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 = 7 Cups of batter
- My recipes written for 4 layer 6-inch cakes or 3 layer 8-inch cakes = 10 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 | 2 | 4 | 1 to 1 ½ Cups |
| 4-In | 3 | 4 | 8 | 2 to 2 ¼ Cups |
| 6-In | 2 | 8 | 10 | 4 to 5 Cups |
| 6-In | 3 | 12 | 15 | 6 to 8 Cups |
| 7-In | 2 | 13 | 18 | 5 to 6 Cups |
| 7-In | 3 | 20 | 27 | 7 ½ to 9 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 Cups |
| 9-In | 3 | 36 | 48 | 12 to 15 Cups |
| 10-In | 2 | 28 | 38 | 12 to 14 Cups |
| 10-In | 3 | 42 | 57 | 18 to 21 Cups |
| 12-In | 2 | 40 | 56 | 16 to 18 Cups |
| 12-In | 3 | 60 | 84 | 24 to 27 Cups |
| 14-In | 2 | 63 | 78 | 24 to 28 Cups |
| 14-In | 3 | 95 | 117 | 36 to 42 Cups |
| Square & Rectangular Cakes (2 inches tall) | ||||
| 8 x 8-in | 1 | 9 | 16 | 4 to 5 Cups |
| 9 x 9-in | 1 | 12 | 24 | 6 to 7 Cups |
| 9 x 13-in | 1 | 20 | 29 | 8 to 10 Cups |
| 13 x 17-in | 1 | 40 | 58 | 16 to 20 Cups |
| 16 x 24-in | 1 | 78 | 117 | 20 to 24 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.
Hi, this is such a useful post, thank you! When you say layers, do you mean the number of cakes on top of eachother in a single tier? Thanks!
Hi Lucie! So happy you found this post helpful. And yes, layers means the number of cakes on top of each other in a single tier. For example, a two-layer 8-inch cake would be two 8-inch round cake layers stacked (with filling in between) to make one tier.
Hey Whitney, I am making a wedding cake for my son’s wedding. Just 75 people. I have a 10″ x 3″ pan……and then I think a 6″ x 3″ pan….how many people will that serve. And would I be better off splitting the cake to have two 1.5 inch layers. I don’t want this to be complicated as time is limited.
Hi Diana! If you make one 6×3 inch cake and torte it into two layers for the top tier, that will serve about 10 people. Then make two 10×3 inch cakes and torte each of those to make 4 layers for the bottom tier, that tier will serve about 76 people. So a tiered cake with those sizes should make more than enough for the wedding. Hope that helps!
Hi Whitney,
Do you have an easy way to convert the round cake calculations to square cakes?
P.S. Absolutely love your site, thanks for all the fantastic information!
Hi Elissa! Thanks for the kind words about my site 🙂 I don’t have a good calculation for that but I did see that Serious Eats wrote an article about how to calculate cake batter that’s more mathematical. Hopefully this helps: https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-resize-cake-recipes-to-fit-any-pan
HI Whitney,
I am making my daughter a large no 5 cake on Friday, I’m just having trouble working out how deep the round cake (3 x 12 inch layers) will be vs the rectangular tray baked version, I’m wanting three layers in total – if 2 layers of the tray bakes are 3 inches high (including icing) and i add another layer to make it approx a 4.5 inch high cake, could you please let me know how high each layer will turn out for the round cake recipes – are they the same height as the two layered tray bakes? I hope that makes sense! Many thanks, Clare
Hi Clare! Sorry for my delay in this response! The round cake layers are about 2 inches tall without icing. I hope that helps and hope this cake turned out perfect!
Hi There,
I need to make a 2 layer slab cake for 60 people for an adult birthday party..what size would you suggest? TIA
Hi Heather! For that amount of people, I would either make two 9×13 inch cakes or one 12×18 inch cake. Hope that helps!
Hi I made 3, 6x2in size cakes, I plan on cutting them in half and layering them. How many people will this serve
Hi, Trina! That cake size serves 12-15 depending on how you cut the cake.
Could you answer a question about bundt pans. I have a double bundt pan that holds 5 cups of batter. I’m trying to understand if I need to convert it or not. My guess is 5 cups of batter is around the yield of a standard box cake mix? Not sure what the yield would be. And if I use a standard pound cake recipe that typically yields 12 – 16 servings would I need to cut the recipe down to fit into my double bundt pan. I hope that wasn’t too confusing, lol
Hi Anthony! Yes, 5 cups of batter is about how much a box cake mix yields. I don’t have a ton of experience with pound cakes but I would look for a recipe that calls for the 5 cup bundt pan size and see how much batter it yields, then compare that recipe to the one you want to use. Or, if the recipe is for a 10-cup bundt pan then half the recipe. Does that make sense?
Are your 8 inch pans 2 inches deep or 3 inches deep
Hi Kimberly! They are 2 inches deep.
hi i want a 20 serve cake what cake pan of 2 inch ht and how many layer do i use
Hi there! To serve 20, you can make a 3-layer 6-inch cake or a 2-layer 8-inch cake.
How would you cut the 3 layer 6in cake?
Hi Trina! You can cut the cake in any of the ways shown on this blog post. Slice it into squares to get the most amount of cake, or slice it as you would any traditional cake (into triangles) for larger servings.
Hi! Thanks for your great guide–I love that you show the difference for the 2 vs 3-layer cakes. My question is on how to get the additional servings for the 3-layer wedding cakes. For example, how do I get 36 servings from the 8″ cake rather than the 24 servings for the two layer cake of the same size?
Hi Resa! You’ll cut the cake as described in the “Cake Serving Sizes” section of the blog post above. 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.