I have just received a 15-11-7 inch cake pans for a wedding cake I am doing for 126 people and the 15 inch pan is HUGE. The bride definately did not want a 4 tiered cake so looking at some of the sizing charts on the internet I decided to go with the 15-11-7 scenario.

Just wondering what everyones thoughts were on this. Do you think the bottom tier is waaaayyy to big? Have I over calculated the sizes I need? The cake will be served as dessert.

You should reference the serving guides posted in the galleries. I don't know if your pan sizes are round or square but the servings for rounds are listed as follows:

14" = 82 servings
16" = 100

10" = 42
12" = 56

8" = 28
6" = 10

All of your sizes fall in between those. I think you will be making far more cake than is needed (or paid for). You can scale it down quite a bit.

also stack the pans on top of each other, should give you a good cisual on how they will look as cake.
http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-wedding-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm
it could be done on a smaller scale anyway, depends if she wants a huge cake (in which case, a 4 tier looks impressive) or not.
xx

The 11" and 15" pans will give you approximately 130 servings. Are they keeping the 7" for their anniversary tier? And NO, I don't think a 15" pan is huge at all. Besides, by the time it bakes, it will shrink slightly. They always do.

Hello,

Thank you for your replies ) Sorry I forgot to mention that the tins are round. I used the serving guide from the baking911 site as I didn't realise there was one on cake central (which i have since found and printed). They are using the whole cake for desert so I wanted to make sure there was definately plently to go around and i read somewhere that the wilton guide is for small servings.

I have never baked a 15 inch cake before so am not all that keen on going so big even though I have just spent money on the tin )

Megan I know how you feel. I've just received my 16" square and it looks like you could play football in it. I'm not keen on baking or torting it for that matter!
Big breath!! We can do it together!

hi,
as i was reading this, it got me curious, as to how big does your usual wedding cakes go..coz from where i come from, 16inch round is pretty normal as the bottom tier for a 3tiered cake ...i've even had brides who wanted 18in round ( 2half moon tins)..if i could. i try to convince them to stick to 16in only...no. of servings is not even an issue here as long as the bride is going to have the cake of her dreams, then that's all that matters..just wanted to share

Also, remember it's because you JUST got them and it sounds like they are your biggest pans to date. I remember starting and using an 8" pan. Then I bought my 10" and they looked MASSIVE! Then I got the 12" and it looked GIGANTIC. I now have 16" and 14". Lets not talk about how huge they seemed upon acquiring each. After baking a few times and using them their size becomes less intimidating. Now, I have to think about it to tell the 10" from the 12" and the 14" seems like a 10" when I glance at them. It's all relative.

Pretty soon that 15" won't look so huge to you. If you don't have them already you may want to get some larger cake boards to help move your cake layers while torting. To keep them from splitting.

Have fun!!

If you are doing a standard 4" high cake then the witon chart works ok. it's based on a 1x2x4 slice. If you look at indydebi's cutting instructions you can see what a slice that size looks like. http://www.cateritsimple.com/id10.html At first it looks kind of small because we are all used to these massive hunks of cake everyone serves 1/2 of which is usually left on the plate.

HTH

Judi