Have you ever come across the recipe you’d love to try but found that you don’t have the right cake pan size? With this cake pan converter, this will never be a problem again! Using our tool is a piece of cake 🍰: input the size and shape of a recipe’s baking pan, enter the dimensions of your own pan, and you’ll get the conversion rate in the blink of an eye.
What’s more, in the second part of the calculator, you can choose the cake’s ingredients and how much of them are needed in the original recipe, and we’ll recalculate all the amounts for you.
Also, you can look at our tips on adjusting baking time for different size pans. Baking pan sizes come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but with this calculator, it’s a not big deal – bake and have fun, and don’t worry about conversions!
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Baking can be a fun, exciting, and delicious activity provided we have the recipe, ingredients, and the necessary equipment. However, I’m sure we’ve all experienced a time when we didn’t have the exact tools the recipe required. In this instance, we’ve probably found ourselves asking a question similar to, “can I double a recipe for an 8×8 pan?”
When it comes to baking anything, it’s very important to try and get the measurements as precise as possible. One slight error can unfortunately ruin even the tastiest of recipes. The image of a delicious cake in the oven is suddenly replaced by the picture of a disastrous attempt.
Fortunately, there’s something we can do about this particular issue. We know how tricky recipes can be, but we also know that baking is a matter of measurement. It just takes a little math to tweak any recipe to bake your favorite dish.
If the recipe calls for a 10-inch tube pan, what can you use as a substitute? And, if you’re confused about your baking pan’s capacity, what trick can you use to figure it out? Be able to answer all of these questions and more by reading our article.
If you find yourself frequently dabbling in the art of baking, it’s probably a good idea to be aware of all the different types of baking pan conversions. With our baking pan conversion chart and other helpful tips, you’ll never have to worry about burning your cake, cheesecake, or another type of dessert ever again.
How to Convert Pan Sizes for Baking:
Trying to fit a square cake into a round pan? Find out how much batter you’ll need. Plus, here’s a handy-dandy infographic to help you out:
If you have an unusual pan size and would like to figure out its capacity, measure the amount of water it takes to fill the pan.
- Compare that measurement to the volumes in our chart (or the cake pan size listed in your recipe) to determine how much batter you’ll need.
- To ensure a cake rises evenly, you should only fill your pans to the half-way mark.
- The baking time may change as well, so it’s imperative that you keep a watchful eye on your cake, and check to see if it’s ready using your preferred method.
- It’s always better to have a little extra batter, rather than not enough. Once you’ve filled the pans half-full, use any remaining batter to bake a few cupcakes.
Baking Pan Conversion Chart
- Find top-rated cake recipes and the icings and frostings that turn them into masterpieces.
- Learn how to take your cakes from good to great.
- Get tips for baking perfect cheesecakes.
FAQ
To measure your cake pan:
- Take a ruler or a measuring tape.
- Place it so you can read the distance between the two opposite inner lips of the cake pan.
For a round baking tin, do it at its widest point – in the middle.
If you have a rectangular cake pan, remember to measure the lengths of both sides. - For a round baking tin, do it at its widest point – in the middle.
- If you have a rectangular cake pan, remember to measure the lengths of both sides.
- For height, measure from the surface (e.g., table) to the top edge of the cake tin.
How do I convert a cake recipe to a larger pan?
To convert your cake recipe to a different pan size:
- Measure your cake pan.
- Work out its volume.
If the heights are the same, you can use the surface area instead. - If the heights are the same, you can use the surface area instead.
- Divide the volume of your cake tin by the recommended pan’s volume to find the ratio.
- Multiply the original amounts of ingredients by the ratio.
What is half of a 9-inch cake pan?
A 6.35-inch pan would be half of a 9-inch round cake pan of the same height. Cake tins are compared by their volumes, which are proportional to their radii². Therefore, you can’t just halve the diameter.
How to convert 7-inch cake pans to other sizes?
To convert a 7-inch round cake pan to other sizes, calculate its volume and use it as a divider to find the volume ratio between the two baking tins.
For example, to convert to a 9-inch cake pan, you’ll need to multiply the amount of each ingredient by 63.6/38.5 ≈ 1.65.
What Is Double An 8×8 Pan?
An 8×8 pan is a square cake pan that’s not commonly used. However, when we ask what is double an 8×8 pan, the answer isn’t a 16×16 pan. Before you think this is too confusing, let’s break this down a little more for clarification.
When we ask if we can double a recipe for an 8×8 pan, what we’re really trying to figure out is whether or not the mixture can fit a standard-sized cake pan. In most American households, a 9×13 pan is considered the standard size and what most people use. So for recipes that require an 8×8 pan, there’s still a way to bake that recipe even with a 9×13 pan.
With the 8×8 pan being a square and the 9×13 pan being a rectangle, there is a slight potential to ruin your dish if the measurements are not precise when swapping out one pan for the other. Which updates our original question to, will a double an 8×8 pan’s recipe work for a 9×13 pan? The answer is, yes.
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9×9 Pan vs. 8×8 Pan
Let’s deal with a slightly trickier calculation now. What is the difference between an 8×8 pan and a 9×9 pan? They look similar so maybe you can just use the same recipe, right?
Unfortunately, the difference between an 8×8 pan and a 9×9 pan is a lot more than what meets the eye. So let’s run the numbers to get a better idea.
- The surface area of an 8×8 pan is 64 inches.
- The surface area of a 9×9 pan is 81 inches.
To Use a 9×9 Pan Recipe for An 8×8 Pan
Since the 9×9 pan is 17 inches bigger, you will have to reduce the measurements when using the same recipe for an 8×8 pan. The closest to 17 is 16.2. So, you would have to reduce the measurements of the individual ingredients by 20% to use the recipe for an 8×8 pan.
To Use an 8×8 Pan Recipe for a 9×9 Pan
In this case, you would have to increase the measurements when using an 8×8 recipe for a 9×9 pan. The closest is again 16, hence, you would increase the measurements by 25%. In short, the 9×9 pan is 25% bigger than the 8×8 cake pan.
How to adjust baking time for different size pans?
Well, we don’t have any breakthrough rules or fancy formulas that fit everything here – it’s not possible as each and every cake recipe is unique. Instead, we’ll present some general tips on how to adjust baking time for different size pans:
- Baking time does not change to the same ratio as the volume of ingredients. That may sound obvious, but let’s make it crystal clear – if you double the ingredients, the time shouldn’t be doubled.
- By making a larger cake than the recipe and choosing a larger pan, you can expect longer baking times. The time may be only a bit longer if you fill the pan to the same height as the original recipe. If your converted recipe makes the cake much taller, then you might need to leave the cake in the oven for a substantially longer time.
- Use a cake tester to check if your cake is done. You can go for one of those fancy metal cake testers, but skewers and wooden toothpicks work equally well (or even better, as they hold raw batter way better than metal).
Generally speaking, use your intuition and common sense and check if your cake is done more often than if you’re using the original recipe.
How to Convert a Recipe From 9×13 to 8×8?
Now that we know it’s possible to double an 8×8 recipe to fit a 9×13 pan, let’s see if the reverse is also true. If you find yourself with an 8×8 pan and a 9×13 recipe, how do you convert the recipe to fit these new dimensions? The answer is simple. Just cut the recipe by half. Let’s take another look at those calculations we started with earlier.
A 9×13 pan has an area of 117 inches. When you divide this by 2, you get 58.5 inches.
A nice 8×8 pan has an area of 64 inches. The difference is just 5.5 inches.
Is an 8×8 pan half the size of a 9×13, then? Not quite, but pretty close. An 8×8 pan is almost half the size of a 9×13 pan, so cutting the recipe in half is the easiest way to achieve the same result. Aside from halving the recipe, not much else is needed. However, it’s a good rule of thumb to always monitor the time, and temperature, with any changes you make to a recipe.
What About Eggs?
One aspect we rarely consider is the ingredients that are easy to adjust and those that are not so easy. When the recipe calls for an even number of eggs, it’s easy to half or double the count. However, what if the recipe requires an odd number of eggs? An easy way to measure out eggs is to separate the yolk and the whites and measure each part individually. Then, use a measuring tool to portion each part equally as the recipe requires.
How to use the cake pan converter? ○ ⇨ ◯, ◯ ⇨ 🟥
Imagine, if you would, this situation: it’s a lazy Saturday morning, you’re scrolling through your social media, and a tempting picture of a chocolate cake appears on your feed. Mmmmm, that sounds like the perfect plan for your weekend. But, unfortunately, all you have is a rectangular 7 × 11 × 2 inch pan, while the recipe says something about a round 6-inch cake pan (and that’s definitely not enough for your needs, isn’t it?). So what can you do to overcome that issue? You can, of course, use this cake pan converter:
- You can use the second part of the calculator – the list of ingredients. Enter your products’ names into the fields, change the unit to the one you need, and input the amount required by the recipe. Don’t worry, you can add up to 15 ingredients in our calculator – the next field will appear after you fill in the previous one. So, if our recipe for a 6-inch cake pan looks like this:
3/4 cup of flour
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of vegetable oil - 3/4 cup of flour
- 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1/3 cup of vegetable oil
- We’ll get the recalculated list for our baking pan size:
2 cups of flour
1.4 cups of cocoa
0.7 tsp of salt
2.7 cups of sugar
0.9 cups of oil - 2 cups of flour
- 1.4 cups of cocoa
- 0.7 tsp of salt
- 2.7 cups of sugar
- 0.9 cups of oil
If you want to change the units of your ingredients (for example, from grams to cups), make sure to use the cooking measurement converter. Don’t forget that larger amounts of batter may require a longer baking time.
Great! Now that you know how to convert the pan size to your needs, you can also check out our cake serving calculator – it comes in immeasurable help if you’re estimating the size of the cake you need for your party 🎂🎉.
Baking pan sizes
In the table below, we’ve gathered some standard baking pan sizes. The two columns show the approximate volume of the pan: remember it’s the volume of the whole pan. Usually, you’ll put less batter than the full volume to avoid the batter overflowing, so you may fill it only 1/2-2/3 of the full capacity, depending on the cake type.
Remember that there are plenty of baking pan sizes on the market. The best method of making sure what the size of your pan is, of course, is to measure it yourself. If your pan is:
- Round, then by measuring the diameter and height, you can calculate its volume (check out the formula for the volume of a cylinder).
- Rectangular – determining the length, width and height is essential in finding the baking pan volume (it’s the volume of a rectangular cuboid).
If you know the pan dimensions, you can do the volume calculations manually. Alternately, use the Advanced mode of this cake pan converter to find the volume of your baking pan.
Square Vs. Round
When considering the shape of a pan, a crucial point to remember is the difference between a square and a round pan. The surface area of a round pan is calculated using the formula πr
r= radius (half of the diameter)
So, the measurements of an 8-inch round pan would be π(4) = 3.14*4*4 = 50.2 inches.
A 9-inch round pan has a surface area of π(4.5)= 3.14*4.5*4.5 = 63.5 inches.
In order to use an 8×8 square pan recipe for a 9-inch round pan, you would need to increase the measurements by 20%. To substitute an 8-inch round pan with a 8×8 square pan, you would need to increase the recipe by 25%.
So, if you’re still asking yourself, “can I double a recipe for an 8×8 pan,” the answer is without a doubt yes. Adjusting recipes for any pan size, and vice versa requires you to consider the variables that change as the size is modified. All that’s really needed is some quick math to ensure that the ingredients are scaled to proportional ratios. Now, you can make your favorite dishes and desserts by altering recipes to suit your baking pan needs.
Whether you make small or large changes, it’s important to keep your recipes updated. Using software like , makes it easy to keep track and note the necessary details when pan sizes or recipes change. Cook like a pro and keep track of your recipes for all pan sizes.
Aida Solomon is a digital marketing specialist who’s passionate about bringing her creative ideas to life. As an avid homecook, Aida loves to explore the way food has the power of bridging the world together. When she’s offline, she loves to travel through new recipes, and run long distances — paying homage to her Ethiopian roots.
8×8 Pan Doubled
Let’s take a closer look at the similarities between an 8×8 pan and a 9×13 pan. An 8×8 cake pan has a surface area of 64 inches, while a 9×13 cake pan has a surface area of 117 inches. As you can see, there is a difference of 53 inches which translates to a margin of error if you were to swap pans and bake the recipe. However, if you were to double the recipe of the 8×8 pan, then that would equal a surface area of 128 inches in total. Now, the difference between both pans is 11 inches which means it would be possible to cook this doubled recipe in a 9×13 cake pan.
While you are able to get a similar final result after you double the 8×8 recipe, there are two important factors to consider in the changes you’ve just made
With any adjustment, it’s always best to keep an eye on the oven and check frequently to ensure that the dish doesn’t under or overbake.