Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I’m making a three tier ribbon effect wedding cake using buttercream with added ganache for stability but what quantities for a 10, 8, and 6″ cakes all 4″ deep?

Hi Jill McPake

For buttercream quantities with added ganache, please take a peek at my blog here:

Buttercream covering and filling guide

I’ve mentioned in the body of the blog that it would be reasonable to use 6% ganache. You can add more if you like. The quantities chart is for buttercream only but you can add the ganache once you’ve calculated the amount you need. If you have any problems at with calculations, just get back and I’ll try and do the sums for you.

As always, my charts are guides. For other calculators please take a peek here:

Cake Calculators

🙂

Thank you for your reply but can I ask in the guide for example a 6 x 6” deep 4 layer cake shows 1153 how do I know what proportion of butter to icing sugar that is, or how many quantities of buttercream do I do?
Regards
Jill

Hi Jill

In order to calculate the quantity of buttercream you require, I need to know how many layers you are making on each cake.

All the cakes are all double so probably 6″deep with 4 or 5 layers each and I’m doing a 10, 8 and 6″
Thank you so much for your help
Jill

Hi Jill

For your 10″ cake with 5 filled layers and covered, you need 3k of buttercream. Paul’s recipe for BC uses 1 part butter to 2 parts sugar. Using his recipe, for your 10″ cake you need, 1k of butter and 2k of sugar.

For the 8″ cake with 5 filled layers and covered, you need 2k 100g BC. It is made up using 700g butter and 1 400g sugar.

For the 6″ cake, with 5 filled layers and covered, you need 1 200 of BC. It is made up using 400g butter and 800g sugar.

Because you are doubling up, you will not be able to have 4 layers as the layers would be uneven. You could have 3 layers which would require a slight recalculation of total buttercream, reducing by approx 5%.

What you have to note is that these are not precise measurements because it depends how thick you make your layers. If you are like me and very sparing with the filling, you will have a fair amount left over which can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months and used on another project. However, if you are very generous with the filling, you may have to make up a little more.

When adding ganache to your BC, we experimented and found 6% seems to be the ideal proportion of your total buttercream amount. If you like, you can reduce the buttercream calculation by that 6% amount. Personally I wouldn’t bother, just keep it to the rounded amounts as it’s easier.

Hope this helps.