How deep is your cake?

I'm writing this with the BeeGees as today's earworm (the song you hear on the radio first thing and then can't get out of your head for the rest of the day) and so it seemed like the right time to write a blog post about cake depths. When I ask a customer how many people they want to serve from a cake, the one thing I rarely know is how hungry the guests at the party will be. It's pretty easy with cupcakes. They're nicely portioned and usually one is enough. Usually.

But with a big cake, it really depends who is cutting the cake. There are many ways to cut a cake. The traditional way is wedding-cake style into beautiful finger-shapes. And this is how I quote my cakes. There are many blogs and videos online showing you how to cut properly including this one from Delish. There is also a handy cake cutting guide on my website which you can find here.

But if, like me, you're rubbish at cutting beautifully straight lines across a cake, you may choose to go with the traditional wedge-shape. The cakes I deliver are usually four-layers deep which can lead to tall, narrow slices. So if you're a wedger, you can always have a thin board placed in the middle of your cake so you can halve the height of your slices, making them a bit easier to serve.

If you're better with a visual guide, here's an example from a cake I made last year. This was a six inch round cake which I cut into 12 slices. To accommodate all the dogs, it was on a large board, making the cake look relatively small but the slice in the picture actually weighed 225g (roughly 4oz) in old money. And whilst we're on the subject, your average supermarket birthday cake slice (from that middle-class bastion of birthday cakes Waitrose) weighs around 90g - so you can have twice your cake and eat it!

Happy eating! Rebecca xo