Hi All 

Im a first time user and new to baking so really would love some help. Im trying to make a 4 layered semi naked cake with an 8inch cake tin, i am following a youtube clip just for some tips. They have made 2 cakes cut into 2 given them for layers, im using a pretty standard butter cake recipe but my cake seems to be so much smaller height wise then the cakes im seeing not only on this video but most videos or tutorials and im just confused if im making a cake that i need to cut into 2 do i need to double my recipe or is there something im missing? The butter cake recipe i use comes out at a normal cake height but looks much smaller then the ones im watching and definately not enough to cut into 2 good sized halves. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

I always bake 4 separate layers.  I am always confused by photos that make a cake look taller too. Have found that I am just safer baking the 4 layers to get the height I want.  Good luck!

http://www.wilton.com/cms-baking-serving-guide.html

Have a look at the chart. The normal hight for a tier is 4" and you would need to make 4 cups of batter (1 layer, 2" high). 

I'd make 2 layers and torte. But you can bake 4 separate layers if that's what you wanna do.

It sounds to me like you are not using enough batter in each pan &/or you are using pans that are only 1" or 1 1/2" deep .  The pan needs to be filled at least 1/2 - preferably 2/3rds full of batter.  Then after baking the layer should be 2" tall.  

Cutting/splitting a layer into 2 is called torting.  It is done so filling can be used between the 2 pieces.  If you torte you will end up with 4 layers of cake with 3 layers of filling and the cake would be 4" to 5" tall and is called a 'tier'.  If you bake 2 layers there will be  one layer of filling between them and this also should give you a finished cake/tier 4" tall.  

The choice is your.  

Thanks everyone so much for the replies ill try to measure the cups maybe im not using enough recipe :)