Wedding Cakes & Food Forum

Help me with Cake!

alhaley88alhaley88 member
First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
edited August 2015 in Wedding Cakes & Food Forum
We are thinking of doing a small 1 or 2 tier cutting cake (and for pictures) with sheet cakes in the back for the guests. The bakery I am looking at can do the same gourmet flavors and fillings in the sheet cake, which I am very happy about. We are thinking of doing Vanilla w/ filling, Chocolate w/ filling, and 2 gourmets with filling. We are estimating between 120-140 guests.

How much of each sheet cake do I order? 1/4 sheet will feed 45...I don't want to order WAY to much cake.
Is 4 flavors too many? Should we stick with 2 basic 1 gourmet?

I want the guests to have options but I don't want to get a cake that feeds 45 and only 2 people eat that flavor, but I also  don't want to get a cake that feeds 45 and 60 people want that flavor....Anyone have experience in doing this? What did you do? How much did you order?

EDIT: Servings are according to bakery stated servings.

Re: Help me with Cake!

  • I would avoid this. 

    How do guests get the cake? Is it being passed out by staff? If so will the staff be taking orders?
    Are they getting up and getting it themselves?

    Stick to two flavors max but make sure there is enough for everyone to have both. You don't know what people will like, which uncle will take both, who will hear that german chocolate is awesome and then want that instead of vanilla etc. 


  • I don't agree that you should stick to two flavors.  H and I had 5 different flavors of cupcakes.  We split the amount of each flavor evenly between the 135 we ordered.  People just went up and grabbed a cupcake of their choosing when they felt like it.  When we ran out of say, the chocolate chip cookie dough cupcake, then we ran out.  But the main thing was that we had enough cupcakes for every single guest to have one.

    So as a guest would I be bummed that I didn't get a slice of the chocolate fudge cake?  Sure, but I would just grab a slice of the boston cream pie cake instead.  The thing that would irritate me is not getting a slice of cake at all.

    So I would talk to your baker.  They should be able to assist you in deciding how much to order of each flavor.

  • Yes the venue staff will slice the cake. We have not decided on how we will have it served yet though. The last wedding we went to, the cake was cut and slices were put on a table for everyone to go up and grab a slice. The wedding before that, the servers took some of each flavor around to each guest and let them decide. I personally liked the second option, but I have to work that out with the venue.
  • alhaley88 said:
    Yes the venue staff will slice the cake. We have not decided on how we will have it served yet though. The last wedding we went to, the cake was cut and slices were put on a table for everyone to go up and grab a slice. The wedding before that, the servers took some of each flavor around to each guest and let them decide. I personally liked the second option, but I have to work that out with the venue.
    I would just have the cake placed on a table with the flavors clearly marked.  This way people can go up and grab what they want when they want.

  • alhaley88 said:
    Yes the venue staff will slice the cake. We have not decided on how we will have it served yet though. The last wedding we went to, the cake was cut and slices were put on a table for everyone to go up and grab a slice. The wedding before that, the servers took some of each flavor around to each guest and let them decide. I personally liked the second option, but I have to work that out with the venue.
    I would just have the cake placed on a table with the flavors clearly marked.  This way people can go up and grab what they want when they want.
    If having multiple flavors, this would be the best solution, IMO.  Having a server carry around multiple flavors and telling each guest each of the flavors is just time consuming.  And as a guest, I'd rather just help myself to a chocolate slice.  My luck the server would give the last piece on the tray to someone else and I'd either have to settle for something else or hope they came back again when they refilled their tray.
  • 1) Same exact portion size for all guests!!!  This means, same number of layers to fillings and portion size cut for all guests!!!  No guest gets the unfilled slice of cake while others get four layers with lemon and raspberry filling...

    2) Great tasting cake gets eaten, lousy tasting cake is left at the end of the night.  Choose the yummy over the cheap! (if the "gourmet" flavor is flat out awesome and the white BUTT-r-crap tastes like freshly molded Crisco, spend the what's likely to be around $30 to have the gourmet flavor that they'll talk about positively for years to come.  If they all taste great, obviously price it out and make your choice that way).. 

    3) If you choose to serve buffet style, I'd recommend using disposable plates/forks for this reason - the staff won't be in a rush to get their plates back so they can leave for the night thus picking the plates up and trashing what's left of the cake instead of leaving it out for guests to take their slice but if there are any leftover slices, your guests can easily have it for a take-home snack or snack later on during the evening (this is where you get your halo as a hostess because not only was the cake yummy, we got to grab a slice to take home; have later on when the sugars allowed me to because of that there diabedus; late night snack; etc.).  Sure, you'll need more servings for this option, but that doesn't mean enough for both of each flavor for each guest to have two slices.  You know your guests and how big of dessert fans they are.

    4) If you're having your servers do 100% of the serving, go with one flavor option for all of the guests servings.  They aren't going to take orders, they're going to plunk down whatever slice happens to be on the tray when they get to whichever guest they come to.  In the ideal world, they'd take orders, but 99.8% of all caterers don't operate that way (yes, some do, clear majority, don't!)

    5) Find out what portion size the bakery is operating from!!!  The geometry factor is HUGE!!!!  For example, Big Blue Box and Big Red Range Logo claims to be super cheap for cakes. When you look at their portion and do the geometry for portion sizes, they're right in the running with the average bakery.  Some bakeries work off of a 1x2x4, others 1x3x4/5/6, others 1x4x6..  That's a huge difference in what you get for the money. 

    IMO - I MUCH prefer the "buffet" style for cake service.  I'm a cake snob so want one of everything as is my foodie SIL who I'll compare notes with, DH OTOH, is going to go for the slice that has the absolute least amount of frosting and filling as humanly possible.  And the list goes on (gluten free cake, sliver slice, "Give me frosting or give me death!", etc.)  The buffet often satisfies the most people and gives a mingling opportunity as well as people can go get a slice as they finish eating so no one is waiting horribly long after they're done for the slice of cake.

  • why are you doing sheet cakes? sheet cakes can cost just as much as if you were getting a 3-4 tiered cake.

    as a hobby baker who does it as a side business its much more cost effective to have a 3-4 tiered cake everyone gets the same cake same flavor same layers same filling

    i would rethink the sheet cakes and go with the 3-4 tiered cake 

    sugar decorations and fondont bring up the cakes price a lot 

    so a simpler cake with a nice filling and buttercream on the outside with some designs and or buttercream flowers will save you a lot more money 


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