A well-proportioned cake, with everything made to the right scale, is one key to having a beautiful cake.

But if you’re eyeballing it, it’s near impossible to get just right.

Everyone has different preferences for design and no matter who you ask, you’ll probably get a slightly different answer.

Nevertheless, nailing proportion and scale is a necessity.

It’s what separates a cake that looks beautiful from one that just looks ‘off’. 

If you’ve ever looked at something and thought it just looked off without being able to pinpoint what it was, there’s a good chance it was either the proportions or the scale.

But before we dive into some ways to make your cake look perfect with the proper proportions and scaling — let’s define a few things:

What is ‘proportion’ in cake design?

In terms of cakes, the proportion is how the cake itself (minus any extra decorations) looks. This means the height and width, and even the separate layers of your cake.

Being ‘in-proportion’ means that nothing looks exaggerated and everything is the correct size.

What is ‘scale’ in cake design?

On a cake, you usually have some decorative elements. This could be figurines, numbers, letters, or anything else that you may want to add for a more intricate design.

‘Scale’ is how these decorations compare in size to your actual cake and any other decorations on it.

2 ways to make sure your cake’s design is in proportion and scale

Choose a scale (miniature, oversized, life-size)

You don’t always want things to be to scale. For a cake, you might want to dramatise a certain element and make it become the focal point. For example, you might have large and extravagant numbering for a 21st birthday cake. 

Other times you might want to scale things down and make them miniature. For example, instead of giant buttercream roses, you can scale them down to miniature roses that you use to trim an edge of one layer on your cake.

The ‘Golden Ratio’ & the ‘Rule of Thirds’

You’ve probably heard of these design theories before.

While the ‘golden ratio’ (you might know of it as the Fibonacci spiral), might be a little difficult to apply to cakes — it’s good to keep in mind.

The rule of thirds, on the other hand, is much simpler to apply to your cake. Just imagine a grid that’s 3×3. Now mentally put your entire cake, it’s decorations, and even the cake stand into the grid. 

How does it look?

Make sure each layer and the sizes of each layer fits into that grid nicely.

Comment below if you have any questions about keeping your cakes in proportion and scale.