How to Cut a Round Cake for a Party

Cutting a round cake for a party shouldn’t feel like a math test. It’s not. That googly eye cake from my Halloween dessert table was a showstopper, and I wanted to make it stretch without going back to unified geometry. (Poor Mrs. Eck. She really tried with me.) Anyway, here are my two favorite ways to cut a round cake for a party that even an English major like me can master.

You can find more elaborate cutting techniques online (like first cutting a circle in the center of the cake), but I can’t cut an even circle and getting that complicated has never seemed necessary.

The key to getting clean cake slices that come out in one piece is your prep and your supplies. You need:

• Sharp, long knife
• Cake server
• Tall glass of warm water
• Paper towel

Any cake will slice more cleanly if it is chilled. So, keep the cake in your fridge til just before the party, then add it to the dessert table.

The Wedge Cut

Most of the time, I cut a round cake in wedges. That lets me give everyone generous slices so I have less cake leftover… because I will eat it all. Waste not, want not.

Make your first cut from the center of the cake to the edge. Cut the first wedge bigger than you think you need. It’s much easier to lift out a larger wedge than a skinny wedge.

To make your second cut, keep the point of the knife at the center of the cake, then shift the angle to make a wedge.

Leave the knife in the second cut, slide the cake server into the first cut, and lift so the slice rests on the server, held in place by the knife.

Let the slice fall onto the cake server, held in place by the knife.

Put down the knife, bring a plate up to the cake server, and tip the slice onto the plate.

From here on out, it will be easier to cut smaller slices of cake. In between cuts, dip the knife in the warm water, then wipe off any cake and frosting with the paper towel. That will give you a clean cut every time.

Depending on how thick your slices are, you should be able to get 8 to 12 slices of cake out of an 8-inch round cake.

The Rectangular Cut

If you need to stretch your cake for a crowd, you want to cut the cake into rectangles.

Cut the cake in half. Slice straight across the center of the cake. (This is your center line.)

Cut strips from the center line to the edge. Starting at one side, make a straight cut perpendicular to the center line, running from the line to the outer edge of the cake. Repeat, about 1 inch apart, until you reach the other side. (Make 7 evenly spaced cuts to create 8 slices of cake.)

Turn the cake and repeat on the other half.

You should be able to get 16 slices from an 8-inch round cake. Four of those will be little end pieces, but there’s almost always someone who wants “just a small slice.”

Next time you need to cut a round cake, choose wedges for a generous slice, or rectangles when the guest list is longer than the cake is big.