If you’re a bride at a wedding cake consultation, you need to make sure that the sketch that the baker does for you shows the cake tiers in the correct scale, based on the number of servings you need.
This can be really important, because the sketch needs to look like the final cake, and the tiers need to be proportioned correctly in the sketch.
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Why does the cake scale matter?
I recently had a bride come to a consultation who had been to a couple other bakers before she came to me.
She had a photo of a cake that she wanted, and she was very specific about wanting to keep the cake to three tiers.
The problem was, she had about 130 guests coming, and the cake that she liked was very upright.
It had two 6″ tall tiers top and bottom, and the middle tier was only 2″ tall. The original cake was about 6″, 7″, and 8″ tiers, so it was small.
(For an article with a cake serving chart, click here)
She had already been to one baker who did a sketch of a similar design, but on larger tiers.
The problem was that she hadn’t told the bride that the tiers would be much wider than the original cake was. In fact, there was no mention of the tier sizes at all, from either of the bakers she had spoken to.
I used cake dummies in the appropriate sizes to show her how wide the tiers would need to be to serve 130 guests.
If I remember correctly it was going to be a 6″, 10″ 14″ combination with the different tier heights thrown in.
The difference in the profile of that cake and the original was drastic, and you lost the upright look entirely.
She wasn’t happy about that, and she was surprised because the other bakers hadn’t said anything to her about how wide the tiers would be.
Seeing the actual dimensions of the dummies was an eye-opener. (for another article that shows some different cake sizes and proportions, click here.)
What I was surprised about was the fact that neither of the bakers she had talked to had said anything about tier sizes.
Isn’t that a basic detail? Am I crazy to think that it’s something that should be mentioned? Changing the size difference between tiers can alter the design drastically.
A tall cake becomes squat, an upright cake becomes more like a pyramid. It can change the look of the final design completely.
For Brides: How to make sure the cake sketch is right.
Ask the baker for the serving count of each tier to see how much cake you’ll actually need. Remember that if there’s a double-tall tier, it will change how wide the cake needs to be, too.
If you know how tall the cake tiers will be, you can do a little sketch for yourself to make sure that the shape of the final cake is going to look the way that you want it to.
If you want a cake that has a more upright look, you’ll need to make sure that there’s only 2-3″ difference between the width of the cake tiers.
For example, a 6″ tier on top of an 8″ tier will leave you with about 1″ of space on the “ledge” of the stacked cakes. And a 4″ tall tier that’s also 4″ wide will look taller than a 6″ wide tier that’s 4″ tall.
A 6″ tier on top of a 10″ tier will give you a 2″ ledge on either side, so the cake will look like it’s more squat instead of more vertical.
The difference will be more noticeable the more tiers there are on the cake, so make sure that the cake tiers are sketched in the right relation to each other!
For Bakers: How to sketch a wedding cake in the right scale.
To sketch a wedding cake in the correct scale, you should prepare some pre-drawn templates that you can use as a starting point.
The easiest and most accurate way to do this would be to take photos of some cake dummies stacked, so that the sizes are the same as the cake you’re making for the bride.
You can then either print them out to use as basic templates, or use them in Photoshop to decorate a virtual cake.
You can do a bunch of these in different tier combinations in advance, and use the one that’s closest to the combination the couple will need.
If you have a starting point, you can add additional tiers and keep the proportions accurate as you sketch the cake.
It will also help the bride visualize the way the cake will look.
Another thing that you can do if you have storage space is to put together some dummy cakes to show the different size combinations.
Seeing the actual stacked cakes can help customers understand exactly how the cake will be proportioned. I did that when I had an office to store them in, and it was an excellent tool to show brides the cake sizes.
So make sure that you point out to brides who come to you with a photo they want to replicate that changing the tier sizes will change the design.
It seems obvious, but the brides might not realize it.
