How big should my wedding cake be?

There are lots of factors to consider when ordering your wedding cake, but one of the most common questions I get asked is “how big does my cake need to be?” The answer of course, is however big you want it to be, but it isn’t always that easy, especially when trying to stick to a budget.

I tend to guide my couples using the following questions:

• How many guests are you having and will everyone eat cake? If you’re having 100 people and everyone will want a slice, you will need to have a cake that feeds this many people. However, if you’re planning to offer a cheese board as well as cake, could your cake be smaller?

• Are you making your wedding cake the pudding for your meal? If yes, you may need slightly larger slices than if it's an accompaniment to the pudding to the wedding meal, which may mean you need a slightly bigger cake. Having said that, dessert tables instead of traditional puddings are growing in popularity, and if this is the case you may want to order something smaller as an addition to your dessert table.

• How big are the portion sizes? Your cake designer should guide you on how many people their cakes feed, just make sure there is enough to go around

• Do you want dummy cake layers? Essentially, these are fake cake layers to make your cake look bigger. Dummy cakes are great for smaller weddings or dessert tables, where you don't need tonnes of edible cake but you want to have a fabulous big stack cake look. Ask your cake designer how this could work for you.

• Do you want to freeze any of your cake? If you want to freeze parts of your cake, think about how that will affect the portions that are available to guests as you may need to adjust accordingly.

• If not doing a traditional tiered wedding cake, order based on numbers of guests, eg, order 100 cupcakes for 100 people. 

I hope this helps you decide how big to have your wedding cake, but please contact me if you want any advice for your big day.