How Much Wedding Cake Do I Need?

Ordering the right amount of cake is always an important question that nearly every bride asks, or at least, she should.  Brides want to have enough cake to adequately feed their guests, but not have too much cake where they are bringing home tiers and tiers of cake!

Recently, Wilton (the cake guru's) have changed their recommend serving guide.  This guide tells us how much a cake will serve.  Based on their old model, a small 3 tier cake (6x8x10 round) will serve 98 guests.  However, they have recently changed that claiming that the same size cake will now only feed 74 guests.  This change has led brides to order based on the new recommendation and unfortunately, too much cake.  I often hear brides say that guests don't eat the cake and they know this because their friend ordered enough cake for each guest and there was too much left over.  Well, it's not because the guests aren't eating cake.  They are!  It's because the serving guide was changed and now brides are ordering more cake than they really need.

Ask your baker which serving guide they use, the old one or the new one.  I personally still use the old model and have found that I do not have the problem with my brides bringing home too much cake.  Most brides compliment us on the fact that we usually get our serving suggestion pretty spot on!  I want to make sure brides are ordering enough cake to adequately serve their guest count without over ordering.  So, I love hearing this positive feedback from them!

So, what is my recommendation on cake size?  Well, that depends.  Are you having a bride's cake and a groom's cake, or just a brides cake.  If you are ordering a bride's cake only, then it's simple.  One slice of cake per guest.  So, if you are having 150 guests,  you need 150 servings of cake.  But, what if you are having both cakes?  Tradition says to offer one slice of bride's cake per guest and a half slice of groom's cake.  The same bride with 150 guests will then need 150 servings of bride's cake and 75 servings of groom's.  The theory, which I have found to be true for most of my brides, is that everyone will want bride's cake and only some will want the groom's cake.  But, keep in mind, that if you are offering two flavors of cake, most people will want to try a piece of both. 

If you ever have any questions about ordering the right size wedding cake, always make sure you ask your baker about it.  Aft