Party Cake Vs. Wedding Cake Prices

Decorating By mandirombold Updated 21 Jan 2010 , 6:52pm by CakestyleIN

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mandirombold Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 2:35am
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I am new to this and I understand about the different serving sizes for cakes using the Wilton cutting guide, Party cake servings and Wedding serving. So my questions is does everyone use this guide? So basicly if I make a 14x10x6 for a big shower it would be one price and if I make a 14x10x6 cake for a wedding it is more money becuz it serves more ppl going by the cutting chart. I just fine this odd.

22 replies
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prterrell Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 2:39am
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Nope. We don't use 2 different serving charts. I don't care what the occasion is. Number of servings and price per serving is the same.

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JanH Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 2:45am
post #3 of 23

..moving to General forum. icon_smile.gif

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mandirombold Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 2:46am
post #4 of 23

prterell, so which do u use the wedding on for everything or the party

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FromScratch Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 2:54am
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I use the wedding chart for everything. icon_smile.gif

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gramofgwen Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 3:04am
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I use my own calculation (2" x 2"), which is a little bigger than the Wilton Party Chart., for everything, so my price is the same for party and wedding.

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_Jamie_ Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 3:21am
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Wedding chart by Wilton, I don't give a hoot about party sizes. Sometimes I wonder if some people (not pointing at anyone in this particular thread) have actually sliced one of their cakes according to the Wilton chart to see what they look like before pooh-pooing the wedding size. It is such a healthy chunk of cake.

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indydebi Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 3:28am
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No it's not more money because you are providing more cake per serving. It becomes a matter of semantics and it's why I dont' understand those who go back and forth with party and wedding servings.

An 8" square serves 32 wilton wedding servings of 1x2x4. 8 cubic inches. If you sold cake for $2/serving, this is $64 for the cake.

If you decide party servings are 2x2x4 (just for easy math), you get 16 servings of 16 cubic inches. Twice as much cake per serving = twice the price PER SERVING. So this cake would be $4/serving = $64 for the cake.

Why a baker would give bigger pieces of cake for the same price makes no sense to me whatsoever. Why they allow a customer to dictate how big the sizes are makes no sense to me whatsoever. They can cut the dang thing in half and serve it with 2 forks for all I care but they are paying for the total amount of food.

A can of Cambell's soup SAYS it serves 2.5 people. Since I know I eat more than THEIR allocated serving size, I know I have to buy add'l cans of soup. Campbell's doesn't throw in a couple of cans for free and they won't give me the big can in place of the smal can for the same price.

KFC has decided that 2 pieces of chicken is "a serving". So their bucket of 12 pcs will feed 6 people. If I decide that 3 pieces is "a serving", I don't get the bucket cheaper just because I'm feeding fewer people. KFC isn't going to throw in 6 more pieces to make "6 servings" of the size that *I* choose.

If you choose to differentiate, you can sell an 8" square for $64 and tell them "This will serve 16 to 30, dependign on how you cut it. How many cakes do you need?" I find if they are having a party for 25, they usually opt to go up to the 10" square.

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LaBellaFlor Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 3:47am
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Wilton's wedding chart. I think when they say party size, they are also thinking of a 2" high cake as opposed to a 4" high cake. All my cakes are 4" high. And Jamie is right, I think some people need to actually cut a wedding size to see how much it really is.

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Renaejrk Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 3:50am
post #10 of 23

I totally agree with Indydebi - I only use "party servings" when the cake is short, like a sheet. Even then, I go by MY calculations, because I still torte it and it's taller than a traditional sheetcake. Basically you have to figure how much cake you consider is a serving. 1x2x4 inches high, and 2x2x2 inches high is close to the same amount.

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FromScratch Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 4:59am
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A 2x2x4" piece of cake is HUGE... unless your cake isn't 4" tall, but even 2x2x3" is pretty darn big. I can almost see the Wilton party chart as a viable option, but I prefer the wedding chart. I hope those that have the 2x2x4" chunk of cake as their serving size compensate by charging enough, because that is a big chunk of profit you could be missing out on. 2x2x2 for a sheet cake is perfect, but for a non-sheet cake (and IMHO) that's too much.

If I sold cake by the 2x2x4" chunk, I'd have to sell it at $10/serving to make the money I need to make. Not only that, but as a wedding cake, your brides will be left with a TON of cake after the venue serves it because they are going to cut wilton wedding slices no matter what you tell them. Then you run the risk of having brides thinking you oversold them cake.

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jenng1482 Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 5:32am
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Posted in the templates gallery by MikeRowesHunny is wood blocks cut and painted to demonstrate the most common serving sizes. I think its a great idea!
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=88648

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CakeDiosa Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 5:34am
post #13 of 23

OMG! THANK YOU FOR THIS THREAD!!!

This is the very thing I've been struggling with. Yes, the wedding slice is a healthy amount of cake and I even have and provide Indydeb's photo of the slice to show people. Yet, when I price my party cakes I go by the party chart but my cakes, like everyone else's run anywhere from 4 1/2" - 5" (torted). The parties I have been to where my cake is served and - especially where I end up cutting it - there is usually an enormous amount of cake left and I'm pissed at the profit I lost!!! Then I struggle with just how much cake it'll take to make that 80 serving "party" cake at those party slice sizes of 2x2x4.

THANKS for all of you weighing in on this.... That's IT!! I'm officially now only going by the wedding chart. And this thread comes not a moment too soon as I have several cakes coming up and I was going by party slices when choosing my pan sizes.

Once again you all SAVED THE DAY!!!!

xoxo

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mandirombold Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 5:47am
post #14 of 23

Thank you, thank you! I will be using the wedding cake chart from this point on!

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prterrell Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 8:30am
post #15 of 23

I don't use either Wilton chart. I did the math myself. It's farily easy. Divid the volume of the cake by the volume of the serving. For me a serving is 1"x2"x4". That's 8 cubic inches of cake. My pricing structure is also based on the actual volume of the cake - 25 cents per cubic inch of cake is my base price. That way I know I am getting paid for the entire volume of cake.

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indydebi Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 1:11pm
post #16 of 23

I just noticed the height of your cake is 6" tall. That is also a factor in your pricing.

1x2x4 (industry standard) is 8 cubic inches.
1x2x6 is 12 cubic inches .... 50% more cake per serving.

Therefore if your standard price is $3/serving for the 1x2x4, then the 6" tall cake would be $4.50/serving (50% more money) because they are getting 50% more cake PER SERVING.

It's like buying a large fry instead of a small. 50% more fries costs more.

This is hard for a lot of folks to comprehend (because I've spent quite a bit of time via PM's to clarify the concept) .... but I use the wilton chart TO DETERMINE PRICING .... not necessarily to determine servings. Although they are coincidentially close or the same. A 12x18 single layer serves 50 (round number). 50 x my rate =- price of cake. Period.

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costumeczar Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 1:17pm
post #17 of 23

I use one chart also, wedding sizes. They can cut the whole cake into two pieces for all I care, but I'm still going to charge them for what a "normal" serving size would be.

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mandirombold Posted 20 Jan 2010 , 6:20pm
post #18 of 23

Thank you so much everyone. This is a problem that has been bothering me for months, I just couldn't understand why I was suppose to use 2 chart to determine serving, cake is cake! Great I think this will help me make a price chart (for myself) so I have a reference when I get a call, I have a habit of blurting out prices before i should.

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prterrell Posted 21 Jan 2010 , 1:56am
post #19 of 23
Quote:
Originally Posted by indydebi

I just noticed the height of your cake is 6" tall. That is also a factor in your pricing.

1x2x4 (industry standard) is 8 cubic inches.
1x2x6 is 12 cubic inches .... 50% more cake per serving.




Good catch, Debi!

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cakesdivine Posted 21 Jan 2010 , 3:43pm
post #20 of 23
Quote:
Originally Posted by Renaejrk

I totally agree with Indydebi - I only use "party servings" when the cake is short, like a sheet. Even then, I go by MY calculations, because I still torte it and it's taller than a traditional sheetcake. Basically you have to figure how much cake you consider is a serving. 1x2x4 inches high, and 2x2x2 inches high is close to the same amount.





It isn't just close to the same amount...IT IS the same amount! icon_rolleyes.gif This is simple math people...stuff we learned in elementary school math not algebra or Trig!

1x2x4=8

2x2x2=8

8 cubic inches worth of cake! That is a good sized piece of cake! About the same amount of cake in 1 1/2 of standard sized cupcakes or one jumbo cupcake.

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CakestyleIN Posted 21 Jan 2010 , 4:37pm
post #21 of 23

Hi! I wanted to jump in to ask another q on figuring pricing/sizes. How do u figure out the servings for a topsy turvy cake? For example the one posted in the how to that has 6-7-8, 8-9-10, 10-11-12 sizes in the tiers? I've been looking at all those pretty cakes, and had been wondering how someone might figure up the servings since each tier has 3 different layers of cake? Do you go by the smallest cake used in that tier? I'm just curious, thanks alot!

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prterrell Posted 21 Jan 2010 , 6:35pm
post #22 of 23

For # of servings, go by middle cake size in each tier, but for pricing, well, those are more tricky to do than regular stacked cakes, so price by the largest cake size in each tier, plus a TT "surcharge".

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CakestyleIN Posted 21 Jan 2010 , 6:52pm
post #23 of 23

oh ok, Thank You!

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