AHi all! My goddaughter just got engaged and her mother knows I am learning to make bigger cakes, so she asked me to make the cake for the engagement party. It will be for about 55 people, and is in a high end neighborhood of NJ. Since they are 5 hours away, I will have to transport it, so I am thinking fondant and two tiers. I looked at all of the calculators, but would appreciate some real world advice please. How big do you think it should be? I want to make sure there is more than enough cake, as there will be a lot of 20 year old men there.

Thank you for your help, ladies and gents! I appreciate it very much, Nancy

Are you planning on making square or round cake?   12 & 10 inch cakes should be fine unless you think they will serve rather large slices.  My experience is that people in general really don't come back too often for second servings.

What other food will there be?  A 10,12 would be 94 servings so would be way plenty big.  An 8, 10 would be 62 which would be fine.  Especially if you will be there and can cut it properly.  I just made a 9 inch (32 servings) for a group of college age friends.  I cut 1 by 2 slices and there were about 12 or 13 students and they ate half the cake, so around 16 servings.  All ate at least one and several had two.  No other food or beverages served.  People will only eat just so  much cake at one time, especially in public. 

AThere will be lots of other food! Big Italian family! Ok, that sounds manageable to me. Would I be better off bringing cakes undecorated, and doing it there, since it won't be too big? Thank you! Nancy

AI would do the 8,10 and decorate at home. Just stack properly with support system in the bottom tier. Trying to remember everything you need to decorate, find an adequate space, etc, etc seems unnecessarily complicated.

Guess that's just the ole hispanic culture in me.  We always want BIG.... LOL

AThank you! And Aunt Ginn, coming from an Italian family, we always want BIG too!!!