You want a natural flow in the cake sizes – either add more tier with smaller sizes or make less servings with smaller tiers. I hope that makes sense – feel free to ask any more questions.
Okpoh Franca
Thank you Vienna,your explanations are really helpful and very clear. Am a beginner with keen interest to advance soonest, thanks for helping out.
Veena Azmanov
So happy to hear that Okpoh Thank you !