party cakes Archives - Sugar & Sparrow

How Many Servings Per Cake Size (Chart Included!)

Whitney — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 05:26:21 +0000

When you’re making a cake for an event, it’s important to make sure that the size of the cake is enough to serve everyone on the guest list. It can be overwhelming to calculate exactly how much cake you need, especially when most from-scratch cake recipes are written to yield a small party cake. This post should answer all of your questions about cake sizes, how to scale your favorite cake recipe to yield the perfect amount, and how to cut a cake depending on what kind of event it’s for.

Cake Serving Sizes

In the cake world, there are two main portion sizes: wedding servings and party servings. For weddings, cakes are generally sliced into rectangles that are about 4 inches tall (the height of the cake) x 1 inch wide x 1 inch deep. For cakes taller than 4 inches, wedding servings often get sliced into tall rectangles and then cut in half widthwise. Here are some examples to help you visualize:

Party servings are generally a little bit larger since party guest lists don’t tend to be as long as a wedding guest list. Depending on the size of the cake and number of people it’s planning to serve, a party cake may be cut into tall rectangles that are wider than a wedding serving (4 inches tall x 2 inches wide x 1 inch deep) OR cut into triangle-shaped slices that are about 2 inches wide. If the cake is taller than 4 inches, you might see the slices cut in half widthwise. Here are some examples of party cake slices:

Calculating the Amount of Cake Batter You Need

Now that you know how cakes are sliced for different kinds of events, you can use the chart below to figure out what size cake you’ll need for your next event. Note that the cake batter amounts are included in the chart so you’ll know approximately how much you need per cake size. For reference on how much to scale your cake recipe per cake size:

My recipes written for 3 layer 6-inch cakes or 2 layer 8-inch cakes = 6 ½ Cups of batter
My recipes written for 4 layer 6-inch cakes or 3 layer 8-inch cakes = 9 Cups of batter
1 box of cake mix = 4 to 6 Cups of batter

Note that the chart below has batter amounts for filling the pans ½ to ⅔ full. Any less full and you’ll end up with pancake-like cake layers and any more full and you risk the chance of the pan overflowing. It’s best to test the cake recipe you’re planning on using ahead of time just to see how much rise it has, especially if it’s for an important event. This way you’ll be totally prepared!

PS: If you need to figure out how much frosting to make for your cake, here’s a handy chart on buttercream quantity per cake size!

Cake Portion Chart

Use the chart below to plan out your cake size and calculate the amount of batter you need.

Round Cakes
Size of Cake	Number of Layers	Party Servings	Wedding Servings	Batter Amount Needed(½ to ⅔ full)
4-In	2	6	8	1 ⅓ to 1 ½ Cups
4-In	3	9	12	2 to 2 ¼ Cups
6-In	2	8	10	4 to 5 ⅓ Cups
6-In	3	12	15	6 to 8 Cups
7-In	2	13	18	5 to 6 ⅔ Cups
7-In	3	20	27	7 ½ to 10 Cups
8-In	2	20	24	6 to 8 Cups
8-In	3	30	36	9 to 12 Cups
9-In	2	24	32	8 to 10 ⅓ Cups
9-In	3	36	48	12 to 16 Cups
10-In	2	28	38	10 to 14 ⅔ Cups
10-In	3	42	57	15 to 22 Cups
12-In	2	40	56	15 to 20 Cups
12-In	3	60	84	22 ½ to 30 Cups
14-In	2	63	78	23 to 30 Cups
14-In	3	95	117	34 ½ to 45 Cups
Sheet Cakes (3 inches tall)
9 x 13-in	2 (torted)	36	50	10 to 13 ⅓ Cups
12 x 18-in	2 (torted)	72	98	15 to 20 Cups

I hope this chart comes in handy when you’re planning out your next cake! I put some related posts below to help you even further. Let me know in the comments what you used this chart for and feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me! I love to see what you create.

First Birthday Party Fun!

Whitney — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 15:00:00 +0000

First birthday parties have always been my favorite. I just love getting to see a baby eat cake for the very first time and celebrate what a huge milestone a year is, so when it came time to start planning my little guy’s first trip around the sun I went into full on mom party planning mode. Turns out it’s my favorite kind of mode to be in, and I made about a hundred to-do lists to get everything perfect. I’m so happy to say that although party planning can be stressful, I had so much fun with all of it! I kindof want to be in mom party planning mode all the time.

We opted to have Theo’s party at a park, partly because it was safer to gather in the open air and partly because we wanted to invite all of our friends without feeling cramped. There was a huge playground there that all the kids ended up taking over, so that was guaranteed entertainment. My first order of action was to transform the regular ol’ park into something spectacular though. I focused on decorating one central tree and ended up finding this YouTube tutorial on how to make fun streamer-like garlands for hanging. They added so much color and texture after hanging a few in the tree branches!

The best thing about these decorations is they’re made out of plastic tablecloths from Hobby Lobby and at 99 cents per tablecloth, it was a really cheap DIY (each tablecloth goes a long way). You basically cut each tablecloth into 2 inch strips and then just tie them to a cotton string and voila.

To add even more color and texture, I found this custom balloon arch kit on Etsy where you can choose from over a hundred balloon colors to create your own design. I decided to keep with the retro rainbow color scheme and the balloons ended up matching the garlands perfectly. The kit is so simple too – you basically blow up the balloons in different sizes and attach them to a plastic strip (it comes with the kit), then use glue dots to fill in any gaps with the tinier balloons. So fun!

For the cake, I used my vanilla smash cake recipe and added about ¼ cup of sprinkles to turn it into a funfetti cake, then coated it with a layer of my favorite vanilla buttercream. Then, I used that same retro rainbow color palette to tint some extra buttercream while the cake was chilling in the refrigerator. Once the frosted cake was firm to the touch, I swiped the rainbow colored buttercream around the finish with a small icing spatula. I ended up making my own cake topper using a t rex figurine from Amazon and attaching a tiny party hat that I made from construction paper with a little puff ball glued on top.

The best part about first birthday parties is watching a baby eat cake for the very first time, and I’ll have to admit, I was a little nervous that Theo wouldn’t like cake. He is definitely my son though, because he devoured about half of it and literally smashed the rest into oblivion. It was so cute to watch him eat it all! And he clung to that little dino cake topper the whole time even though it was covered in frosting.

Other little details that made this party fun: a good party playlist, a bubble machine, these cute faux tropical leaves I ended up accenting the food with, food that kids and adults could enjoy (little sandwiches, capri suns, la croix, pasta salad, fruit salad, little bags of chips) and plenty of cupcakes that I sprinkled with these pretty rainbow sprinkles.

So just like that, my baby is ONE! I can hardly believe it. Having a first baby during a pandemic was not easy (I don’t think it’s supposed to be easy without a pandemic either), but I would not change a thing about this past year. This boy has brought us so much joy through it all and his smile melts me all the time. It’s crazy to look at him and realize that he’s the same baby we took home from the hospital a year ago. He’s got the biggest personality already and I have been having the time of my life watching him become more and more of who he is.