Swap the pan, keep the cake
A recipe is written for one pan. Put it in another and the cake comes out thin and dry or deep and raw in the middle. The fix is to scale the recipe by how much bigger or smaller your pan is, so the batter sits just as deep.
Panful draws both pans at their true size on top of each other, so you can see the difference, then scales your ingredient list into measures you actually own.
Pan areas
| Pan | Area | × from a 9 × 13 |
|---|---|---|
| 8-inch round | 50 in² | ×0.43 |
| 9-inch round | 64 in² | ×0.54 |
| 10-inch round | 79 in² | ×0.67 |
| 8 × 8 in square | 64 in² | ×0.55 |
| 9 × 9 in square | 81 in² | ×0.69 |
| 7 × 11 in | 77 in² | ×0.66 |
| 9 × 13 in | 117 in² | ×1.00 |
| 9 × 5 in loaf | 45 in² | ×0.38 |
Questions
How do I convert a recipe to a different pan size?
Compare the pans' areas and multiply every ingredient by yours divided by the recipe's. A round pan's area is π × radius², a square or rectangle's is width × length. An 8-inch round is 50 square inches and a 9-inch round is 64, so going from 8 to 9 takes 1.27 times the recipe. The batter then sits just as deep, so it bakes the way the recipe intended.
Do I need to change the baking time?
If you scale the recipe, the batter is the same depth, so keep the temperature and start checking about 5 minutes early. If you pour the recipe as it is into a different pan, a thinner layer bakes faster (check 5 to 10 minutes early) and a deeper one bakes slower. Test with a skewer either way.
How full should a cake pan be?
About half to two-thirds. Most cake batter fills a pan about halfway. Past two-thirds it can rise over the top, so Panful warns you and suggests baking the extra as cupcakes.
What's half of ¾ cup?
6 tablespoons, or ¼ cup + 2 tbsp. A cup is 16 tablespoons and a tablespoon is 3 teaspoons, so Panful turns every odd amount into the cups, spoons and teaspoons in a standard measuring set.
What do I do with part of an egg?
Beat the eggs together and weigh what you need: a large egg is about 50 g out of the shell. For 1⅔ eggs, beat 2 and use 83 g.
Does it convert cups to grams?
No, on purpose. Panful keeps your recipe's own units, so there are no guesses about how much a cup of your flour weighs. Grams stay grams, cups stay cups.