Help! My best friend has asked me to make her wedding cake! Im honoured of course but she wants a 16 inch carrot cake as the bottom tier!!!! I've been making cakes now for about 2 years and I'm still very much an amateur! The one thing I can't get my head around is scaling up recipies! Can anyone give me any advice! I'm panicing and I've got a whole year to practice lol xxx
it's simply straight up multiplication -- most cake mixes make about five cups of batter -- cake recipes will yield six to eight cups of batter --
then this handy little chart http://www.wilton.com/wedding-cake-guide/cms-wedding-cake-data.html tells you how many cups for each size pan --
and if you don't know exactly how many cups your recipe makes -- guestimate -- any extra can go into cupcakes --
if you come across information about doing some weird calculation with the leavening -- just ignore that and just multiply it out with all the other ingredients -- it works -- it is as easy as it seems -- no worries --
if you go with a scratch carrot cake -- make your carrot pieces micro mini small so they slice and serve well --
you will gain a ton of confidence if you make the whole shebang including delivery in advance well before your event -- maybe you already do weddings though but anyway --
best to you
I have a chart with the areas of many of the pans I own, and I can easily up or downscale a recipe if I already know what size that recipe yields. (see below) If you know the volume of batter your recipe yields, you could also simply fill the pans you will be using with water and measure how much batter it would require, but going by areas makes it so easy. If you ignore the depth and assume it will be the same for all pans, you don't need to include it in the calculation. If you want the larger pans to be filled deeper, then go up a little of course. I always go over when in doubt, and like K8memphis says - you can always make cupcakes, or a little 4 or 6" round with the extra and freeze it for later.
you didn't mention how much your current recipe yields, or if the 16" is round or square.
a 9" round pan is 63.5 square inches. If your current recipe makes 2 9" rounds that is 127 square inches for 2 9" pans. a 16" round pan is 201 square inches. a 16" square pan is 256 square inches. (if you assume the same depth for all sizes that can omitted from the calculation).
1.5 times 127 is 190.5, which is very close to 201 for the 16" round pan, the 16 " would be just a little taller. Make the recipe 1 1/2 times
2 times 127 is 254 which is virtually the same as the 16" square pan. double the recipe
If your recipe fills these sizes
2 8" pans - 100.5 square inches
1 9 x 12 rectangle - 108 square inches
then double it for a single 16" round, 2.5 times for a 16" square. hope that helps.
PAN AREAS
SQUARE
8" 64
9" 81
10 " 100
12" 144
14” 196
16” 256
RECTANGLE
9 x 12 108
11 x 15 165
12 x 18 216
ROUNDS
5” 20
6" 28.25
7” 38.5
8" 50.25
9" 63.5
10" 78.5
11“ 95
12" 113
14” 154
16” 201
2 ROUNDS
6" 56.5
7” 77.0
8" 100.5
9 " 127
10" 157
12" 226
HEX
6” 23.5
9” 52.5
12” 93.5
15’ 146
18” 210.5
This thread will also give you lots of info on how to upscale recipes......especially the post(s) by Jeff Arnett towards what is now the end of the thread.
I suck at math. Completely and utterly.
I just double or triple my go-to recipes and through experience I now know how much more or less I need for certain pan combinations (I know my biggest pan needs x 7 of my chocolate cake recipe). If I have any extra batter then I just make a few cupcakes and pop them in the freezer ready for tasting sessions.
How do u know how long or what temperature to bake them with that method? Was it just trial and error? Xxxx
A little bit, I guess but I never really had any issues with temp.
My rule of thumb is the bigger the cake, the lower the temp and longer cooking time. Smaller cakes and cuppies, higher temp. If I want a dome on a cuppier, higher temp. If I want it flat, lower temp.
I check 6" and 8" cakes at around the 40min mark and can tell from there how much longer they need. Bigger cakes I leave for about an hour before checking.
My cuppies generally take between 15-22 mins depending on which recipe I'm using and what temp I'm at (dome or flat).
Maybe I've just been really lucky?!
ANother way to know when I cake is done or nearly so, is to rely on your nose to help you:) When you can smell that wonderful aroma throughout the house it is ready:)
I have found if a cake has pulled away from the sides of the pan it most likely is overbaked. You need to check of them after about 20 minutes relying on your nose to help you
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