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Hi! Today I'm going to answer the well-nigh frequently asked question by my clients and students.Which block size should I bake / order for my upshot?

The short reply: It depends! The virtually important factors that come into play, are the number of guests in attendance, but also what kind of nutrient volition be served, and how much!

Minh Cakes Calculating Cake sizes Title image

Now for the long answer:

If your cake is going the exist the principal dessert, plan at least ane serving for each invitee. But if you are planning on serving a 7-course nuptials feast, or having a buffet of several desserts, then it will exist enough to lodge half the corporeality of servings, and then each guests can become a half-serving.

Of course, this leads to the next question:

How big is a block serving?

This determination is ordinarily upwardly to the baker. This is why  all the serving charts you find on the internet are different –  considering each bakery has decided on a custom serving size. Fondant cakes of today are usually filled with several layers of buttercream or ganache. This makes them quite rich to consume, compared to traditional European pastry cakes like Blackness Forest cake, that is very airy and filled with whipped foam. A wedding cake portion  does non have to be huge, nor does a children'southward birthday cake because both groups of people ordinarily are too full to eat big slices of cake. Also, do take into account that fondant cakes tend to be quite loftier, 10cm (4 inches) and more!

Here at Minh Cakes, our standard serving size is 5 cm x 10 cm ten ii.5 cm
(2 inches x 4 inches x ane inch).

For a nuptials dessert, it's a generous amount of block. I've heard that in the Uk, it is customary to serve just half this amount – the wedding cake is meant as a trivial teaser and non equally full-fledged dessert.

Method ane: Determine  cake size using volume calculations

The way to determine the amount of servings per cake, is by using book calculations (yes that's geometry folks!)  My standard serving is 125 cm³ (8³ inches). Using cylindrical volume formulas, it's easy to calculate the amount of servings per tier.

A round block is basically a cylinder. That's why we tin utilise this formula:
Book = radius square * π (Pi) * pinnacle

Example

Take a xx cm (8″) diameter cake that ist 10cm (4″) high. The radius is 10 cm (4″).

In cm: Volume of the cake: 10 cm² * π * 10 cm = 3141 cm³
In inches: Volume of the cake: iv² inches * π * 4 inches = 201³ inches

Now we just have to divide the volume of the block, with the volume of the serving, and we'll go the number of servings:

In cm: Servings: 3141 cm³ / 125 cm³ = 25  servings
In inches: Serving: 201³ inches / 8³ inches = 25 servings

Effect: A 20 cm (eight″) cake that is 10 cm (iv″) high, will yield 25 servings that are 2.v ten 5cm (1″ 10 2″) large.

This is the exact mathematical method. For each tier size I sell, I could calculate the geometrically correct number of servings:
Minh Cakes Calculating Cake Sizes: Volume chart

Nevertheless… (yep, there's e'er a Only)… I don't actually work with the numbers to a higher place. Why? There are three reasons:

  • Due to my preferred method of cutting (more on that later), some block slices end up having more than fondant & ganache and have to be calculated bigger and so 125 cm3.
  • Other slices of cake are pierced with dowels.
  • And lastly, we do want to make sure we are generous with our brides.

That's why we declare a slightly  lower number of servings per tier in our sales. How is this calculated? I really recommend the adjacent method…

Method 2: Determine cake size using apps

Since we aren't all math geniuses, we demand all the assist we can get! And help comes in the course of some very useful smartphone apps. In that location are some very clever ones on the market (and by the way, they all employ the bones formula in a higher place in their calculations!). My favourite app is called  Tiered Caker.

It lets you easily configure the serving size and tier sizes that you lot accept in your own kitchen. And so y'all send yourself the cutting guides past email!

These are the 5 tier sizes that we sell, and the corresponding cutting guide. As yous can see, the amount of servings per tier is slightly lower than in the chart higher up.  Note that the slices in the corners are a bit larger to account for fondant + ganache embrace!
Minh Cakes Tortengrösse berechnen: Schnittkarten

You tin can detect our actual chart in our Cake FAQ (in German for now).

Now yous know how to summate the corporeality of servings for each tier size. As soon as you have these numbers, you can showtime to play around and combine them until you become the number  of servings you need for your next outcome.

A few examples:

I think I know what you lot side by side question is: How practise I cut a cake following these cutting guides?
The answer is coming in the next blog post! 🙂

I hope this data has served yous. I'd love to know if yous have another mode of calculating your servings – please leave comments & questions below!

Love and happy calculating,
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