I received an inquiry tonight for a fall wedding to accommodate:
(drum roll) 400 guests (probably about 375, she said).

She wants to stay under $2000.00, but will be cutting it very close just with base price, etc. (no details or design yet). She said she wants a "wedding cake", but also sheet cakes/kitchen cakes. I've not done the math yet, so I have no idea if this is even possible with my small home business. What does a cake that feeds atleast 300 even look like?

I am going to meet with them, introduce myself, etc.. I was thinking if she likes the taste of my cake she may keep me in mind for other events. I'm not sure if I can handle an order this large...

Who's taken on orders this large? Any words of wisdom? I'm excited and freaked out at the same time...

Thank you

I've never EVER done a cake that big. But, to just get an idea of the size I woud just "google" wedding cakes and see what happens. Sometimes, they say how many servings it has. Like the Wilton yearbooks has wedding cakes, and they all say the servings it makes. It's just a suggestion on where to start.

Good Luck!

Yeah, ummm do you have a neighbor who owes you a favor? You can always cook over there at the same time

A dear friend of mine had a wedding this big...I'll see if I can find a pic of her cake. It was BEAUTIFUL!!

Here is wiltons chart. It only goes to 300 but you can add extra cakes around it to bring up the servings.
http://www.wilton.com/cakes/tiered-cakes/serving-amounts-200-300.cfm

I wish ~ but my license only covers my kitchen/dining room.

I'm starting to realize how BIG this cake order actually is... I'm not sure I can handle this. This is one HUGE wedding... that's 10 x the guests I had at my own wedding.

A round 6/8/10/12/14/16 serves 308. And it's a grand looking cake! Here's a dummy one I did for a bridal show: http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1195241

Square cakes: 6/8/10/12/14/16 serves 398.

Damn Debi....scare the sh*t out of her! LOL, JK...Gorgeous cake.......cake and more cake!

What's puzzling me the most is wondering how long it will take to bake all the cakes and where I'm going to store them while I'm icing them.
I don't have a mini-van or Flatbed trailer for that matter... just a small family car. Luckily the reception is in the next town over.

Any creative solutions to transporting these if I take the order?

Thank you.

She wants sheetcakes, right? So, do a smaller wedding cake and do the sheetcakes you need to make up the difference. That way you can even make sure you are over the top on servings. This seems Like you can really do a beautiful, but manageable cake and do the sheets. The six foot cake is beautiful, but if the bride isn't asking for it and you don't have to....

Nice

Thanks Debi.

my very first wedding cake fed 327!! I just did it last weekend for a friend's brother. Luckily, the bride only wanted 3 teirs and then the rest kitchen cakes. (4 inch tall sheet cakes, filled) My oven was on baking Thursday from 8am until after midnight. It got about a one hour break! I nearly went crazy, but my hubbie took a personal day to help with the kiddos. And in the end all went well. The kitchen cakes were a blessing because they didn't have to be perfect, just tasty! I had a mini-van, but it may fit in a car with seats down. You can do it!!!

Keep the faith! You can do this. First you have to figure out the design. Since you are working with a budget of $2000, the design should be simple. Indydebi's cake was beautiful and great wow factor. You could do something like that or make a "normal" size wedding cake with a little more details and just do sheet cakes, this way the bride can have a beautiful wedding cake and enough cake with the simple sheet cakes to feed everyone. Good luck! Let us know how you made out after your meeting.

i would go with the 6,8,10,12, 14 and two full sheet cakes (stacked-kitchen cakes) or just 6,8,10, 12 serves 134 and three full sheets stacked.
the stacked sheet caked do not take up that much space and if you are doing kitchen cakes that can be baked iced and stored in the freezer and removed the morning of delivery. the the 4 tiered and 3 sheets would serve approx 434 servings.
Rent a car in necessary, i had to rent a pt cruiser to deliver 20 boxed table cakes and a fake wedding cake a couple years ago.

She hasn't specified exactly how many servings her wedding cake will be, but mentined the sheet cakes. I mentioned seeing a cake that feeds 300 incase she decides to go ALL wedding cake. I have never made an entire sheet cake before, only 1/2 putting 2 9x13s together...(very narrow doorways) and have no idea how many kitchen cakes we're talking.
I read 10 and started to panic...

I'm a SAHM to a toddler so I mainly bake at night (husband is home late afternoon). Is this even possible? My fear is that I'll psyche myself up, and then come off looking stupid ~ like falling asleep (face first) in one of the tiers.

First of all, I wouldn't attempt this if you didn't have a freezer to accomodate these layers... you could bake them in your "spare" time no matter how long it took as long as you can store them in the freezer until needed.

I use the "old school" Wilton serving chart so...
The first number is servings to be cut at the reception and
the second number is servings including the top tier if not being cut.

If the bride likes the tall stacked setup you could do:

16x14x12x10x8x6=356/372 or
16sqx14x12x10x8x6=366/382

Here are some other combos I've done that would be easier to store and deliver:

4=12" for base (ea. 12" placed like dice pattern on 4-leaf clover shaped Plywood)
w/14x6=364/380 or
same as above w/14x10x6=412/428

18x16x12x10x6=382/398

If bride likes satellite cakes:

16x12x8
+12x8
+12x8=382/412

or

18x12x10x6
+12x8
+10=410/426

or

18x12x8
+12x8
+12x8=412/442

if they decide to go larger, I've got more up to 1158 servings!

If you have a favorite set up but it doesn't include quite enough servings, consider just making the base tier a square that serves a little more or go 3 layers tall for the base tier to get a lot more servings and it would give a tall cake a real nice sturdy appearance (you don't want any of the above tiers to be taller than the base tier or it won't look proportionate). Good luck!

I did this one to serve 268. The satelites were 6" (the highest on each side) and 8" (the other three on each side). You could always do one like these with all the satelites being 10".

6/9/12 = 100 svg.
( 10" = 304 svg.
total = 404 svg.

I did a 7 tier wedding cake the end of May. I rented a mini-van that had the stow and go seating so that the whole van behind the front seats folded down and away and made lots of space for the cake tiers. I boxed each tier separately and then did partial stacking when I got to the town of the wedding and then finished stacking at the reception site. The cake is in my photos - the white square with cut corners. You can do it, it just takes a little planning. You can bake all of this at your house - yes you can. I have lots of notes typed up and if you want them, let me know and I will send them to you by PM.

HTH's
Pam

Kitchen cakes...new term for me. Is that 2 sheet cakes staked on top of each other? Do you serve it like you would a wedding cake cut--1 inch x 2 inch slices? How do you charge for that in comparison to a wedding cake serving? My wedding cakes start @ $2.50 per serving and go up from there. How would you price a kitchen cake?

Jammjenks....WOW Indy....WOW (jaw hitting the counter for both) wow....oh and pretty too.

I did this one last year to serve 480.

16/14/12/10/8 = 280 and then 10, 8" rounds to serve 200. We thought the 8" rounds would fit around the cake comfortably, but they did not. The caterer ended up taking extra cakes and using pedestal stands and flowers and displayed them down the buffet.

I'm doing a VERY similar cake this fall but to serve 300. We're going with the 14/12/10/8/6 to serve 180 and 6 8" rounds to serve 120.

I work in a home kitchen, it's not huge, or even big, but I manage my space and time well.

One thing for me in cakes like this is fillings, you cannot make a different filling for each of the 16 cakes. Baking different flavors doesn't seem to be as much an issue for me, I have a 5qt and 7qt mixer, so I'll have to make another batch anyway. It's making oodles of different fillings, and damming and fillings and damming and fillings... that throws me off more in this size.

I buy a lot of sheet boxes, and as cakes are done cooling on the racks, I put them in sheet boxes, then put the lid on, that way I can stack to the ceiling. It's good for space management. Get's more difficult once they are torted and filled, but it's a start.

I'll drive up to Maine and help ya! It'll be fun!

aligotmatt

that cake is so over the top beautiful and feminine

It reminds me of princess diana's wedding dress layers and layers of white beauty

Holy S**t.....these cakes are mindblowing.