I'm confused on figuring the sizes of tiers for a wedding cake. I looked at Earlene's chart and I just keep confusing myself more. Or maybe I'm just stressing/freaking out on doing my first big cake!

Anyway - I have to do a cake for about 315 people. All rounds.
I will also be doing a double layer sheet cake (kitchen cake) which I figure will serve 65? So I guess the tiered cake would need to feed about 250.

Can someone please help?

Thank you!

What is it that you are confused about with the Earlene's chart? You probably need to start with an 18" round and go up from there every two inches to get that many servings....

Does the bride have a preference as to how large/how many tiers she'd like in her main cake?? That makes a difference on how your figure your sizes and how many kitchen cakes to make.

I use Earlene's chart and only go by columns A & C -- the rest confuses me too!!

If she wants rounds, according to the chart (again columns A & C), a 16, 14, 12, 10, 8 will give you 245 servings.

Or you could go with something smaller and make up the difference in kitchen cakes.

I've only had to do a couple cakes in this size range and I think the main cake served around 200 and the remainder was done in square kitchen cakes (a 14" one yields 84 servings).

I could never figure out how to read earline's chart. I always use the wilton wedding chart, because (a) that's the size most venues cut (b) more money for me.

A round 6/8/10/12/14/16 serves 12/24/38/56/78/100 = 308 servings.

A double layer 11x15 serves 70.
A double layer 12x18 serves 100.

So you could do a 5 tier (6/8/10/12/14) and swap out the 16" round for a 12x18 layer.

(Although my personal preference is "the bigger and grander, the better!" so I'd prefer the 6 tier.)

Thank you all so much! I love that I can come here with questions and know I will always get an answer! You are all awesome, I'm a little calmer now!

what is Earlene's chart? Can anyone point me to it?

http://www.earlenescakes.com/ckserchart.htm