How Long Do You Bake A Cake If It Is In A Pan Half The Size Of The Recipe

Award-winning cookbook author Alice Medrich is here to assistance y'all bake smarter, not harder, with game-changing recipes and aha-moment techniques. Today, we're breaking down a question nosotros've asked ourselves, oh, a million times: How do nosotros adapt cake pan sizes in blistering recipes? (Say, something calls for a 8x8-inch, simply yous only have an 9x9.) Alice will show you with just a little math.

The brownie recipe you want to make calls for an eight-inch foursquare pan, just your but square pan is a 9-inch. Should you adventure it? Mayhap you want to double or triple a recipe only you aren't certain which pan to utilize, or maybe y'all have a specific large pan simply don't know how many times to multiply your recipe in order to fill up it.

How do you adapt different cake pan sizes for different recipes?

The answers to these and like questions (asked incessantly in cooking classes!) exercise not involve rocket science, but just plenty uncomplicated schoolhouse math to calculate the area of a foursquare, rectangle, or circle. I honey the math (and I've included a little math review below if you want to brush upwards), but I'm sharing my chart in case you don't have my thing for math.

The handy list below (or some bones math, also explained beneath) will tell you the surface area of your pan. Once you lot know the expanse of any pan, you can compare information technology to the area of another pan to see how much bigger or smaller it is. You lot can divide the surface area of a large pan by the area of a pocket-size pan to figure out how many times to multiply a recipe to fill the larger pan with the same depth of concoction (more on that afterward).

Handy list (with the numbers rounded up to the nearest inch):

Area of square/rectangle pans:

half-dozen 10 6 = 36 foursquare inches
7 ten vii = 49 square inches
8 x 8 = 64 foursquare inches
ix x 9 = 81 square inches
9 x 13 = 117 foursquare inches
12 x 16 (one-half-sheet pan) = 192 foursquare inches

Area of circular pans:

Geometry review:

I don't always have the nautical chart at mitt; I often just do the math!

For squares and rectangles: The expanse of a foursquare or rectangular pan is calculated by multiplying one side times the other side. The area of an 8-inch square is 64 foursquare inches because eight ten 8 = 64; the area of a ix x 13-inch pan is 117 square inches because 9 x 13 = 117. Easy.

For rounds: The expanse of a circle equals π times the radius squared. In case you don't remember, π = three.14; the radius of a circle is one-half of its diameter; and squaring ways multiplying a number by itself. Gear up? To calculate the area of an 8-inch round pan, multiply 3.14 (π) by four (considering it's half of 8) times iv. Thus, the area of an 8-inch circumvolve is three.fourteen x four ten four, approximately 50 square inches. Not so hard!

Just by glancing at the two pans, yous might think that a ix-inch pan is very close in size to an 8-inch pan of the aforementioned shape, thus making information technology a reasonable substitute. But if you lot check the chart, yous'll detect that a 9-inch square pan is more than than 25% larger than an viii-inch square pan. (The relationship betwixt a 9-inch and eight-inch circular pan is like.) Such a considerable difference volition consequence in a 9-inch batch of very sparse brownies that may be over-baked by the time you cheque them for doneness (considering thin brownies bake faster than thick ones). Knowing this beforehand, you can increase the recipe past 25% for results as thick than the original recipe intended. If you lot desire brownies that are even a tad thicker than the original recipe, yous tin can even increase the recipe by 33%.

Let's attempt an example: How many times should you multiply an 8-inch brownie recipe to make full a ix- x xiii-inch pan or a 12- x 16-inch half sheet? To figure this out, dissever the area of the larger pan by the surface area of the 8-inch pan.

For the 9- x thirteen-inch pan: 117 divided past 64 = i.82, which is shut enough to 2 that y'all can confidently double the recipe for the larger pan.
For the half sail: 192 divided by 64 is exactly 3, and so you tin can multiply the recipe times three.

Using similar math, you lot tin can calculate how many times to multiply the recipe for a round cake to make a large rectangular sheet cake. And don't forget that you don't always have to multiply recipes by whole numbers—it'southward perfectly fine to multiply a recipe past one 1/2 or two 2/3.

About now, you might be wondering nigh eggs. It's prissy if you can increment recipes and then that you don't take to deal with fractions of eggs—by increasing a 2-egg batter by i 1/2 or a three-egg batter by i/3 or 2/3, for instance—just it is not essential.

Hither's what to practice if you multiply a recipe and stop up needing part of an egg: Set aside whatever whole eggs you lot need. Next, whisk the other egg to blend the white and yolk; counterbalance information technology (preferably in grams); then weigh out the fraction of the egg that yous need for the recipe and add that to the whole eggs. If you need 40% of a 50-gram egg, that's 20 grams of the whisked egg. When egg whites and yolks are used separately, weigh and mensurate them in the same way, just separately. Add leftover egg parts to your morning scramble. Run into, no waste and still no rocket scientific discipline!

The chart (or your power to practise the math) is extremely valuable: Use it but don't be a slave to information technology. When I make brownies in a big quantity, I like them to exist nigh the aforementioned thickness as they are in a small batch, so I stay close to the chart. But, when I increase the dimensions of a birthday cake, I oftentimes brand it a fleck taller than the original (in other words, I round upwardly when multiplying) because the proportions are visually more pleasing. For example, if I am making a 12-inch round cake using a recipe meant for an 8-inch pan, I divide the area of the 12-inch circular pan (113) by the area of the 8-inch round (50 inches) and become ii.26. Only instead of multiplying the recipe by just 2.26, I might multiply it by 3 so that the cake will turn out tall and lofty. See: Honey the nautical chart, but don't let information technology bully you!

When you round things up like that, don't go overboard: Pans should non be filled more than well-nigh ii/3 full or batter may overflow. If you lot practise finish upwards with too much batter, scrape the excess into cupcake molds or a mini cake pan—bonus cakes never become uneaten!

When you increase recipes and bake in larger pans, yous should conceptualize longer baking—anywhere from a little longer if the pans are filled to the same level as the original recipe to considerably longer if you are making the block taller by filling the pan a flake more. If you are making a smaller amount of the recipe, check earlier than you recollect you need. And always utilize a cake tester to check to see if the cake is finished.

Here are 10 baking recipes to put your newfound knowledge to good employ:

1. Triple-Chocolate Olive Oil Brownies

Bloodshot chocolate, chocolate syrup, and Dutch-procedure cocoa powder make these brownies as chocolatey equally can be. We honey the olive oil's grassy flavor, only feel free to swap in canola if you're not a fan.

2. Cook's Illustrated's Blondies

Meet the blondie recipe that will ruin you for all others. Don't say we didn't warn y'all! Fabricated with melted butter, they're just as gooey and fudgy as a blondie should be.

iii. Peanut Butter Sheet Cake

"Bake this peanut butter sheet block for birthday parties, celebrations, or only because," writes recipe programmer EmilyC. "It's so piece of cake to assemble, feeds a crowd, and will put a smile on everyone's face."

4. Magic Cookie Bars

When nosotros say magic, we hateful it. These classic cookie bars include graham cracker crumbs, sweetened condensed milk, semisweet chocolate chips, toasted basics, shredded kokosnoot, and kokosnoot flakes. Oh, and butter, because of form.

5. Lemon Confined With a Salty Olive Oil Chaff

While most lemon bar crusts are butter-based, like a classic shortbread, this one opts for a modern upgrade: olive oil instead. A generous pinch of salt brings out the olive oil's savoriness in a manner the lemons really love. Serve actress-cold with confectioners' saccharide dusted on top.

Additional ideas from the editors:

vi. Minnie Utsey's No-Neglect Cornbread

This recipe is exactly as its name promises: no-fail. For that reason, I come dorsum to it time and time once again anytime a cornbread craving hits. Scale information technology up or down as needed, simply I guarantee at that place will be none left over.

7. Mochi Banana Bread

"What happens to archetype banana bread when you swap in sweet rice flour?" asks recipe developer Joy Cho. "The result is neither wholly mochi nor traditional banana breadstuff—information technology'south a lovely in-between, decidedly familiar with a fun textural twist." Gummy rice flour brings mochi'southward signature chewy texture to the earth of assistant bread. Even amend: it requires only about half the fourth dimension in the oven equally a typical banana breadstuff would.

viii. Powdered Donut Cake

This bright dessert mashup comes from Snacking Cakes (the book, merely besides the concept) queen, Yossy Arefi. Information technology'due south low-cal and fluffy with all the powdered saccharide goodness of your favorite childhood donut holes. The best office? Arefi encourages experimentation and fifty-fifty provides suggested measurements for various pan sizes.

9. Madeira Cake

This simple European cake is so much more delicious than the sum of its parts. Lite sponge flavored with merely a hint of citrus, this block is the perfect accompaniment to a loving cup of coffee or tea, or even fortified vino (just like its name implies!)

10. Chocolate Cake With Peanut Butter Frosting & Salty Peanuts

For the chocolate-peanut butter lovers in your life. This may merely be their dream birthday block, and now you tin can easily scale it to accommodate any number of guests.

This article was originally published in June 2015. Nosotros refreshed it for this summer, because we're very, very excited about our summer dessert to-practise list. What are your tricks for adapting recipes to different pan sizes? Tell us in the comments!