Cake Portion and Cutting Guide: What Size Of Cake Should You Make?

While the cake flavor and decoration are important components of a cake, one of the most fundamental aspects of a cake is its size! This cake portion guide is exactly what you need if you’re making a cake for an event or a wedding. When making a cake from scratch for an important event, it’s crucial that it has the right number of servings. You want to make sure every guest gets a slice. That’s where this cake portion guide comes into play.

What Is Considered A Serving Of Cake?

Throughout this post, I refer to a serving of cake. Generally, I mean a slice of cake that is 4 inches tall, 1 inch wide, and 2 inches in length. This is the standard size of a slice of wedding cake. Strangely enough, the size of a cake serving for a wedding is smaller than a party cake serving! Cakes cut for parties are normally 1.5 inches wide. While this is a small difference in size, it’s important to note that a slice of cake at a party is bigger. This can impact the number of servings included below.

Impact Of Cake Height On Number of Servings

The standard size of a cake slice is definitely the gold standard. However, tall layer cakes have increased in popularity and are quite common nowadays. This can make cutting and serving a cake a lot more challenging. The height of a cake can be influenced by a lot of factors. It’s based on the number of cake layers used, the height of the cake layers, and the amount of buttercream between each layer. If I make a cake taller than 7 inches, I cut it into thin slices (about 1 inch wide). Then I cut each slice in half, horizontally. This means that out of each slice I make, I create 2 servings. For tall cakes, I double the servings shown below, since those are based on a shorter cake (4 inches).

Tiered Cake Servings and Combinations

If you need to feed a large number of people, you may need to make a tiered cake. Tiered cakes have a lot more variety and flexibility in their number of servings. Different-sized tiers vary in serving size, and you can combine them in a ton of ways. Consider the following tier combinations and their serving capacities:

• Tiered cake with 10-inch, 8-inch, 6-inch, and 4-inch tiers: Fed 84 people.
• Tiered cake with 12-inch, 9-inch, and 6-inch tiers: Fed 100 people.

Part of picking the right size of cake comes down to having the right number of servings, but other factors can come into play. This decision can also be influenced by the look you’re after. For example, sometimes I add fresh flowers to my tiered wedding cakes. When doing this, I like to have at least a 3-inch variance in the size of each tier (i.e., 12 inch, 9 inch, 6 inch). This creates a 1.5-inch ledge between the tiers, which leaves me enough room to position and secure the flowers onto the cake.

The Ultimate Wedding Cake Cutting Guide

You may be wondering how to cut your wedding cake perfectly. We’ve created the ultimate cake cutting guide so your reception can be worry-free. Even though you may have a large wedding cake, it can be hard to feed every guest if your cake isn’t cut correctly. To make sure everything goes according to plan, there are a few things to keep in mind when digging into all of your cake’s layers and decorations.

How to Feed The Crowd

Typically, after you and your partner enjoy your first slice with your family, your cake is taken to the back to be disassembled in this order:

• Start by taking out all of your wedding cake dowels.
• Carefully take apart each cake tier.
• Mark off each side of your cake to make sure each piece is cut similarly, ensuring everyone gets the same portion size.
• Cut each slice rectangularly one inch wide and two inches deep.
• Start by cutting the largest tier first. Wipe your knife in between slices to ensure each piece is cut evenly.

Techniques for Cutting Different Cake Shapes

Round Tiers: To successfully cut a round wedding cake, start by cutting an inch across the whole length from the bottom tier’s outer edge and repeat this step until you reach the other side of your base. After that, turn your cake clockwise 90 degrees to make a slice two inches in from the edge. Depending on the size of your cake, you can also consider cutting it like you would cut a pizza by making triangles.

Square Tiers: A square wedding cake’s perfect frame makes cake cutting easy. Start with your bottom tier, making one-inch wide cuts from the edge of your base. Continue slicing until you cut all the way through. Turn your cake once clockwise and start cutting two-inch wide slices. Repeat on every layer of your cake.

Heart Tiers: For a heart shape, start off by slicing your cake straight down the middle from top to bottom so you have two even sides. Cut vertically along each piece making two-inch wide cuts. From there, turn your cake sideways to cut a vertical line in the middle. Finally, cut one-inch slices from your centerline to each side of your cake.

Petal Tiers: For 15-inch petal cakes, start by cutting a circle two inches from the edge of the cake. Then, cut another circle one-and-a-half inches from that circle. After that, cut four slices through the middle of your cake, turning clockwise, at each petal indent. For smaller petal cakes, start by cutting one horizontal line through the middle of your cake and a circle two inches from the edge.

Oval Tiers: Turn your cake so it is horizontal lengthwise and make vertical one-inch slices along the cake. Once that’s complete, turn your cake clockwise 90 degrees and make vertical slices two inches apart until your cake has been fully cut.

Important Reception Details

Cutting your cake with your partner and all of your loved ones watching is a memorable part of your reception. If you decided on a full course meal, it’s common to bring out the wedding cake after you have finished your last course. Surprisingly enough, most caterers charge a cake slicing fee of up to a dollar a slice. If you want to avoid this cost, we’ve broken down all the basics of cutting your own cake for everyone to enjoy.