As cake decorators, we all need basic cake serving charts, cake portion guides, 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.
An 8" round cake - party servings - 9 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.
50 + Layer cakes
see all layer cake recipes here
40 + Coffee Cakes
See all coffee cake recipes here
30 + Frosting recipes
See all buttercream frosting recipes
15 + cake filling recipes
- Caramel Buttercream Frosting
- Blackberry Filling for Cakes, Pies, and Desserts
- Raspberry Filling for Cakes Pies and Desserts
- No-Fail Orange Curd Recipe
- Creamy Caramel Filling for Cakes Tarts Desserts
- Ultimate Strawberry Filling
- The BEST Cherry Filling for Cakes, Pies and Desserts
- Butterscotch Buttercream Frosting Recipe
70+ Cake decorating recipes
- Chocolate Buttercream Frosting Recipe
- Bean Paste Recipe for Sugar Flowers - Korean Bean Paste
- Homemade Chocolate Marzipan Recipe
- Homemade Chocolate Marshmallow Fondant Recipe
- Best Homemade Marshmallow Fondant
- Stiff Buttercream Frosting for Cake Decorating
- Pink Champagne Buttercream
- Perfect Homemade Butterscotch Sauce
See all cake decorating recipes
Resouces
SAVE THIS RECIPE ON PINTEREST FOR LATER. TRIED MY RECIPE? SHARE IT WITH ME, PLEASE.
Share a picture of your work with me by uploading an image here below my image on this board. You can also find a collection of my tutorials and recipes here on Pinterest.
Natalie
Hey there,
So I'm curious if I was to make a cake that's taller than 6". how many layers of cake would you recommend? Also how much buttercream should I be using between each layer? is there a height ratio for this as well?
I'd like to make a 2 tiered "tall" cake. I'm not sure what size cake I should be doing but it needs to serve 50 people. Maybe 10" round and a 6" round, what do you think?
My last question if is I am making a cake that is say, 8" or 10" tall, would you recommend putting a cake board in the middle of the cake to help support the layers?
Thanks is advance:)
Veena Azmanov
Natalie. If each layer of cake is 2-inch tall then you would need 3 layers for a 6-inch tall cake. Accordingly, you would need about 4 to 5 cups of frosting. read how to level, forte, fill cakes successfully.
You can also make a 9, 7, 4-inch cake which will be 58 servings. But of course, it is three, not two tiers.
Yes, you must always put a cake board below each cake and support the top cake on the bottom cake with dowels. read how to dowel a cake