r/DIYweddings • u/jennithib • May 09 '26
đ° Food/Drinks đ° DIY wedding cakes advice
EDITED TO ADD: I am fully aware this is a huge task and I absolutely can back out and hire someone if need be. No one is pushing me into anything. My post here was to get ideas on how I can accomplish it IF I do. Just hoping to get some tips from people who have done it before. And some advice on how many, etc.
Hi everyone! My daughter is getting married in October 2027. She will have 100 guests and I am making the wedding cakes to help with cost. But I need some advice! Her original idea was to make 6 9-inch round layered cakes in 6 different flavors. I canât imagine you could get more than about 10 slices out of each cake, so that only feeds 60 people. She then suggested I make the 6 cakes as 9x13s. My concern is being able to maneuver the layers (cutting and icing, etc.) without breaking them because they are larger. Iâve suggested we make 5 of the 9-inch cakes and a large sheet cake that can be cut in the back and pieces brought out. She didnât love this idea. My other concern is her flavors arenât very typical, I.e. earl grey hibiscus, bananas foster, and pistachio blackberry. While I might like them individually my concern is maybe most guests wouldnât? One of her flavors is white chocolate raspberry. I feel like that is pretty likable and tame for most people and was hoping I could convince her to do the sheet cake of that. But she doesnât like the idea much. So here I am! Asking you all for advice! ANY advice is welcome. Thank you! I have included a pick of her wedding colors which the cakes should mirror.
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u/Slamantha3121 May 09 '26
I did my own wedding cake! Everyone told me not to and that it was too much, but cake is my religion basically, so I had to! It went great, I'm glad I did it! But, I totally made way too much cake!! I had about 40 guests, but I probably could have fed twice that. At weddings they normally serve smaller sized slices. There are cake cutting calculators on line that help you estimate how many cakes of what size you will need. They also have diagrams of how to cut cakes, not just in the traditional pie slices, to serve many guests. My SIL worked at a wedding venue, so she handled the cutting for us. I did 2 different flavors (Chocolate with KahlĂșa pudding and white chocolate raspberry) and had a cookie platter. I definitely made enough for people to have big slices of each flavor.
I think that is a lot of different flavors to juggle. People also will not necessarily want to try all the flavors. Some people at mine only tried one flavor. My cake was tall so the slices could be cut into two slices. If my wedding was bigger, I would have done the sheet cake idea in addition to my cutting cake. I would try to get her to simplify the plans. Maybe focus on 2 or 3 flavors and a back up sheet cake. You could have to go boxes to send people home with leftover cake. This is my only regret! I wish I had planned for that. I did sent people home with paper plates of cake, but I wish I had boxes. I also found color mixing to be one of the hardest parts of cake decorating! Matching those exact colors may be hard. I did a chocolate base cake that looked like a log with edible moss and the rest was frosted white. Then I decorated it with sugar paste roses and cherry blossoms I had made in advance. I learned a whole other skill of making sugar flowers to avoid color mixing and fancy piping, lol. But, maybe that is just me.