We are super excited to be on the blog today answering one of our most asked questions: How many sprinkles do I need to make a sprinkle cake?
There are so many bulk options in the shop with our sprinkles and more often than not, our customers just aren’t sure how far will a bag go. We are excited to be able to help you calculate exactly how much you’ll need for your smash cake or even large wedding cake. Bring on all the sizes!
We calculated this on our Sweets & Treats sprinkle mix which contains a bunch of different shapes and sizes. We have tips below on how to tweak it for different kinds of sprinkles as well. If you are looking to bake some sprinkle cupcakes, check out the cupcake related version of this blog post about covering cupcakes with sprinkles!
When we saw this question wasn’t answered anywhere on the internet, we just had to be the first. No matter where you are getting yours from, we are glad we can help you figure out just how much you need! Enjoy!
Making a Sprinkle Cake: What are the options?
We receive daily questions and comments around this very subject so we wanted to take some time to answer it in depth! Although it may seem like such a simple question there are lots of different answers. Cakes come in a lot of different shapes and sizes! Although we can’t possibly cover every cake size possible, we’re going to focus on covering round cakes.
From a simple band of sprinkles like in the cake shown above to covering an entire sprinkle cake like below. This is especially important for the popular cakes where one tier is different from the other. One tier might be completely covered in sprinkles and one might just be topped with coordinating sprinkles. This post will make it easy to mix and match depending on your event theme.
The Type of Sprinkle Matters
Let’s check out just how many sprinkles are needed to cover a cake! Our sprinkle bags contain 4 ounces of sprinkles by weight which is roughly 1/2 cup.
Sprinkles with heavier density like nonpareils and sugar crystals are a little less so you will need to err on the higher side for full coverage. These two types of sprinkles are much closer once you cover with them and take up less surface area. This really all just boils down to what look you are going for.
We love the look that we have here where just a little pop from the buttercream is showing through. This happens because of the different textures that are in the sprinkle mix. It wouldn’t look quite this way using nonpareil sprinkles or sugar crystals.
How Many Bags of Sprinkles Do I Need To Cover a Sprinkle Cake?
To make cake sprinkling easy for you we’ve collected an estimated sprinkle amount for fully covered round sprinkle cakes, a simple sprinkle trim, or just the top of a cake.
Naturally, your own amounts will vary depending on how heavily you use the sprinkles to cover the sides of the cake however, we went with the heavier side to be sure you have enough!
We began with covering a 6 inch round cake in full, partially with a 2 inch sprinkle band, and with the top side only. We then took those calculations and applied that to each additional size up to a 10 inch round cake. Here is what we found!
Full Sprinkle Covered
- 6 inch round – 4.5 ounces of sprinkles = 2 bags
- 7 inch round – 5.3 ounces of sprinkles = 2 bags
- 8 inch round – 6.1 ounces of sprinkles = 2 bags
- 9 inch round – 6.9 ounces of sprinkles = 2 bags
- 10 inch round – 7.7 ounces of sprinkles = 2 bags
Once you go above a 10 inch round cake, you’ll need at least 3 bags of sprinkles or a 1 pound bulk bag of sprinkles from our shop for a more cost effective option. You can always find something to do with leftover sprinkles!
2 Inch High Sprinkle Band
- 6 inch round – 1.5 ounces of sprinkles = 1 bag
- 7 inch round – 1.8 ounces of sprinkles = 1 bag
- 8 inch round – 2.1 ounces of sprinkles = 1 bag
- 9 inch round – 2.4 ounces of sprinkles = 1 bag
- 10 inch round – 2.7 ounces of sprinkles = 1 bag
Top Side Only
- 6 inch round – 1.2 ounces of sprinkles = 1 bag
- 7 inch round – 1.7 ounces of sprinkles = 1 bag
- 8 inch round – 2.2 ounces of sprinkles = 1 bag
- 9 inch round – 2.7 ounces of sprinkles = 1 bag
- 10 inch round – 3.2 ounces of sprinkles = 1 bag
This shows you just how far one 4 ounce sprinkle bag will go! We were so surprised to see that the same amount is needed for 6 to 10 inch rounds! Hopefully this makes covering cakes in sprinkles super easy for you, now that you always know you have the right amount of sprinkles!
If you are looking for this same information, but for cupcakes, check out our Covering Cupcakes With Sprinkles post! Be sure to check out our sprinkle selection in the shop for your upcoming event. You’re sure to find exactly what you need with over 250 sprinkle listings available!
If you loved this sprinkle cake post, you’ll love our other party ideas!
- Birthday Cake Mix Cookies Recipe [+ Birthday Cake Sprinkles!]
- Quick & Easy Rainbow Cake
- Sprinkle Cheesecake Mousse Recipe
- Make Your Own Custom Sprinkles Mix
- Covering Cupcakes With Sprinkles – How Much Do I Need?
- Chocolate Drip Decorating Technique
- Fault Line Tutorial
- Traybakes Tutorial
11 comments
Question – How many oz in sprinkles do you think you would need to cover a 3 tier 8″ cake only on the sides? Thank you!
Is it a 3 tier cakes with 8″ being the smallest tier or a 3 layer 8″ cake? That would make a difference for sure!
Sorry, typed it wrong 🙂 3 layer 8″ cake.
Got it!
That’s a little bit taller than our calculations so we’d recommend a 1lb bulk bag. It’s cheaper than 3 bags separately and it will give you a bit extra just in case!
Thank you!
Very good thank you most helpful .
I have a paw patrol 8”” round cake to do and would like to use sprinkles to cover side only which ones would you suggest ? this is for a boy , thank you.
We definitely recommend using the full coverage method. The side band won’t be enough in our opinion. Such a fun theme!
How many sprinkles would I need for a piñata cake? Only using minimal sprinkles for decoration. Most going inside. 3 layer cake.
That would pretty easy to figured out by how much cake you are carving out. You would just replace it with roughly the same amount volume sprinkles if you wanted it to go to the top.
Regardless of the size of the cake, one bag should be plenty if the goal is just to have some spill out as you cut it! Hope that helps!
If I store the cake with sprinkles in the refrigerator will they sweat?
Hello! We definitely recommend applying the day of just in case. There are so many factors that go into how you chill/remove from that level of humidity. That’s just food dye in general for any sprinkles that can be a little testy.
We’d definitely recommend testing that first on a smaller scale before the big event!