Free Tools & Reference Charts
A few things I give away for free, built from the same 20+ years of production notes behind every Violet Wexley manual and calculator. No purchase, no email gate — just useful.
Wedding Cake Portions
How big a cake do I need?
Tell me how many guests you’re feeding and I’ll suggest a cake that fits. These are guides to help you picture it — I’ll always work out the exact cake with you.
Finger portions are the traditional wedding slice (1″ × 1″), perfect after a meal.
For 100 guests, I’d suggest three tiers.
What’s the difference between finger and dessert portions, or regular and tall tiers?
Finger portions vs. dessert portions
The slice size makes a big difference to how many portions your cake gives, and there are two main ways to serve it.
A finger portion is the traditional wedding size — 1″ × 1″ × the height of the tier. It’s perfect after a three-course meal with coffee, when people want a taste rather than a full pudding.
A dessert portion is more generous — 2″ × 1″ × the height of the tier. This is the one to go for if your cake is being served as the actual dessert.
Tier heights
Cake height matters too, because a taller tier gives more portions. I usually offer two.
A classic rise is 4″ tall — two layers of cake with one layer of filling. A tall rise is 6″ tall — three layers of cake with two fillings, so you get noticeably more from the same size tier.
Free downloads
Reference charts
Save these, print them, pin them to your cork board — whatever’s useful. Straight from my own production notes, not a generic chart pulled off the internet.
Cake Serving Size Chart
Round cakes, by diameter — party and wedding portion counts, checked against my own production notes.
Download chart
Tiered Wedding Cake Portion Chart
Full tier combinations, finger vs. dessert, regular vs. tall — the same data behind the estimator above.
Download chart