Wedding Cake v. Sheet Cake

We had a tiered cake and an additional sheet cake to have an extra flavor. The tiered cake was about $12.50 a slice, and the sheet cake was about $7 a slice. . . So, yes, you can save a lot of money by getting a smaller display cake and supplementing with sheet cake!

We are doing tastings right now. Two last week and one more scheduled. Yummy!

One of the places we already met with and loved the cake offered us the sheet cake option. We would get a small three tier cake, and have extra sheet cake for the rest of the servings. It would save us a fairly significant amount. If we go with them that is what we will do.

I always recommend to my brides to have a small two tiered cake to cut and supplement the rest with sheet cakes. It is a great way to save some money.

Everyone who gets a chunk of sheet cake knows it's not a piece of the wedding cake. Does it matter? Only you can decide.

I can give you a guest's perspective. A decade ago, my big brother got married. There was a beautiful, three tiered wedding cake standing there. Then, suddenly, pieces of cake were passed around. It wasn't till later i thought, "Hey! I never saw them cut the cake!" and put it all together. IMO, go for the sheet cake. Who really cares if it's a 'real wedding cake' or not? Friends like that can't be lost too soon, IMO.

Saves money for sure.

But sheet cake is thick cake with icing. Usually not filing or one thin layer. I loooove wedding cake because it's layered and thin and delicate.

A lot of people won't notice except brides who planned and planning a wedding… I had a sheet cake two years ago and could care less… i went to a wedding last month and went all judgy about sheet cake.

my FH said "what's a sheet cake?"

As a guest, if I knew it was sheet cake I wouldn't have any.

I find they typically have very basic ingredients, and sweet headache inducing icing.

Not trying to sound like a diva or anything, I really can't think of a wedding where I had the cake. I have seen the cake for cutting and then it seems to just disappear.

I don't care about the cake really, but I still wouldn't do a sheet cake. But honestly, I went to like 5 weddings this year and probably only ate the cake at the reception that was dry. Even our venue coordinator told us that when you have an open bar, lots of people don't even eat the cake. So maybe to save money you could do a wedding cake, but do a smaller one?

We did cake for 150 guests. We had a small three tier cake and a sheet cake, came out to $1 a serving for the sheet cake vs $6 for the tiered cake. Our total with delivery and set up was $595, this also includes our top tier remade fresh for our 1 yr anniversary Our sheet cake was made the exact height of the tiered cake, which is where the variance usually matters. It was just as good taste wise and made with quality ingredients, no guest had any issues with it and it saved us a ton!

Last two years, I was attending my cousin brother wedding party. We manage a wedding cake for 100 persons. Most of the time three layer cake is best for every occasion around 5 to 6 kg.

We had a 2 tier cake for us to cut and served sheet cake to our guests. The sheet cakes were the same two flavors and filling as our cutting cake. When the servers were bringing cake around they gave us each a slice and it tasted exactly the same as the 2 tiered cake we ate for the next week. Not sure why the sheet cake would taste any different from the tiered cakes? Maybe I am missing something though. I attached a pic of our cutting cake. We paid $3.50 per serving of tiered cake and $1.75 per serving of filled sheet cake so with 220 servings it made sense to us to go with sheet cakes.

I don't know about people being able to tell they're getting sheet cake. We did a full 3 tier cake with 3 layers per tier, no fondant, just butter cream icing. I feel like at weddings they cut the pieces into smaller square pieces rather than traditional triangle pieces. I might be mis-remembering, but I don't think our round tiers were cut much different than a sheet cake and we didn't have fondant anyway. I don't regret my cake because it's what I wanted and I loved it, but if it's not a priority for you, I don't think your guests will care or give it much thought.

Our venue includes cake in our package but if I had to pay for it I'd consider doing this but seeing if maybe the bakery itself could do a cheaper sheet cake, that way it's still made by a nicer place but maybe not as expensive. I absolutely love cake...so if you give me wedding or sheet cake, as long as it's sweet I'll have nothing bad to say (unless it's carrot cake...ew). Now I really really want cake.

Thanks for all the help everyone! I think it's really just going to come down to cost and feasibility with our venue (there's no kitchen set up so they're basically bringing food through the back door). I really kind of want a traditional wedding cake, but I'm just not willing to shell out an absurd amount of money for 200 people when it seems like everyone is saying sheet cake is a fraction of the cost.

Cake is soooo expensive! So we decided to cupcakes (even though I'm not a huge fan of them at a wedding) and it will save us about half...it makes it a bit more special that we will be getting them from our favorite cupcakery though. We'll be paying $2.50/cupcake for about 250 cupcakes...a 9" cutting cake and stand rental is included. I like those prices better than the $5-6/slice cakes that I had been thinking about. And I don't even like cake!

We're doing a tiered wedding cake, and the rest will be sheet cake, but it will still be the same flavor, icing, etc. The bakery actually suggested doing it that way, otherwise the cake would have to be huge!

We are doing a tiered wedding cake, I prefer it to sheet cake, but if you want to save some money I say do it, because most people don't care they just want to celebrate with you on your special day.

Yes, it will save you money. You need to decide what your priorities are. As Celia said, everyone will KNOW it's from a sheet cake, by appearance and by taste. Maybe that's ok for you.

I love food, and with that love of food comes my critism, but I understand wanting to stay on a budget as well. It won't be the end of the world if you serve sheet cake or even cupcakes.

Melissa are you doing other desserts? What is your preference for keeping the top layer of your tier? I'm asking because what we did saved us the most money. We ordered a smaller cake than the amount of guests we had (we had 120 guests, ordered a cake for 75) because we were also having chocolate chip cookies, chocolate milk shakes and we ended up actually having a cheesesteak station as well.

I told our caterer to cut the bottom two tiers first. If it looked like we were running low, I was fine with him cutting up the top tier. With the amount of dessert available, plus the cheesesteak and the fact that cake cutting usually happens once the wedding is in dancing party mode, we were totally fine and we came home with the top tier of the cake.