What size of wedding cake do I need for about 250 guests?
This is the formula recommended by most bakers. For my wedding we simply told our baker how many guests we were expecting and that we wanted the top tier to keep. She was able to tell us exactly what we needed. However, if you’re baking your own cake, this formula works. Just figure the shape of the tiers, how many servings you can get from each tier and you’ll be fine. You may also want to locate a diagram on cutting the cake so that you can actually get that number of servings. We found a diagram on line and showed it to the girls that were going to be serving ahead of time.
To find the voulme of a round cake, use the formula pi times radius squared times height For a 12 inch diameter cake 6 inches tall the formula is about 3.14 times 36 times 6 or 628 cubic inches of cake For 200 guests, the portion for each guest is 3.39 cubic inches of cake. If you were able to cut the cake into perfect portions, each guest would recieve a cube about 1.5 inches per side. For a 14 inch diameter cake 6 inches tall the formula is about 3.14 times 49 times 6 or 923 cubic inches of cake For 200 guests, the portion for each guest is 4.61 cubic inches of cake. If you were able to cut the cake into perfect portions, each guest would receive a cube abot 1.67 inches per side. Any way you cut it, the 14 inch diameter cake is more than a third larger than the 12 inch cake.
