Contents and wetness

[RyanS]

Hello,
I am building an outdoor BBQ pour-in-place countertop that is roughly 4'x15' that has a little dog leg L curve at the end. I intend to pour it 3" thick across the board. The long side will have a 13" cantilever and I've already got rebar in place (appx 8-10" apart) bent over from the solid concrete supporting walls.

Since it's 3" thick, do I need a cookie dough consistency or can I go a bit more wet so I can pour it in? There's a lot of space. Should I mix in pea gravel?
Basically:

1) what are the contents and ratios I should use for my countertop (it will be colored but I can figure that out.)?
2) how wet of a mix can I go with?
3) should I add a concrete break with the trowel on the dogleg area to prevent cracking there or do you think it will hold together well? Just trying to minimize crack.

I plan on doing a polish finish so I heard adding fibers are not a good idea.
Any recommendations would be very helpful. Thank you.
Ryan

[buddyrhodes]

Since your pouring 3" thick cast-N-place please add 15-30lbs 3/8" pea gravel to each bag of BR concrete. This will lessen the shrinkage of the concrete and make each bag go further. Mix it on the dry side but more like cream of wheat consistency. For colored concrete, mix the dry ultra fine pigment into the mix water before mixing the concrete. Our pigment cans are two pounds and are formulated for two 70lb bags or one pound pigment per bag.

As a general rule the wetter the batch is the weaker the concrete. Our mix takes about +- 4.5-5.5 quarts of water. On hot days use cold water and warm water on cold days. Mist the concrete after casting for a couple of days for a slow and even cure. Try not to cast in direct sun or wind. Tent the area if necessary.

I think this can be done in one piece without a score line.
Thank you.