everything you need to know about #longcakes
the internets hottest cake trend (at least until the next trend cycle)
You’ve seen them, you’ve fawned over them and then you wonder- how tf does someone put that together? I’m talking all about long cakes here. They are, exactly as the sound, cakes that are well… long. I’ve seen everything from “little” 3 footers all the way up to a freaking 10 foot masterpiece. I’ve made my fair share of them over the past few months ranging from 3 feet in length to 9 feet. Let me tell ya though, I’ve learned a lot. With each cake long cake under my belt I learn a little more. By no means am I an EXPERT, but I am here to share everything I know *so far* with you.
Each cake is gonna be different and have unique sets of circumstances so rather than try to make a set “tutorial” on how to pull off a long cake, I had you all submit your burning questions over on IG stories last week and I’m here to answer all of them for you!
My favorite question from the bunch being:
Is it really as simple as lining up a bunch of sheet cakes together?
And I would say it’s as easy as lining up a bunch of sheet cakes but at the same time as hard as decorating all of those sheet cakes at once.. whoops.
Let’s go through order of ops:
Before you embark on the task of baking and assembling a cake (of any size, shape, or length) There is the consultation and planning with the customer- because it’s safe to assume a long cake is definitely something that is for an event rather than a herculean hobbyist baker project. Buy, hey I might be wrong and in that case, more power to ya.
How do you do you decide how much cake is needed for a long cake?
Well since, long cakes are just sheet cakes human centipeded together, I look at the intended guest count and divide that by how many servings I typically get from a 1/2 (13”x18”) or 1/4 (13”x9”) sheet cake. Let’s say the client wants to feed 175 people. The half sheet cakes I offer feed 30-45 people. Which means that the long cake would be comprised of 4.37 1/2 sheet cakes but I’d just do 4 1/2 sheets and a 1/4 sheet.
On the flip side you might have someone who has a smaller guest count like 20 who normally you’d recommend and 8” round to but they’re dead set on wanting a long cake. In a case like that I offer up a narrow cake. Which is just a singular sheet cake cut down the middle and connected end to end. Since the cake is now skinnier it gives the illusion of being longer than it actually is.
How to price a long cake?
Well, now that we know these cakes are just a bunch of sheet cakes hiding under a trench coat pretended to be a grown up. You can use that knowledge to price them out properly. While the price of cakes varies from baker to baker and city to city I cannot just give you a magic number to charge. But, you can take the cost of your sheet cake and multiply by the amount needed. But, don’t stop there. Oh no, remember it’s as easy as making 4 sheet cakes but as hard as decorating them all at once. These cakes come with a lot more work. From delivery to set up to cost of wood boards and more. So, be sure to account for extra time, labor and materials. Which as you read the rest of this you’ll get a better gauge of what the process takes + how much extra work you’ll need to charge for.
How to coordinate delivery + set up?
This wasn’t a question asked but it is v v important. I’ve built long cakes in homes for dinner parties, restaurant patios for baby showers and in coffee shops for decorating demos. Yes, each of these cakes has been assembled ON SITE. Each venue and event is going to be different. For ones where it’s in someone’s home like that’s and easy back and forth with the client. But, for cakes that are going to need to be set up at a venue GET IN CONTACT WITH A MANGER AT THE VENUE. For the love of god, talk to the venue about this DIRECTLY. Because, shit gets lost in translation so easily with using your customer as a middle man for the venue. Customer says oh yeah it’ll be no problem setting up the cake and you show up to a venue that was not expecting you to show up with 7 feet of cake. Just let them know, hey I’m showing up- the cake is x feet long. I’ll be there for x amount of hours from 12pm on etc. just so things can go as smoothly as possible. Nothing is worse than showing up to a venue you thought you could finish a cake in and finding out they don’t have space for you to work.
