Wedding Cake Icing Chart
And Cake Icing Tips


Use the handy wedding cake icing chart below to help you to determine how much buttercream you will need for your wedding cakes.

You will also find tips for making and using royal icing, Italian meringue buttercream and tips on frosting a cake.

Note: The term frosting and icing are used interchangeably on this website.

 Chart to estimate of how much frosting to fill and frost your cakes.


Wedding Cake Icing Tips


A Fantastic Tip from Cake Expert Colleen Charles

Wedding Cake Icing Tip

"I use Italian Meringue or Swiss Meringue Buttercream on all of my cakes (unless it's Cream Cheese Buttercream) and this time (or anytime) of year it can get (and my hands) warm fast.

I bought a couple of ice packs at the dollar store that I can lay the filled bags on while I pipe. I also wrap them around my machine while I'm whipping the sugar/egg white mixture to help cool down. It also helps my machine because the larger batches take about 20 minutes to cool. Plus it keeps the frosting cool while I'm doing other things."

Happy frosting! ~Colleen~

A Little Bit About Royal

Royal Icing- is a very stiff meringue. It is used primarily for making flowers and small decorations, intricate designs, monograms, string work, and stands out nicely over fondant. I refer to this type of frosting as Cake Decorating Frosting You will find a recipe for it and a video about how to make it. It is used almost exclusively for cake decorating.

  • Always keep your bowl and pastry bag covered with a damp cloth because your royal icing will dry out very quickly when exposed to air
  • Royal will hold up for 3 days and can be re beaten
  • To make a chocolate version add 2 tablespoons of cocoa to your powdered sugar

All of the Q&A about Frosting and Icing

Go to the Q&A to see hundreds of tips, ideas and answers to your questions

Wedding Cake Icing Chart

This wedding cake icing chart gives generous amounts because it is always better to have more than you need than not enough. Add 1-3 cups of buttercream (depending on the sizes) for decorating three graduated tiers. The chart is from Rose Levys Berenbaum's book The Cake Bible where you can see the full version.
Amounts Chart
Cake Size(2 layer)Between LayersFor Top For SidesTotal Amount
6 inches1/2 cup1/3 cup1 cup2 cups
8 inches3/4 cup3/4 cup 1 1/2 cups 3 cups
10 iches1 1/4 cups1 1/4 cups1 3/4 cups 4 3/4 cups
12 inches1 3/4 cups1 3/4 cups2 cups5 1/2 cups
14 inches2 1/2 cups2 1/2 cups2 1/2 cups7 1/2 cups
16 inches3 1/4 cups3 1/4 cups3 cups9 1/2 cups


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