Cake baking help please!

[VictoriaL]

I am baking a cake from a boxed mix and will be using one 11x17 pan and one 10" round pan (to make a giant heart). Will two boxed mixes work? I'd just make the two mixes together in my KA and fill the pans evenly. Or would it be too much batter?

On another note, this will hopefully serve about 35 people. Should I use 4 boxes and make a two-layer cake?

I don't do this often, and this is the first time I've tried to make anything other than a 3-layer 10" diameter cake for this annual birthday picnic. Help would be GREATLY appreciated!

[MISSINDI]

On the serving size, I would think you'd have to cut them very carefully and small to get 35, no? On the batter mix question, I think you'll have some batter leftover with 2 boxes but why not just use the extra to make some cupcakes?

[sneezles]

The average boxed cake mix will yield 4 to 5 1/2 cups of batter. An 11 x 17 sheet pan will require about 10 cups (assuming it's 2" in depth and you fill the pan 2/3 full) so I'd use 2 boxes just for that pan.
The 10" round pan requires 6 cups of batter (again the same assumption as to depth and filling) so you'd need a third box of mix.
The combined should yield around 35 servings (allowing for some loss of cake due to shaping...without shaping the cakes would yield about 42 servings). A party slice is usually about 1 1/2" x 2" (wedding servings are a bit smaller at 1" x 2").
Cakes bakes in pans larger than 10" should really be baked with a heat core wrap. Wilton makes them. They are strips of cloth, with a "silver" outer layer that you soak in water then wrap around the outside of the pan to help with even baking. You can achieve the same result with multi-thickness of soaked newspaper strips...just much messier.


Back to add: I always measure the batter when using large pans so I wouldn't suggest that you just fill the pans evenly.

[hmclaugh]

Vicotora

If you are using a Duncan Hines mix open up the inside of the box and there is
a chart printed on the inside that will tell you how many cups of batter you need for odd shaped pans. It used to tell serving sizes but I am not sure it does that anymore.

If you have ever taken a cake decorating class or have any equipment you can you a flower nail to do what Sneezles has said, because it should have some sort of heat core in the middle. Just put the flower nail in upside down and when you flip the cake out of the pan you pull it out and it leaves a very tiny hole. I also reccomend the strips be put around the cake for even baking.

[VictoriaL]

Thanks guys. It's a Betty Crocker mix, so no handy chart on the inside. :( But I appreciate the flower-nail trick for the larger pan. I have seen the "even cake-baking strips" in cookware shops but do not want to invest since I bake cakes so seldom. And thanks also for the "cups" info, Sneezles.

[schuh]

If you have ever taken a cake decorating class or have any equipment you can you a flower nail to do what Sneezles has said, because it should have some sort of heat core in the middle. Just put the flower nail in upside down and when you flip the cake out of the pan you pull it out and it leaves a very tiny hole. I also reccomend the strips be put around the cake for even baking.

I'm not sure I understand. What does putting a flower nail inside the cake do? Reduce the dome on top? I'd love an alternative to the strips. I hate those darn strips. They are hard to get around the pan and they are always slipping off.

[sneezles]

Tracy,
The flower nail acts like a heating element to help ensure the cake is baked in the middle. The strips help to ensure that the cake doesn't dome. I've never had a problem with the strips falling off. Do you soak yours first?

[schuh]

Sneezles, I do soak the strips first. Maybe it's because my cake pans have slightly sloped sides that the strips slip (say that three times fast!).

I'm feeling very dense, but still don't get the cake nail idea. My cakes always cook in the middle, and I test them with a toothpick to make sure they do. I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm just not sure I understand the point of it.

[sneezles]

Tracy,
I've never used it either but in theory it's suppose to ensure the middle is baked. I do have a 16" round pan that I probably should use it in but I've only ever made a cake using that pan a couple of times and I guess I was lucky.

[schuh]

Thanks for your patient explanation, sneezles.

I have a 13 by 18 pan that's fairly big (double of 13 by 9). I've never had trouble with cake baking in it, but maybe I should try the nail idea. With my luck, though, it would take a huge lump of cake when I removed the nail. :rolleyes:

[HealthyinMN]

Thanks for your patient explanation, sneezles.

I have a 13 by 18 pan that's fairly big (double of 13 by 9). I've never had trouble with cake baking in it, but maybe I should try the nail idea. With my luck, though, it would take a huge lump of cake when I removed the nail. :rolleyes:

I have done this trick a couple times before and it has never done that - just a tiny hole was left :) I use it in conjunction with the baking strips.