How do I change the ratio of baking powder or soda to other ingredients when quadrupling a recipe to make it in a larger pan? I have a recipe that makes about a 1 1/4 inch high cake in a 10 inch round pan. I want to make it two inches high in a 12 x 18 inch sheet pan, so I think I need to make a batch 4 1/2 times as large. Before I waste 18 eggs doing it incorrectly, can anyone tell me how they do this?
TIA
PS If this is posted in the wrong forum, I apologize. I read all the categories, and this seemed like the right place....
Hi MrsMissey,
Well, indeed what I did was quaduple and a half everything (which partway through turned out to be too big for my 6 quart KA so I had to divide it and do it in two batches--ugh) and it ended up working well. My panic was because in The Cake Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum goes into all this detail about how as the cake gets larger the amount of baking powder has to go down some in proportion because there is less surface tension. So even though I figured out the ratio of baking powder to the other ingredients stayed the same when I quadrupled by weight, (which other people said needed to be carefully calculated--I'm still not sure why if you double or triple or quadruple the ratios should be a question) I thought I needed to take the surface tension into account. After making myself crazy, I finally decided just to go for it and then I had enough batter to do the 12 x 18 and also two 6 inch cakes. Since they all seem to have come out fine and they all rose about the same I guess I won't obsess abut the rest of the big ones that I have to make that aren't Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe. When I do hers, she has charts to adjust baking powder depending on size. Maybe hers need adjusting because she seems to use way more baking powder than other recipes do. The recipe I was using yesterday had a combination of baking powder and baking soda, so maybe that made a difference too.
Anyway, thanks for the reassurance. Everything is still such a huge learning experience and I know I worry way too much about every detail.
Hi MrsMissey,
Well, indeed what I did was quaduple and a half everything (which partway through turned out to be too big for my 6 quart KA so I had to divide it and do it in two batches--ugh) and it ended up working well. My panic was because in The Cake Bible, Rose Levy Beranbaum goes into all this detail about how as the cake gets larger the amount of baking powder has to go down some in proportion because there is less surface tension. So even though I figured out the ratio of baking powder to the other ingredients stayed the same when I quadrupled by weight, (which other people said needed to be carefully calculated--I'm still not sure why if you double or triple or quadruple the ratios should be a question) I thought I needed to take the surface tension into account. After making myself crazy, I finally decided just to go for it and then I had enough batter to do the 12 x 18 and also two 6 inch cakes. Since they all seem to have come out fine and they all rose about the same I guess I won't obsess abut the rest of the big ones that I have to make that aren't Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe. When I do hers, she has charts to adjust baking powder depending on size. Maybe hers need adjusting because she seems to use way more baking powder than other recipes do. The recipe I was using yesterday had a combination of baking powder and baking soda, so maybe that made a difference too.
Anyway, thanks for the reassurance. Everything is still such a huge learning experience and I know I worry way too much about every detail.
I knew I read that some where but I could not remember where so I did not bother to post.
I guess I would have taken the chicken route out and made double batches then put them all together and give them a final stir b4 placing in the pan.
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