Cake Sizes and Portions

One of the biggest questions my customers have is ‘how much cake do I need?’. And they seem really shocked that we can get so many portions from a cake. So what is the right sized cake? It all starts with portion sizes. Customers associate cutting cakes into triangles. That’s how deserts are served in restaurants and how cake’s are portioned in cafes.

But celebration cakes and wedding cakes traditionally cut into horizontal finger sized portions. This video https://www.instagram.com/p/BVIm8L3BZEM/?igshid=11q5yesp39xsh posted on the instagram on Australian baker Katherine Sabbath back in 2015, showed people what the cake makers had known for years. There is a more efficient way to cut a cake. A cake that would usually cut into 6-8 triangle portions can cut easily into 20 portions.

So how can you easily work out the right sized cake for you? There is a slight difference in the portion sizes of birthday/celebration cakes to wedding cakes. Whilst both are cut into ‘horizontal’ portions, wedding cakes are traditionally cut into portions 1″ x 1″ in size, whereas celebration cake portions are slightly bigger at 2″ x 1″ in size. The average cake height is 4 – 5″.

The chart below will help you calculate what size cake you would need. You will find it varies from cake maker to cake maker. As you will see from the example below, we allow a 10 inch square cake to provide 80 portions. You would mathematically expect a cake of that size to cut into 100 portions but we round down to allow for ‘human error’. No one is going to get a tape measure out to ensure they are cutting portions into exactly 1″ square pieces. It’s done by eye so it’s best to err on the side of caution. After all, it’s better to have too many portions so people can go back for more.

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