Are you going to throw a party in the near future but have no idea how large of a cake to bake? One of the more popular sheet cake sizes is the quarter-sheet cake. So, how big is a quarter-sheet cake?
A quarter-sheet cake will measure 9 × 13 inches with a depth of between 1 and 2 inches. Quarter-sheet cakes can typically feed between 12 and 54 people, depending on how big you slice them.
Will that be enough for your party, or do you need to find a smaller/bigger sheet cake size? I’ll answer this question and much more in the following sections.
Sheet Cake Basics
Let’s speak about what a sheet cake is and how it varies from conventional cakes before getting into sheet cake sizes.
Sheet cakes are rectangular cakes that are typically made from a single layer. They are often served at large gatherings consisting of over ten guests, but a single sheet cake can feed upward of 90 people, depending on the size. You will most likely see sheet cakes being served at birthdays, anniversaries, and company gatherings.
Baking a sheet cake is not much different from baking other types of cakes in terms of ingredients and the baking process. However, instead of using a round mold that you can stack to create multiple layers, a sheet cake will be baked in a large rectangular sheet pan. While you can slice it into multiple layers, it’s a common feature in sheet cakes.
Something worth mentioning about sheet cake pans is that they are not baked in a springform pan. As such, flipping the cake out of the pan can be a bit of a challenge unless you have properly greased and lined the mold with baking paper.
Preparing a sheet cake is a simple process of removing the baked cake from the baking pan and adding frosting to the top and sides. The wide top of the sheet cake can become the perfect canvas for anyone who wants to give cake designing a try.
A sheet cake will generally fall into one of 3 size categories—quarter, half, and full. Let’s take a closer look at these sizes in the following section.
Quarter-Sheet Cake Size
The term “quarter” in quarter-sheet cake refers to its size in relation to the size of a full sheet cake. The actual dimensions of a quarter-sheet cake are 9 × 13 inches. However, some retailers carry quarter-sheet cakes that are only about 8 × 12 inches. This type of sheet cake has a depth of between 1 and 2 inches.
While the walls of a quarter-sheet cake are set in place, the actual height of the cake will depend on the ingredients that went into the cake batter and how long you bake the cake. Shrinking and rising are common in the baking process, but to simplify things, we will assume the final cake will come out at the exact size of the quarter-sheet cake pan.
A 9 × 13 × 2-inch pan will have a surface area of 117 square inches and a total volume of 234 cubic inches. These figures tell us that a quarter-sheet cake will provide plenty of cake to go around.
How Many Servings in a Quarter-Sheet Cake?
Like any cake, you can cut a quarter-sheet cake into as many or as few pieces as you’d like. Because quarter-sheet cakes are the smallest of the three standard sheet cake sizes, you can play around with serving sizes without serving an abnormally large amount of cake per guest.
Traditionally, quarter-sheet cakes can feed between 30 and 45 people, but they can also produce enough cake to serve generous portions to 12 guests or micro-portions to up to 54 people.
The following table will describe the serving count per quarter-sheet cake based on the size of each slice.
| Cake Serving Size | Serving Count | Guest Count |
| 3 × 3 in. | 13 | ≈12 |
| 2 × 3 in. | 19.5 | ≈18 |
| 2 × 2 in. | 29.25 | ≈24 |
| 1 × 2 in. | 58.5 | ≈54 |
As a quick tip, if you plan on cutting the quarter-sheet cake into 2 × 2-inch portions or smaller, you should remove the sheet cake from the cake pan before slicing it into individual portions.
Quarter vs. Half and Full-Sheet Cakes
As previously stated, there are generally three standard sheet cake pan sizes to choose from—quarter, half, and full. The following table will offer a quick summary of the differences between quarter, half, and full-sheet cakes in terms of size and how many guests they can feed.
| Sheet Cake Size | Dimensions | Approx. Guest Count Range |
| Quarter | 9 × 13 in. | 12-54 |
| Half | 11 × 15 in. | 30-75 |
| Full | 18 × 24 in. | 48-96 |
How Many Cakes Do I Need to Feed # Guests?
In an earlier section, I mentioned that a quarter-sheet cake could feed up to approximately 54 guests with tiny 1 × 2-inch slices. However, if you want to be more generous with your sheet cake slices, you can feed 12 and 24 people.
That said, if you want to serve, say, 150 guests, how many quarter, half, or full-sheet cakes will you need? You can find the answer in the following table.
| Cake Serving Size | Quarter Guest Count | Half Guest Count | Ful Guest Count |
| 3 × 3 in. | ≈12 | ≈24 | ≈48 |
| 2 × 3 in. | ≈18 | ≈36 | ≈64 |
| 2 × 2 in. | ≈24 | ≈54 | ≈117 |
| 1 × 2 in. | ≈54 | ≈108 | ≈192 |
Using this table, we can conclude that you would need 2 or 3 quarter-sheet cakes to make as much cake as a single half- or full-sheet cake would feed when cut into 3 × 3-inch sections.
Another way to use this table is to first determine how many guests you have invited and find which number on the table is closest to that guest count. For instance, if you expect 25 people to arrive at your party, you will need a single quarter-sheet cake cut into 2 × 2-inch sections or a single half-sheet cake cut into 3 × 3-inch sections.
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