AHi all,
[ Disclaimer: 1) This is a long post of venting my distressed self after a night of semi-failed baking and close to no sleep. 2) I am from Chile, some ingredients tend to be different. ]
So a week back, I finally tried an American recipe for White Cake I had in my "to do" bin but had never tried. I really liked how it turned out! - I used an 8" round pan. Even when it sunk a little for me, I blamed it on my probable lack of mixing in the beginning, my oven temperature (should have cranked it up) my substitution of whole eggs instead of whites, and of the buttermilk, as it's not something you can find in Chile I made the hack version of milk + lemon but the acidity altered the mix. It rose to about 3 inches tall and it made a nice naked cake to nibble on for my mom, brother and me, it never went dry even days after. We really liked the flavor and the fact that it was something different from what we are used to.
I am a hobby baker and decorator, and 2 weeks ago a friend of friends ordered a birthday cake from me for this Saturday Feb 22. I thought it would be a perfect chance to use this recipe, though this time following it to a T and no substitutions. I'd start baking on Wednesday, torting & filling on Thursday, decorate on Friday, deliver on Saturday.
I started baking last night since I work full time (M to F). I used the same quantity of batter called in the original recipe, good enough for an 8" round pan, for a 10" square pan. *facepalm* - Really Cin? I really don't know what was I thinking!!... (you can laugh) My only words were "uh-oh" when I poured the batter and it barely covered the bottom of the 10" pan. I guess I had a bad case of major wishful thinking since the first time I made it, it rose pretty well, I must have thought it could make a decent layer in a bigger pan. So in the oven it went.
It baked pretty nice and even, and a little after 40 minutes in the oven, it had a nice golden/caramel color on top. My house smelled wonderful. However, it wasn't nearly as tall as I (wishfully) thought it would turn out. It rose to 1 inch. So I decided to make another batch of batter by 11 PM and baked another layer, but sadly after that I couldn't keep baking more layers because I had no more ingredients :(
I'm really sad I was so stupid to imagine I could get a bigger cake...! Now I am left with a big lesson learned and a bit of a hole in my pocket, I will have to go today to waste time in the supermarket to get more ingredients and perhaps quadruplicate the recipe ingredients to be able to bake 2 nice thick layers that I can torte after. I can only hope they won't sink when baking. At least it is "only" Thursday and I have hopes to be able to mend my mistakes.
I've never measured batters by cup but I just looked at a chart that said that a 10" square makes 12 cups whereas an 8" round makes 6. Anyone knows?
Sigh!!! :( - Any input is really appreciated.
- Cinthia
P.S.: The recipe I used is FSSF white cake.
A 10" square, 2 layers (2"), would need 12 cups of batter, or 6 cups for each pan. See this chart:
http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-wedding-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm
So if your recipe makes 6 cups, then you'd just need to double it for a 10" square. Make sense?
AIt does indeed Annie, thank you. I'm telling you, I'm banging my head against a wall, lol. :D - I totally deserve it.
I made the 2nd round last night in an effort to fix what I had done, at least they baked the same height, but it's not the idea to be baking over and over, layer by layer. All for trying something different and tasty. I used to use only eggs+sugar+flour sponges for my cakes but they seemed so bland, I wanted something else.
It will be a do-over tonight, and hopefully I can still use one of the layers from last night in the cake, so I get a nice 5" tall final cake.
*Fingers Crossed*
AI forgot to say the recipe made 5.5 cups of batter, and it rose (for me) to an almost 3" tall cake the first time, this is why I meant to "quadruplicate" the recipe this time so I get almost 12 cups per batch = 2 nice taller layers.
So doing more research, I found this tool! http://keikos-cake.com/panconversion.html
Has any of you tried it?
Thanks all who's read my ordeal. I shouldn't take it so seriously... I just hate to waste ingredients & time. I love doing this, and I hate it when I'm sloppy.
Well you could do 2.5 times the recipe. In the US, the standard height of a cake is 4".
AGoing well I think! [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3189671/width/200/height/400[/IMG]
AYayy thanks girls! I think it did :) [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3191032/width/200/height/400[/IMG]
Customer was very happy. I think it could have been better. I'll organize timing better next time :)
It's cute and I hope they enjoyed it. I like the bright colors and the hearts!
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