New to the catering scene? We get it. We were once too. But over the years, we’ve learned a thing or two.

So here’s our best catering tips for you using baked goods at your event.

Choose a Smaller Plate

That’s right. Did you know that your guests will fill up their plate? So, if you only want your attendees to take a smaller portion, then use a smaller plate. Napkins work great here as well. Just serving one kind of donut or cookie? The forget the plate all together, and opt for a napkin.

A Little Arithmetic

How many people should you plan on? We get asked this all the time, especially when our customers are planning a wedding. It will require a little math, but here’s what you do:

Take the number of guests you have invited (NOT invites sent out. Example: One invite could be invited a family of 5). Divide that number in half and then add a third. That’s how many people you should plan on feeding. Then decide what you want a serving to look like. If you are just serving donuts, and want each person to take one, then plan on that with a napkin. However, if you are serving a variety of baked goods or foods, put a plate together of what you’d like to serve and multiply that by the number of guests invited.

Planning on Pies or Cake?

Then order sheet pies or sheet cake. This is where you’ll get more bang for your buck. Our full sheet pies and sheet cakes can be cut into 96 two-inch squares. That’s a lot of servings! Don’t think you have to order 10″ pies or 8″ round cakes; sheet pies and sheet cakes are the way to go for larger events. We offer them in full sheet or half sheet options.

What About Donuts?

Any of our donuts will work great for events, but if you are wanting them to look great as part of a display (like donut boards), we suggest not going glaze. Iced donuts with sprinkles will look better longer than just glazed donuts. Keep in mind that we start baking our donuts at 2 am. They then get proofed and fried and decorated in the early morning, usually between 6-9 am. So if you just order glaze, that glaze has had a chance to sit in a dry area and get really crackled looking or sit in a humid area and look sweaty. If you are deciding between glaze or iced… go iced!

Another tip for donuts would be to serve cake donuts instead of raised. Cake donuts taste more like cake, and therefore they stay more fresher for a longer time. Both raised and cake would work fine if you really, really love raised. But we usually tell our wedding customers to opt for cake donuts at evening events.

Well, that’s it for our tips! We hope this help you when you are catering a large event. If we didn’t answer, your question, feel free to reach out to us, we are happy to help.