Hi,

I need to know how many cake mixes fit in different size pans. Is there a chart somewhere on this website? I am making a 16" cake plus a 10". Do others put more than one cake mix in the 10" pan? It usually looks sort of flat with just one. Also making a 6" cake. Any help is appreciated.

I just made a 14" round with a doctored up cake mix- and it took 4 boxes. So I would use at least 7 cake mix boxes for a 16" and a 10"- provided the were all the same flavor cake.
Also found this on Wilton's site

This is a chart for 2" deep pans for the amount of batter needed and amount of icing needed:
http://www.wilton.com/cake/cakeprep/baking/times/party_2inch.cfm

Here are the Wilton charts

http://www.wilton.com/cake/cakeprep/baking/times/index.cfm

I don't ever measure my batter. I use a half a box for the 6" and 1 1/2 boxes for the 10". I tried to use 2 boxes of mix for the 10" but it was too much. I just make sure I'm filling the pans a little over half full. Sometimes 2/3 full if I want it higher.

Talk about timing!

I am going to use my new stand-ip lamb pan today and it states that I need about 6 cups of batter to fill it so obviously a standard cake mix would not do the trick. I will now use the enhanced cake mix recipe on this site and hopefully that will work.

If you have extra batter left over, make cupcakes and freeze them for later. That way if you have a cake fix but don't want a whole cake, just grab a cupcake out of the freezer. Also great for kids.
My mom lives alone and a couple of weeks ago she had a cake craving, I happened to be out shopping with her when it happened. When she brought me back home, I gave her a couple of cupcakes out of the freezer along with some extra icing and she was happy. That way she did not buy a whole cake and waste it.

Thank you so much. I looked at Wilton.com, but must have passed that right up. Now, for my next question - What is a heating core?

It looks like a little metal cup that is supposed to get heat to the middle of the cake so that it bakes evenly in the middle. I personally don't use them. I have found that if you use a metal flower nail (make sure it's coated), stick that flat side down into the cake batter in the middle of the pan, and place the cake in the oven to bake. That way you don't have any missing cake, just a little hole from the flower nail. It works great- I just used it this last Sunday.

wilton may not have a friendly forum, but they sure have a lot of information!!

Heating core looks like this: http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30ACBE-475A-BAC0-505CDCE7A4EA25E5
The flower nail looks like this: http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30DA27-475A-BAC0-5B9517D6CAF8BB75
Which would you rather have for a hole to worry about?
**You can put some cake batter into the core so that you can put the "plug" back into the cake. But I would rather use the nail so you don't have to worry about a big hole to fill in.

Beechcharmer I found this link, will this help a little?
http://www.duncanhines.com/DHAbout/productFAQ.asp#1
The info is all the way at the bottom.. a chart...

In regards to the flower nail:

When you 'coated' do you mean like your pan would be coated? As well, how do you take it out? Don't you have to sort of dig it out after it's done?

what she means I think is you coat the nail with crisco put the flat side on the bottom of the pan and pour your mix in the pan... when you flip the cake over you can pull it out. I plan on trying that next time I have a big cake... I bought the heat core didnt mind that either but think I like the flower nail idea better!

Doah!

Okay, I get it now, the elevator just went to the top!