When you have a typical 8-inch or 9-inch layer cake or smaller, you simply cut it into wedges and you are good to go. With round cakes of larger diameter, a different technique is required because wedges would be overly long and unwieldy. Wedding-cake bakers and caterers know the tricks of the trade – and here they are presented in easy-to-read diagrams.
First of all, if you are dealing with a tiered cake (different-size cake tiers set on top of one another), such as a wedding cake or other very large cake, you will first separate the tiers into their individual cakes. (This is easier than it sounds because each tier will most likely be on its own cardboard support and you can easily remove it from the stand.) Then, you will treat each cake as the cake it is – a 9-inch as a 9-inch, a 14-inch as a 14-inch – referring to these diagrams to help you assess how many slices to make.
With larger-diameter cakes, we want to maximize the number of people served and also want to simplify the serving process. You essentially cut a center circle out of each larger cake as shown in the diagram and in the image above. Then, you are left with that circle to be cut into wedges as you would any old smaller round cake and the outer edge is cut into blunt wedges. Just use a sharp slicing knife (seen below) to cut the round cake from the center of the your large tier and follow the diagrams for whichever size you are working with.
Good info! I had no idea this was done.
Thank you so much, this was really helpful.
You are very welcome. Not every cake is a small 8 or 9-inch or easy to approach 9×13!