Heights of Wedding Cakes

I normally bake 2 layers – tort, fill and frost – so you have 4 layers of cake with filling/frosting between. Normally each cake layer is just under 1" so when filled and stacked it’s 4" high.

If I want it a bit taller I use 4 – 1" layers of cake filled and frosted will end up being about 5+" tall.

That’s how I do it anyway.

I do 3 layers personally. I use one of those cake levelling things where you can adjust the size. I have it set to about 1 1/4 inch. Then I know they will be nice even layers. Once stacked they will be 3 3/4 inch but once they have layers of buttercream in between and a layer of fondant over the top that brings me up to 4 inch. I stick with 4 inch for celebration cakes but often bump it up to 4 1/2 inch (occasionally 5inch if design calls for it) for weddings. Hope that helps. x

For an 8" round I use 2 pans and put 3 cups of batter in each pan. (according to teh Wilton Serving Chart) This gives me 2 layers approximately 2" tall each. Now mind you different flavors of cakes have different rises. Why, I do not know. A Chocolate Devil’s food cake will rise higher then a Key Lime cake and when I take my Key Lime out of the oven, it will shrink dramatically. (I think this is due to the acid from the key lime juice) Drives me crazy when I am making wedding cupcakes and the Key Lime cupcakes are half the height of the chocolate!)
Getting back to the cake…I then torte my cakes with my Agbay. I have the leveler set to just under 1". This tortes the cake into two layers just under 1" each. I then fill and stack and this gives me a layer that is approximately 4" tall with 4 layers of cake and 3 layers of icing.
In many cake decorating videos, the individual layers are not torted, only leveled on the top giving 2 layers of cake and 1 layer of icing between the layers. (Outer icing too) I hope this helps!

I usually have three to four layers of cake and icing to have a 3.5 – 4" height on a tier, as Donna said – it depends on the recipe. :D

I like tall cakes. My cakes are all 4 layers of cake each layer torted a little under 1.25" inch in height and 3 layers of buttercream. My cakes are usually 5.5" tall for each tier. But for double barrel cakes, I don’t like to go higher than 9" – but that’s just a personal preference :)

Thank you, ladies. I appreciate your feedback. I’m doing a wedding cake for a Labor Day wedding… Can’t wait!