How Much Cake Batter Do I Need Per Pan?

There are several techniques for calculating how much cake batter you need for various sized cake pans, as well as simpler alternatives that do not need counting cups of batter.

This is a frequently asked question: how do I calculate how much cake batter I need for a certain pan? It may be challenging and at times perplexing. It’s difficult to determine how many cups of batter, or how many batches of batter, you’ll need to fill all of the pans.

This page contains estimation suggestions for the quantity of cake batter you should use in your pans, especially for some of the most common sized pans, as well as estimation methods for various cake tasks.

In this article, I’ll show you many methods for estimating the quantity of cake batter you’ll need for your cake. I’ll also provide a helpful chart so you can see how much batter you’ll need for different pan sizes straight immediately.

(Also, keep a look out for a free printable guide that you can download.)

I’ll go through how I estimate how much batter to use (it’s a lot simpler technique in my view), give you some examples, and then point you to another useful chart if you want to estimate it differently than I do.

Now, let’s go through all of your alternatives for estimating how much batter you’ll need, as well as the approach I believe is the simplest.

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Different Ways to Estimate the Amount of Cake Batter You’ll Need:

There are many methods for estimating the quantity of cake batter required:

• Estimating by cups entails utilizing a chart to determine how many cups of batter you’ll need for each pan.
• Experience and winging it, which involves learning through trial and error and basically estimating how much batter you’ll need).
• My strategy, which is a hybrid, is to estimate how much batter is required depending on how many cake recipe batches will fill the pans.

Lets go into detail for each method:

Essentially, you must determine how many cups your cake recipe yields. Then you consult a chart for the pans you’ll be using to determine how many cups of batter you’ll need for those sizes.

Then you’ll calculate how many cake recipes you’ll need to create depending on the number of cups that specific pans demand.

Here’s a link to Wilton’s chart on the subject: Wiltons Cake Batter Recipe

(I have major concerns with the cups approach, so keep reading to find out why it isn’t my favourite way.)

The Easiest Method (and what I personally use):

First, let me state that my method is not accurate. You’re just guessing, but you come quite close, and it’s less confusing in my perspective.

If you want more precise measurements, you may use the guessing by cups approach described previously in this piece or perform a Google search for formulae for calculating the volume of each pan.

There are online spreadsheets that will accomplish this for you. That is not my style.

• Essentially, you’ll need to first construct a dish and measure out the quantity of cups. That may not seem like a huge problem, but who thinks about doing that? I don’t, and whenever I do, it’s too late since I’ve already put it to the pans.

• Another concern is what recipe the charts are based on. Some cake batter recipes are thin, while others are thick.

• Some cake recipes yield more batter than others. My recipes seem to be thicker and make somewhat more batter than normal in order for them to rise and level with the top of the pan.

• Some recipes bake up higher, while others need you to load your pan somewhat more. Some individuals buy cake mixes, while others make their own cake recipes from scratch.

My argument is that, although the cups approach seems to be accurate.I’m not sure how it could be that precise.

I assumed that even if I prepared a recipe and calculated how many cups of cake batter it contained, I’d still have to calculate how many recipe batches to produce depending on the number of cups a certain cake pan needed.

When you have to count the cups, it seems like an extra step.

I’ve always had more success doing things my way, which I’m going to share with you. It’s hardly rocket science, but it was created out of a need to find a better approach to estimate the quantity required than counting cups.

I simply didn’t want to count cups or deal with complicated math.

Call me lazy, but being really precise isn’t essential to me.I’m not concerned about obtaining the correct volume. I simply want to obtain as close to an estimate as feasible in the shortest period of time.

In general, one cake recipe yields two 8-inch round cake layers or a 139-inch cake layer. It can sometimes create three 6 round cake layers, albeit those layers may be a bit thinner.

Most cake recipes provide that amount, but you may need to modify if your recipe yields three 8-inch round cake layers or another variant. Just be aware of your starting point.

For me, knowing how much my recipe creates in terms of how many pans it would fill (not cups) actually helps me estimate how much batter Ill need for a certain pan.

I also believe that knowing your recipes is essential. My cake recipes produce somewhat more batter. Some of my cakes employ the reverse creaming process (more on that in this post: Types of Mixing Methods), and when I use that approach, the cakes seem to be a little flatter on top, and I prefer to have extra batter in each pan to achieve a higher cake layer.

So it’s critical to understand how your cake recipe performs best. Knowing how tall your specific cake recipe rises can help you determine how high to fill your pans.

It’s OK if the recipe calls for two 8-inch round cake layers but you only have 9-inch pans. Just keep in mind that the layers will be thinner and you may need to bake them for shorter time, so keep an eye on them.

Later, we’ll speak about converting a two-layer cake recipe to three pans.

So what happens when you want three layers instead of two? Most of my recipes (as well as most other generic cake recipes) provide enough cake batter to fit two 8-inch circular cake pans.

To make up the difference, just create another half batch of cake batter. Basically, you’ll make a recipe batch and a half.

The batches do not need to be mixed individually. Simply double your recipe and add another half to it. This is what it will look like:

A recipe and a half (assuming the original recipe called for two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans) yields three layers.

Example 6: Two-tiered cake – Top tier = 8-inches and Bottom tier = 10-inches (three layers each tier)

Okay, it becomes a bit more complicated if you’re creating numerous cakes, and it will depend on whether you want to mix up all of the batter at once or make one layer at a time. I like to vary things up a little, and I’ll explain why.

For this cake youll need:

• Three, 10-inch cake layers (for the bottom tier)
• Three, 8-inch cake layers (for the top tier)

Heres how you can break that down:

• So, as we discussed in Example 5, you’ll need a recipe and a half to make two, 10-inch round cakes.
• If you just doubled a recipe, you may have three, ten cakes. (One recipe yields enough batter for two 16-inch cake pans, or two 8-inch pans. So a double batch would be enough for a 32-inch cake pan, which would be enough for three 10-inch pans.)

If you don’t have three 10-inch cake pans or your oven isn’t big enough to fit three 10-inch cake pans, you can still make two batches of batter and fill two 10-inch round cake pans plus an 8-inch round cake pan. You simply have to make do with what you’ve got.

So you’ll still need to bake one more 10 cake layer plus two more 8 layers at that time. That means you can create another double quantity of cake batter (equivalent to 32 inches of cake pan space) and have enough for those three pans (plus maybe a few more cupcakes).

Essentially, you should consider how many pans you have and how much oven space you have first. You could make a ton of cake batter, but how will it fit in your oven, or what if you run out of pans?

It’s ideal to bake the batter straight away, otherwise your cake won’t rise as well, so prepare ahead of time and decide out what layers you’ll bake at each stage of the procedure.

If you need to refrigerate cake batter, you should read this page for some useful hints: How Long Will Cake Batter Keep?

For this cake youll need:

• Three, 8-inch cake layers (for the bottom tier)
• Three, 6-inch cake layers (for the top tier)

Heres how you can break that down:

Make a batch and a half of cake batter for the three layers of 8 round cakes. (Be sure to check out Example 4 to see how that’s done.)

You have a few of options for the three, six-layer cake. You may use just one batch of cake batter, but your cake layers will be thinner, which is OK if you don’t mind.

If you want thicker layers, use a batch and a half like you did with the three 8-inch cake pans, but you’ll have enough cake batter left over for cupcakes.

If you only have two of each size pan:

Another option, particularly if you only have two pans of each size, is to make one batch of cake batter and bake two layers of the 8 round cakes first.

Then make another batch and finish the remaining 8 cake pans and a 6 cake pan. Finally, make one more batch and bake the remaining two 6 pans. You’ll have a little more batter left over if you use this approach, but if you only have two pans for each size, you’ll have to handle things differently.

If you have a novelty pan (such as a football pan or a ball pan), the pan instructions will generally tell you how much batter you’ll need for it.

Now, this approach of mine is not accurate, but what I’m saying is that nothing is. I usually lean on the side of creating a little too much because I believe it is the safest way to go.

Free Printable Reference Guide:

I hope this was useful, and I’m happy to help you troubleshoot any cake batter estimations you have, but just remember that we’re all just making educated guesses, and the more you do it, the better you’ll become at guessing how much batter you’ll need.