I guess you gotta start somewherre.....I was asked by a friend to make a 1/2 sheet cake. My question is this.....
I have the wilton 12x18 and 2" deep. Do I fill it 3/4 way full and then when its cool half it or do you bake two 12x18 cakes and layer them?
kinda nervous about doing this seeing that cookies are my thing....but she is a friend (hopefully she still will be after this) and she's knows Im a cookie person but she wants me to give it a go.
HELP!?
Ansa

I find with sheet cake it is much easier to bake 2 smaller sheets then trying to split. Make it so all you have to do is trim the top off if you want. Also it will be much easier to handle if you freeze it. It is quite likely to break apart when trying to move them around if they aren't firm-ish, or make sure you transfer it using a cake board or cookie sheet that's been dusted with something.

Sheet cakes are traditionally 2" tall & not filled. Someone correct me if me wrong but a 1/4 sheet is 9 x 12, 1/2 sheet 11 x 15, & whole sheet is 12 x 18. I'm sure you'll do just fine

so for the 11x15, do you use one of those jelly roll pans and just bake the 2 layers separately? How full would you fill it then? I dont want a mess with an over flow in the oven?

LOL I think I should just learn to say NO

I just use the 2" tall pans & fill it half to 2/3 full. I've never used jelly roll pans for cake unless it's sponge cake for a rolled cake.

No, don't use a jelly roll pan. Use a sheet cake pan in whatever size you need.

thank you all for your replies!

The terms 1/4 sheet and 1/2 sheet are so confusing. They come from a sheet cake from a commercial bakery. A full sheet pan is a standard item. A bakery can use this large pan in a commercial oven. You use a two or three inch fiberglass insert on the sheet pan and pour in a LOT of batter(about 6 cake mixes) and bake. You have a full sheet cake. This is the cake that a full sheet cake box is designed to hold. It's actual measurements is 24-inches long by roughly 16 1/2-inches wide. So a half sheet cake is this cake cut in half, and a quarter is a cake cut into quarters.

Unfortunately as a home baker you have the Wilton sheet pans to choose from.

7x11 too small for a 1/4 sheet cake
9x13 too large for a 1/4 sheet cake, it barely fits in the 1/4 sheet box!
11x15 a little small for a 1/2 sheet cake
1218 a little large for a 1/2 sheet cake, if you put two together they don't fit on a full sheet cake board. the 18 inch is just too big and I always ended up trimming it to fit the box.

So, I have solved ALL my issues by going to Fat Daddio's off sized cake pans. I just ordered 8x12 and 12x16 sheet cake pans and I LOVE them. A 1/4 sheet cake is now EXACTLY half of the 1/2 sheet cake and so coming up with recipes and amounts of batter is a cinch. I got them in the mail two weeks ago and broke in my 12x16 this weekend past with a giant carrot cake. Perfect. It looks like a proper sheet cake and fits the board and box just right. With even sizes it is easy to figure out servings and a 2x2 serving size is perfect. Problem solved. And I love these pans, my cake baked even across without hard corners.

Tami

I've always been confused about sheet sizes too. As a home baker, most people relate to the Walmart sizes. Lucky girl w/ your new pans.....jealous