Help! Cake To Thin Due Tomarrow
Decorating By chellebell70 Updated 7 May 2006 , 12:21pm by thyterrell
Help! I baked a choc cake 12x18 and used 2 1/2 BC mixes. After the cake settled it's only 1 inch thick. I have to do a football theme and got $40 for this cake. I am going to fill it. Feel like I need to bake another whole layer though - or its going to look like some cheap wal-mart bakery cake and not worth what they paid. What do you think??? Does this happen to anyone else with choc? Usually I use white with no prob.? Appreciate the help. Cake is for a birthday tomarrow at 5!
Do you always use BC even with your white cakes? I have never used BC for any of my cakes. DH and Pillsbury have never given me any problems.
If I where you, I would bake another layer. You don't want to disappoint someone but mostly you don't want to lose a customer.
I believe I always use three boxes for my 12 by 18 pan. I made one last week and just trimmed the top to level. If you think it is too thin you might want to make an extra layer. Or you could torte it and add a filling, maybe a chocolate mousse.
Thanks! DH next time it is!!!! My Aunt read that it yields more mix anyway. I really needed another opinion. - I think I new the answer - it's just that I have to go buy the mixes in the morn and wait to cool to decorate... etc. Just didn't want to. But need to! Thanks all!
You get five cups of batter with DH. I always use DH when baking for others and always follow the chart in my Wilton yearbook. The chart is am talking about tells you how much batter per pan size is needed, it also gives you the number of servings per pan size.
I also bake all may cakes at 325 rather than 350. Using Wilton's recommended cups of batter, I always have to trim my cakes.
I think I need to measure the batter too. My Gramma taught me to use the 2 1/2 mixes so that's what I did. Never really thought about it much!
ok - so last night ....late! I started reading my Wilton yearbook (bad as a man-don't read directions! lol) It said like 14 cups of batter and I got out the old BC special occasion book I had been using - that my Gram had given me and it said 10 for white and 9 for choc! That's where the 2 1/2 mixes came in. That was dated 1992 - So either things have changed measurement wise or maybe the Wilton standard is just differant? Anyway I learned alot from that little bit of reading and gonna go buy the mixes as soon as DH gets home from work and rebake. Looks like maybe I'll have some scrap to make cake truffles huh??
It also said I should use a heat core which I've never tried - so I guess I'll go look that up on CC and see what that's all about!
Thanks for all the advise and I'll just have to do more reading to make sure there aren't more things I need to change about the way I usually do things.
http://www.wilton.com/cake/cakeprep/baking/times/index.cfm
The above link is pretty much what you will find in the yearbooks. It has all the wilton size pans for 2"and 3" and party and wedding size servings. It list how much batter for each layer, icing, time to bake, temp to bake, etc.... I keep it handy for quick reference.
Now on to the cake mixes. I have noticed that with BC recently I only get about 4 cups out of each mix. With DH I get 6 cups (with my addition of one egg and a small box of pudding) That is a big difference if you are adding multiple mixes to one pan.
On the chart above it says the 12x18 needs 14 cups of batter... that is over 3 mixes of BC =( It is a little over 2 with DH. So whichever brand of mix you like best, measure for awhile and see what one box yeilds. If you are happy with BC then just make sure you are adjusting for the amount of batter you need =)
As for things changing since 1992, most likely the amount of batter needed hasn't, but the amount that a cake mix yeilds has. I am guessing that is why you see more and more charts that reference how many cups of batter you need instead of how many mixes =)
I hope this helps and that your next one goes better =)
Leily
P.S. I have had consistant results using wilton's suggestions for how much batter in a pan. There are only a couple that I put in like an additional 1/4 of a cup to get the heigth I want. But that is usually a by sight thing.
I use my 12x18 pan all the time and have never used a heating core/flower nail. If you will bake it at 325 for about 45-50 minutes, it should be fine. My centers have never been undercooked. As for your batter, I also follow the Wilton recommended number of cups per pan, but if that is too much trouble, sometimes I will just eyeball it and as long as you fill your pan about 2/3 full, it should give you a cake that is thick enough when cooked.
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