The ultimate guide to choosing the perfect wedding cake size
What is the perfect wedding cake size? Two Tier? Three Tier? Standard or extended height? Coffee or dessert portions???? Confused yet? There can be a lot of jargon involved when talking about wedding cake sizes which can make it hard to figure out how much you actually need to feed all your guests.
Don’t worry, I’m here to break it all down for you so you can be like Butter’s clients who consistently say “there wasn’t a crumb left over as all the guests enjoyed it so much!”. Not only will having the right sized cake make your wedding more sustainable by minimising food waste but size will also impact wedding cake prices so it can also help you out with your budget!
One, Two or Three Tiers - which one is right for your wedding cake? Read on to find out more…
Wedding Cake Size Guide
Sadly its not as simple as “for' ‘x’ many guests you need a cake of ‘y’ size”. You’ve probably heard this a few times so far in your wedding planning journey but every wedding is different!
There’s a number of factors that can impact the perfect wedding cake size for you!
How big are wedding cake serves?
Cake serving portions used by Butter - Dessert (1x2 inches) and Coffee (1x1 inches)
Wedding cake portion size is generally described as either coffee of dessert sizes. A coffee portion is typically 1x1 inch and a dessert portion is 1x2 inches.
Unfortunately this doesn’t mean all coffee or dessert portions are the same size!
You also need to consider how tall the serving is which can vary between cake designers. Traditionally a “standard” cake height was 4 inches however most modern wedding cakes have taller tiers to give a more elegant shape.
At Butter most of our cakes are around 7 inches tall (no stocky, short cakes here!) and contain 4 layers of cake. For serving each “slice” is then cut in half (between the 2nd and 3rd cake layer) to create two portions which each have two layers. Our coffee and dessert portions are shown in the below image.
What other wedding food are you serving?
By the time you get to dessert your guests have probably already had a fair amount to eat. Usually there will have been some form of canapés or grazing tables during your cocktail hour and then a two course meal. For a lot of guests after all that a small dessert will be ample so you can consider coffee sized portions even if cake will be the only dessert (not me, I always save room for dessert 😉).
Some catering packages will already include a dessert or you might want to have a range of options on a dessert table. In these cases you’d definitely want to go with a coffee sized portion and cater to a lower percentage of your guest count (more on that later)
How will your wedding cake be served?
If the cake is your only dessert and you plan to serve it plated individually to each guest (can often be accompanied by cream and fruit provided by your caterer) then you’ll need one piece of cake per guest.
However most commonly the cake will be sliced up and served on platters so guests can help themselves. This allows you to have less cake servings as not everyone will want a piece of cake - some will have loaded up on the grazing table and be too full, some will be too busy making a fool of themselves on the dance floor and some (weird people) just don’t like dessert.
Do you want any wedding cake leftovers?
There used to be a tradition that couples would save the top tier of their wedding cake to eat on their first anniversary. While I love the sentiment of this and encourage including cake in all celebrations, why would you want year old cake?? If this is something you think you’d like to do a highly recommend instead reaching out to your cake designer and asking them to make you a small cake on your anniversary in the same flavour you had for your wedding. It could even be a mini version of the same design. How cute would that be! And you get fresh cake. Its a win win.
This isn’t the only reason you might want to have some leftovers of your wedding cake though. You might, like me, really enjoy cake for breakfast (trust me, it’s great for a hangover). You might have other events like a recovery brunch that could use a little sweet treat or you might want extra cake to send home with guests as an alternative to wedding favours.
This couple loved cake so much they had a second one for their recovery brunch!
Cake: Butter Photography: Anemotion Venue: Redleaf Wollombi
How many wedding guests will you have?
You might have expected me to start with this question but once you’ve figured out all the other bits like what size portion you want, if you need a piece for every guest and if you want any extras this part is the easy bit.
Generally I recommend catering for around 70-80% of your guest count to allow for those that might skip the dessert. If you want some leftovers - go higher. If you’re having other desserts - go lower.
The Average Wedding Cake Size
Ok, you might be thinking “so you haven’t actually told me yet what size cake I need… “ or “Just tell me what the average wedding cake size is!” As I said its not quite as easy as saying for 50 guests you need a 2 wedding cake tiers etc etc. But now you’re equiped with all the information you need to make an informed decision about your wedding cake size. If you’re able to give all this information to your cake designer they will easily be able to tell you what size you need based on their sizing options. Keep in mind that every cake baker will size their cakes differently. For example Butter’s “regular” two tiered cake is a 8 inch bottom tier and 6 inch top tier, however a different designer might only offer and 8”+5” size.
Lets look at some examples based on Butter’s standard cake sizes.
Wedding Cake Size for 150 guests
Cake by Butter
Lets say your wedding has 150 guests, you aren’t having other desserts but you are having lots of food options during your cocktail hour and then a two course dinner. You decide the coffee serving size will work well and you’ll serve the cake on platters. In Butter’s cake sizing I’d recommend our regular two tiered cake in this case which will give you ~130 coffee portions.
Wedding Cake Size for 100 guests
You’re having 100 guests and will serve an individual cake slice as a plated dessert to every guest. This one is easy! I’d recommend Butter’s small three tier which would give you 100 dessert portions.
Cake by Butter
Wedding Cake Size for 80 guests
Cake by Butter
You have 80 guests but are also having additional desserts. A single tier would be perfect for you! A smaller cake allows you to still have that perfect cake cutting moment and it can be cut up into coffee sized portions and added to your dessert table.
Wedding Cake Size for 50 guests
You have 50 guests, want coffee sized portions but you really like the look of tiered cakes and are ok with having some leftover cake as you’ll serve it at your recovery brunch.
Butter’s small two tiered cake is the size for you! With ~90 coffee serves you’ll have plenty of cake on the night for all your guests (and extra slices for those dessert lovers to have a second piece 🙋🏻♀️) and leftovers you can have for breakfast the next day.
Cake by Butter
As you can see from these examples how much cake you need for your wedding is dependent on so many things! The best thing to do is to think about all these different factors and then have a conversation with your chosen cake designer as every cake maker will have different sized options.
Choosing the right size cake will help you stay within your wedding budget as you won’t be overspending on cake that doesn’t get eaten! For other tips on how to keep the costs of your wedding cake down check out the below post.
6 Bonus Tips for Choosing Your Wedding Cake Size
Here's a few other things you might want to keep in mind when choosing between wedding cake sizes:
A square cake has more servings than an equivalent sized round cake
Cake: Butter Photography: Salt Atelier Venue: Chapel Ridge
1. Wedding Cake Shapes
A square cake will give more wedding cake servings than a round cake of the same “size” e.g a 6 inch square cake has 36 coffee serves but a 6 inch round cake has 24. So make sure you let your wedding cake baker know what shape you would like early on in the design conversation
2. Wedding Kitchen Cakes
A kitchen cake is usually a sheet cake that is undecorated and not put on display but cut up and served to your guests. They are great for adding some extra portions if your selected size isnt quite enough to feed everyone.
3. Wedding Cupcakes
If you're serving cupcakes instead of a traditional tiered cake a lot of the same advice here still applies. Think about how much other food you'll be serving your guests and then cater accordingly (70-80% of your guest count is still a good rule of thumb)
4. Wedding Cake Flavours
The flavour of your cake might be a factor in helping determine what serving size you'd like to offer guests. A lighter flavour like lemon cake with vanilla buttercream might be ok in a larger slice but a decadent chocolate cake with ganache is probably best kept to a coffee serve.
5. Wedding Cake Styling
You might also want to consider the kind of venue you'll be hosting your wedding reception in. If your wedding venue is a grand ballroom you probably dont want a single cake tier that will be swamped by the grandeur of the room. For this you could consider asking your cake maker if they offer dummy tiers that increase number of tiers in your cake without increasing the number of servings (keep in mind that these are often charged at a similar price to a regular tier as they still take the same amount of time and skill to decorate). You can also consider ways of styling the cake to make it more of centrepiece in the room such a repurposing ceremony florals, elaborate stands or a cake topper.
Adding styling around your wedding cake can make in absolute WOW moment and central part of your reception decor
Cake: Butter Photography: Muse Photography Styling: Pretty in White Florals: Two Wild Hands Venue: Krinklewood
6. Wedding Cake Stands
Make sure you cake stand is big enough and sturdy enough to support your cake. Cake by Butter
Your cake will be on a cake board at least a couple of inches bigger than the bottom cake tier so your stand will need to accomodate this. Your cake designer will be able to tell you what the appropriate stand size is and might even be able to rent one out to you.
If you’re getting married in the Hunter Valley, Newcastle, Port Stephens or Central Coast areas and would love to have Butter create a beautiful (perfectly sized) cake for you enter your details below to receive a copy of our cake size guide which details all our standard size options and the number of servings they provide.