BTW, I just want to make sure that everyone knows that I use Wilton as a guideline when it comes to cake servings. Whatever they say a serving is, I add about 35%. lol I'm adding this since I was the one that posted before with the link to Wilton's serving suggestions. But even with that! The customer should have gotten her 20 servings with no problem whatsoever.

If she knew the type of people she was inviting then she should have ordered over the # of servings she needed. Better to have too much than not enough. I think I will be printing up cutting charts to hand over to people when they get a cake from now on because people really don't know how to cut a cake!
BTW: CHARGE MORE!

I have to agree that around my family, it would have fed about 12 people. I charge based on the number of batches of batter I need to bake for the cake (Including the scraps cut off a sculpted cake.) I figure on 10-12 servings from each batch of chocolate and about 15-18 for WASC. A 9X13 is one batch of batter either way, the WASC is just taller. Have you spoken to her yet? What happened when she actually served the cake? Did she have more than she thought she would? I hope everything works out for you. Your cake was great- you did a great job on it!

I love the idea for using styrofoam blocks as visuals in the store! Thanks for sharing it!

I don't think it's a matter of being "uppity" or not looking at it from a customers view, it's just common sense. I go by a chart for everything and have not (yet) had a complaint about not enough cake. I mean for crying out loud how would she know if she had not cut into it? And I bet when she did, she discovered it was enough.

I agree that often when we look at a cake it looks like it only serves so many but when you get to cutting (reasonable pieces) one generally finds that it is sufficient.

Talk to her and find out what happened, then you can make a more informed decision. I wouldn't refund the money though. You didn't charge that much to begin with.

I'm in the south too, and I like to base my servings on a 1x4x4 portion... that would mean this cake would have served 13 if the corners hadn't been cut off... maybe 11 or 12 with them cut off.

I agree with the poster who said customers have no idea what size a wedding cake chart portion is... they only know what they would serve if they had company over for dinner... at home, an 2-layer 8" round cake would serve 12, but according to Wilton's chart it should serve 24 - none of us would think that is enough cake to serve 24 dinner guests in our home, so I can definitely understand why this customer thought the servings were too small.

For the record, I think the price of $25 was more than fair for the cake received, regardless of how many it served.

Just âdoing the mathâ here â¦..
1x2x4â = 8 cubic inches â¦. Wedding industry standard â¦. 26 servings
1.5 x 2 x 4 = 12 cubic inches .. âPartyâ servings â¦. 16 servings
1.3 x 4 x 4 = 21 cubic inches â¦.. 10 servings
1.3 x 2 x 4 = 10.5 cubic inches â¦.. 20 servings

1.5 x 4 x 4 = 24 cubic inches ⦠Thatâs 3 times a wedding slice and twice a party slice!! So I agree with aligotmatt â¦. That too much cake and itâs Jethro Bodine eaters! Customer needed to order a bigger cake.

Look at the numbers I ran at the top of this post. If this woman claimed only 10 servings, she was cutting a piece of cake that is THREE TIMES THE SIZE OF A STANDARD WEDDING SERVING! Ladies and gentlemen, that IS the size of a freakinâ brick! This is where I'd be explaining how KFC works it, baby!!

Not quite half â¦. A 1.5x2x4 is 50% bigger than a 1x2x4 â¦. Itâs not twice the size (ergo a wedding size is not half the size of a party size). 1.5 x 2 x 4 = 12 cubic inches //// 1x2x4 = 8 cubic inches.

Of course they like it better! They are getting more cake for (usually) the same money!

BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOTALLY AGREE 1000%!!!!!!!!!!

I believe the opposite. Being the grandmother of a 6 year old and a 1 year old, Iâve been around a lot of their (and the neighborhood) birthday parties, with up to 10 or 12 little kids under the age of 7. A wedding cake portion is PERFECT for a child! Not too big, no wasted cake. Trust me, I OBSERVE these events with an eagle eye on this. I survey the parents, I ask my daughter for feedback and what comments she was given after I leave. Iâve been to birthday parties where it was a hamburger/hot dog cookout and where it was just cake-only. So with and without food, everyone was very happy with the cake size.

And when my dinner guests get to the dessert part, they usually ask for âjust a littleâ because they are too full from dinner, so it is not âtoo smallâ for dinner guests â¦. Wedding guests are âdinner guestsâ and when I cut the cake into 1x2x4âs, I get a lot of folks who ask for âa little smaller, pleaseâ.

Well, it's just my personal opinion, but I wouldn't expect a 2-layer 8-inch cake to be enough to serve 24 guests as the wilton chart suggests... I would expect it to serve half that many. I think smaller portions are expected at weddings because the cake is frequently not the only dessert served.

Yes, this size portion might indeed be appropriate for a 6 or 7 year old, but considering this cake is a skateboard with a scull and flames on it, I'm thinking he was probably quite a bit older. Do we know how old he was?

No refund, your cake was priced too low to begin with.

Possibly a discount off her next cake, but price it right! And maybe explain the serving sizes only so that she knows you have a standard and you were not shortchanging her.

Also - she called before she cut it - when you call her it is slightly possible that she will say that there was plenty of cake after all! I'd call, not email, just so you can say you just got the message and it does not look like you were trying to dodge her.

I agree! I betcha she made it work for the number of guests she had!

When my dinner guests ask for a sliver of cake, they eat... they comment... and then they go back for more .

Just for clarification - I wasn't saying the size of the cake was too small or too big or too anything. I was just stating that it is very understandable for a customer to be surprised when they get a cake that is smaller than they were expecting. Cake designers are very aware of this issue and can be a little more proactive to ensure the customer knows what they are paying for.

Happy baking to you!

You can't please everyone, I had one customer complain that a double layer 14" cake would'nt serve 30 people, and she was going to have to buy cupcakes from walmart, and this was before she cut the cake.
A double layer 14" cake should serve 78 according to Wilton, so even if she cut the pieces double the standard serving size she still would have got 30 servings.
To avoid any serving problems I make sure to tell the customer how big a "standard' serving is, but I also inform them my servings are a bit larger but if they want a "home slice" then they need to order more cake, and of course pay for it.
But everyone makes mistakes, I had to include some cupcakes with the last skateboard cake I did because it came up short, only serving 18 and not 20.
Sorry this happenend, I would'nt give her any money back , maybe offer her a discount on the next cake.

First the price: For a carved cake she got a steal even if it really did serve just 10. Our local grocery store sells their 9x13 sheets for $20.


Serving size I agree with indydebi:

Even my husband says that unless cake is the only thing he's eating a Wilton wedding size serving is plenty. He's one of those guys without an ounce of fat who eats like a horse.

For children at a birthday party where they are more interested in playing with new toys I find that I throw out a good number of unfinished 1x2x4 slices.

When I have guests over if they are having larger slices of cake it isn't right after a meal. Even the men. People are either watching their waists or are just too full.

For the OP's customer I fail to see how it's her problem that the lady isn't cutting the right size slices. Even if she failed to give a serving chart it isn't rocket science to figure out a cake of that shape.

As I was reading this post I was hoping indydebi would chime in...I totally agree that if people want bigger servings than they need to order more cake.

My first wedding I learnt the lesson about just how much cake a 1x2x4 piece is. Thank goodness it was for a friend and we were just trying to figure it out together. Only 1/2 of the bottom tier actually got eaten from a 3 tiered cake. The next wedding cake the bride tells me "we're big cake eaters" and I said "I think it will be too much cake". The feedback I got was how moist it was 2 days later...umm...guess she didn't need all that cake!

I find that it is very important to educate people on how to cut the cake...before I cut into one of my cakes I thought there was no way it would serve that many people...and was surprised on how large these servings actually are!

I worked in a pizza restaurant as a teenager. I did the birthday parties. I was always amazed that we took at 10 in round cake, maybe 5 or 6 in hi, and got about 16 slices out of it. And still there was leftover cake everywhere! Yesterday I made an airplane cake. I sculpted it out of the 13 x 9 7/8 in oval pan. Once my mom saw it, she thought it wasn't enough. So, I took the 6 in round that I'd cooked up the extra batter in and just iced it really quick and through my nephew's name and age on it. 1/2 the people at the party didn't eat the cake. Just the kids and one of my sister's. The 6 in round fed EVERYONE! Only my sister complained about the wimpy slices and insisted on more. The airplane finished the night intact! Anyone who has ever hosted a party should know that you can cust 1x4x4 slices and some people will eat them. If other food has been served, it really is just too much cake and most of it will go to waste.

Unless my eyes are deciving me, I could see 20 maybe a small amount more on that cake. My brother is 10, and I am doing a skateboard cake for his 11th b-day, and I know that with pizza, soda and snacks, that cake would feed at least 20 of them.

I discussed serving sizes recently on another thread and what I had said was that I for the first time served a very large cake (100 servings) cutting the slices in 1"x2"x4" slices. These were very large sizes...I was amazed because on paper it doesn't sound so big...anyway this cake ended up serving 150. My husband was helping me and kept telling me to cut them even smaller!

I wouldn't refund or offer a discount. The cake was more than big enough for 20 servings and was dirt cheap at that. I have a miminum order now of $100 so even if I sold it at my rate without a minimum I would have charged her $60 for it.

That must a been a PITA to ice for one thing!

As far as servings go - people who want large slabs of cake need to order more. Heck...I wish my Toyota was bigger but it is the size I ordered so there is no use to gripe that it is not big enough to drag the cross country team around. Toyota will tell me I should have bought a Sequoia! I do tell my brides that my cake sizes are based on a 1x2x4 piece of cake that is roughly the size of a half sandwich a "polite piece of cake - not Uncle Charley LOVES cake piece of cake".

My grandma used to say " Fair understanding brings no falling out". I make sure my clients KNOW what they are getting and I have never had someone tell me they didn't have enough cake.

I agree with pratnicia! and by the way your cake looks great!