How many 10" cakes?

fireytiger

So I decided that seeing as 10" round cakes from Sam's Club only cost like 13 bucks, I'm going to forgo the "tiered" cake, and just buy those. I was gonna DIY some cake stands, and make them staggered so I still have the "tiered" effect without any of the mark-up. But i'm trying to figure out how many servings a 10 inch round cake has, and how many round cakes we would need! We're expecing 50-ish guests to show up, but every site I look at on google tells me something different. Out of all the sites so far, i've seen it estimated that one 10" cake will have anywhere between 10 and 40 servings! That's quite a margin of error, considering we won't have a professional caterer or someone to cut the cakes for us. So would you think 3 of these 10" cakes would be enough, or should I get 4 and maybe put one in the fridge at the venue just in case? I don't want to have a bunch of freakin' cake left over, but I want to make sure everyone gets enough... help!

Thea519

According to Wilton, a 10" round with 2 layers will produce 28 2"x1.5" servings. That portion size seems a bit small to me, though. Personally, I'd bank on about 20 servings out of each round. 

fireytiger

OK, so if I have 50-55 people planned on showing up, should I just have the three rounds? Do you think that would be enough?

Hippinhipster

I think 3 would be more then enough!

jess9802

A 10" cake will serve 38 people based on a 1"x2" slice, if you use Wilton's guide:

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/cake-cutting-guides/wedding-cake-cutting-guide.cfm

Milsey32

Most people like cake (or at least expect to eat it at a wedding), so assume you'll have big pieces and get 3 cakes [: 

kmmssg

 Depends on who is cutting the cake!  As you can see from other posts, some charts have a cake serving a certain number of people using a 1x2 inch piece of cake.  Others maybe 1 1/2 x 2 inch.  Personally - that is stinking tiny, but that is the wedding industry for you.

Go to wilton.com and go to the cake charts.  See if this is what you have in mind for the size of your servings, and then make sure whoever is cutting the cake can actually do that for you.  Cutting a cake according to the chart is easy, cutting those pieces that small, not so much.  Ask me how I know this.....:)

I think 3 would be fine, but I am anal about having enough on hand and would go for 4.  You would probably be fine with the, but look at the charts and make sure that is how you want your cake served.

kmmssg

One other thing - do you have rental places in your area that cater to wedding needs?  I made cheesecakes for one of DD #3's wedding and I rented pedestal cake plates for about 3 bucks apiece.  Hope that helps.

jess9802

The reason wedding cake slices are so small, I would venture to guess, is that each tier of a wedding cake is usually three or four layers. I don't often see bakery cakes with that many layers. If your Costco cakes are two layers, your serving sizes are going to be a little larger than what is normally served at weddings, so you shouldn't count on the 38 serving count. Fortunately, this is something you could probably test out before the wedding. Good luck!

031107

Standard wedding cake slice is 1" x 2" x 4", which is 8 square inches of cake.  If your cake is less than 4" tall, than the slices are usally longer (or wider depending on how you look at it) to still get the 8 square inch total.

I would say that 2 cakes would cover what you need, but for $13 I would buy a third incase anyone wants a second piece or the person cutting the cakes cuts the slices to big or a cake is dropped...

Chelle2684

The industry standard of a 1"x2"x4" is what almost all bakeries use. To give you a visual it's about the size of a peanut butter sandwich if you made it using one piece of bread and then folding the bread in half. Personally, I'm a big cake fan and so are a lot of the people in my family so the standard size would be a bit small for me. If the person who will be cutting the cakes does not have experience with cutting cakes, or several people will be cutting them, you may want to go with a bit extra because in my experience people tend to cut larger slices than the standard. You should be fine with just 2 cakes but you may want to go with 3 just in case since they aren't expensive. I also think that 3 cakes will look better with how you are planning to do the cake stands. Personally, I'd probably get 4 cakes because with my dad and some of the other males that would be at my wedding I'm pretty positive that they would make sure it was all eaten and they'd be perfectly happy to take home the leftovers lol.