How to choose the right size cake

This is the question we get more than any other, and it is a lovely one to be asked, because it means somebody is thinking carefully about the people they are feeding. Here is how we usually help people decide.

Start with who is eating it

Not how many people are at the party. How many people will actually eat cake. At a family lunch where everyone has just had lechon and pancit, half the room will have a sliver and be perfectly happy. At a children's party, everybody eats cake, and some of them twice.

As a rough guide, a bento cake is a generous portion for two or a taste for four. A minicake stretches comfortably to six or eight small slices, which is plenty when there is other food on the table. Cupcakes are simplest of all, because one person eats one.

Then think about the moment

A cake is doing a job beyond feeding people, and the job changes the size.

• A surprise at the office wants cupcakes. Everybody gets their own, nobody has to find a knife, and there is no plate to wash.
• A small celebration at home is what the bento set was made for. A little cake to put candles in, plus two cupcakes so nobody fights over the first slice.
• A gift you are handing to somebody is the minicake. It arrives in its clear box looking like a present, which is exactly what it is.
• A monthsary or a quiet apology is a bento cake with the right words piped on it. Small, sincere, and it says the thing you were struggling to say.

When you are truly unsure, order slightly less cake and slightly more cupcakes. Leftover cake goes stale. Leftover cupcakes go home in people's bags.

A note on photos

Designs on the internet are often photographed on much larger cakes than they appear. A wreath of flowers that looks delicate on a six inch cake becomes a crowd on a bento. If you send us a photo, we will tell you honestly how it will translate at the size you are ordering, and what we would simplify to keep it pretty rather than crowded.

Still deciding?

Message us with the occasion, how many people, and whether there will be other food. We will suggest something, and we promise not to talk you into more cake than your day needs.