Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi there,

Im freaking out slightly as im meant to be putting a cake in a display in a fortnight but something’s gone wrong with the sizing. I bought a cake board that states its 15cm/6in and then bought a tin that was also labelled 15cm but once I got home, baked a practice cake and tried to put it on the cake board its too big! A quick look at the tin showed the label states 15cm/7in!!! Its not the same size!! Is this a possible variation in sizes I’ve missed or is one not measured correctly? Please help as I cannot exceed 15cm for the display!

Thank you 🙂

Hi Silverblue,

You have followed the correct logic and have rightly assumed that a 15cm tin would bake a cake to fit a 15cm board, but unfortunately that´s not the case.
While the diameters are correct edge to edge you lose a little of the size due to the thickness of the rim of the tin and of course there´s a little shrinkage during the bake which allows the cake to slide out at the end.
It´s those little differences that mean you get a smaller cake than board.

If you are looking for an exact match, Paul always bakes the next size up then trims the cake down. 🙂

I have had the same problem on occasions, so now I get a board that is slightly smaller, to make a bigger cake as Paul does would increase the cost and in my area people would be reluctant to pay more, but its the best solution as you have said.

nicky223