UK Wedding Cake Prices and Sizes Guide

Wedding cake prices have long been viewed with a degree of suspicion, and a feeling that 'they've put the prices up because it's a wedding cake - bet it wouldn't be that price if it was a birthday cake'.

This is a perfectly understandable viewpoint and stems from a central misunderstanding about the difference between your average birthday cake and a wedding cake, (note I didn't say average wedding cake ~ because no bride wants an average wedding cake, they want their cake to be perfect which is just as it should be).

In general wedding cakes are bigger, more detailed and more personalised than other types of cakes, and that takes time and expertise - and that is what you're paying for.

However, before we get into the whys and wherefores of what a cake will cost and how to make savings lets deal with the easy part - wedding cake portion sizes.

Wedding cakes are normally quoted in recognised catering size portions which are:

Fruit Cake - 1" square pieces

Sponge Cake - 1 x 2" pieces

So a 10" square fruit cake would be classed as serving 100 portions, whilst a 10" square sponge cake would be classed as serving 50 portions.

This is a difficult one - mainly because square cakes are much easier to divide equally than round ones. However as a rough guide a square cake will give you around 25% more pieces than a round cake of equal diameter. For example a 10" round fruit cake will give approx 75 pieces and a 10" square fruit cake will give approx 100 pieces.

It's not a 100% accurate translation, but unless you want to get into calculating the surface area of cakes it's good enough to use to work out the number of pieces you need for your cake.

To make it even easier you can you the table below to see the equivalent portions for popular cake tier sizes.

Many things govern the price of a wedding cake, but the biggest by far is the time it will take your cake decorator to make it.

Let's take a 3 tier cake sponge cake (12 / 10/ 8") as a working example to look at the factors involved in the price of such a cake.

Regardless of where you get the cake there are a few things that do not change:

• A tiered cake needs to be supported inside using dowels - this takes time to do
• Wedding cakes generally have a much smoother and finer finish than other cakes - this takes time to achieve.

To bake and decorate even the simplest 3 tier cake is going to take someone several hours to do. Then there are all the ingredients, which puts 3 tier cakes in the £180 - £200 region for a pre-designed sponge cake i.e. one where you are choosing from a range of designs into which you have little or no input such as dept store wedding cakes. It is also unlikely that delivery and set up would be included in cakes within this price range so you would need to arrange that yourself. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this type of cake, in fact many are quite beautiful and for brides of a budget they are a great choice and you can always personalise them by adding flowers in your wedding colours.

However, what happens if you can't find a design you like, and want to have a cake designed for you? It shouldn't surprise you to learn that at this point the price will go up.

Having a cake designed for you is likely to involve a consultation with your cake maker, and although you may not be paying up front for that consultation you should expect that time to be reflected in the final price of your cake. It is also much more likely that your cake decorator will deliver and set up the cake for you to ensure it looks its best. Again as this is likely to take a couple of hours of your cake decorators time you should expect that this is reflected in the price of your wedding cake.

To this point you can expect to be have added around £100 to the price of the cake so our 3 tier designed cake will start around £300. The price beyond this is governed by the amount of work involved in completing your design, for example if your design incorporates 100 cascading handmade sugar roses it will cost a lot more than a cake with a simple spray of lilies. There really is no upper limit on what a cake can cost so the best thing is to be up front with your cake designer about your budget so they can advice you on the best ways to get the most from your cake.

There are ways to lower the cost of your wedding cake, but you need to remember that you get what you pay for and if you're not paying a professional to do it you may not get a professional cake.

However there are options you can look at:

• Get a friend to make it for you as a wedding present - this is a good option if you know someone who decorates cakes as a hobby but it's not really the best time to let someone have a go 'because they think it might be fun'. Ask yourself what you would do if it all goes wrong.
• Hire a fake cake - this way you can get the look and save on the cost ~ but if you want to serve cake you will still need to have plain iced cakes to cut up so will need to check if this really is a saving once you've added the cost of these into your budget.
• Have a part real part fake cake ~ this can be a great option in your cake is quite simply decorated (remembering that most of the cost of the cake is in the time it takes to decorate it).