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Hi I have downloaded the chart telling me the number of portions to expect for each size of cake. Can anybody advise me how to calculate how much wastage there is by damage to the cake where the dowels are inserted. My daughter worked at a hotel and wedding venue and said that they did not serve any pieces of cake that had any damage on them caused by the dowel. I appreciate that it is different depending on how many dowels are used but is there a rough guide as to how much bigger my cake needs to be to allow for this wastage?

Hi Julesmakescakes

I must confess I’ve never heard of this practice by venues and Paul has never to the best of my knowledge ever discussed this in any of the tutorials. The amount of cake displaced by dowels is literally so tiny that it wouldn’t amount to much. I don’t know how much would be be lost if you were using the big fat bubble straws and I haven’t been able to find any information about it. All the dowels I’ve removed from cakes have never caused sufficient damage to warrent baking a larger cake to compensate for loss. Perhaps other members have a different opinion which would definitely be of value.

Thank you madeitwithlove that makes things a lot easier to work out.