Wedding Cake: The Math

Cake recipes for multiple-sized pans in varying quantities don't give you a handy-dandy recipe that can easily be followed. In general, you need to know how much the recipe makes, the number and size of pans you will use, and how much batter is used in each of your selected pan sizes.


For the coconut cake, the batter made about 18 cups and the pans I was using for that layer required 8 cups each (16 cups total). For the chocolate cake, the recipes made 5 cups, but I needed 6 cups for each pan (12 cups total). So I multiplied the recipe by 2.5. If you can easily jots notes in the margin for the correct quantities, great. I can't, so I made a spreadsheet. I highlighted the columns I was using so I wouldn't get confused.

Recipe links:

• http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/recipe/dreamy-coconut-wedding-cake
• http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/chocolate-blackout-wedding-cake-with-coconut-buttercream-recipe/index.html (cake only)
• http://www.labellecuisine.com/archives/cake/Ganache.htm

 

Dreamy Coconut Wedding Cake
				Portion of Batter
Cake	Single Recipe		Unit	0.5	1	1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5
	Butter	4.00	Sticks	2	4	6	8	10	12	14
	Cake flour	7.25	Cups	3.63	7.25	10.88	14.5	18.13	21.75	25.38
	Baking Powder	2.33	Tablespoons	1.17	2.33	3.5	4.66	5.83	6.99	8.16
	Salt	1.00	Teaspoons	0.5	1	1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5
	Coconut Milk	2.00	Cups	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Milk	6.00	Tablespoons	3	6	9	12	15	18	21
	Sugar	4.00	Cups	2	4	6	8	10	12	14
	Vanilla	1.33	Tablespoons	0.67	1.33	2	2.66	3.33	3.99	4.66
	Egg Whites	16.00	Single egg white	8	16	24	32	40	48	56
	Total	18.00	Cups	9	18	27	36	45	54	63
Frosting
	Sugar	2.50	Cups	1.25	2.5	3.75	5	6.25	7.5	8.75
	Egg Whites	10.00	1 egg white	5	10	15	20	25	30	35
	Butter	8.00	Sticks	4	8	12	16	20	24	28
	Vanilla	1.00	Teaspoons	0.5	1	1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5
	Total	9.50	Cups	4.75	9.5	14.25	19	23.75	28.5	33.25
Anglaise
	Whole Eggs	2.00	Single white	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Sugar	0.25	Cups	0.13	0.25	0.38	0.5	0.63	0.75	0.88
	Salt	0.10	Teaspoons	0.05	0.1	0.15	0.2	0.25	0.3	0.35
	Coconut Milk	1.75	Cups	0.88	1.75	2.63	3.5	4.38	5.25	6.13
	Heavy Cream	0.50	Cups	0.25	0.5	0.75	1	1.25	1.5	1.75
	Total	3.50	Cups	1.75	3.5	5.25	7	8.75	10.5	12.25
Chocolate Blackout Wedding Cake with Coconut Buttercream
Cake	Single Recipe		Unit	0.5	1	1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5
	Cake flour	1.25	Cups	0.63	1.25	1.88	2.5	3.13	3.75	4.38
	Unsweetened cocoa powder	0.50	Cups	0.25	0.5	0.75	1	1.25	1.5	1.75
	Ancho chile powder, optional	3.00	Tablespoons	1.5	3	4.5	6	7.5	9	10.5
	Baking soda	1.00	Teaspoons	0.5	1	1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5
	Baking Powder	0.25	Teaspoons	0.13	0.25	0.38	0.5	0.63	0.75	0.88
	Salt	0.50	Teaspoons	0.25	0.5	0.75	1	1.25	1.5	1.75
	Unsalted butter, room temp	10.00	Tablespoons	5	10	15	20	25	30	35
	Sugar	1.50	Cups	0.75	1.5	2.25	3	3.75	4.5	5.25
	Eggs	3.00	Single egg	1.5	3	4.5	6	7.5	9	10.5
	Vanilla extract	1.00	Teaspoons	0.5	1	1.5	2	2.5	3	3.5
	Buttermilk, room temp	0.50	Cups	0.25	0.5	0.75	1	1.25	1.5	1.75
	Hot coffee	0.50	Cups	0.25	0.5	0.75	1	1.25	1.5	1.75
	Total	5.00	Cups	2.5	5	7.5	10	12.5	15	17.5
Granche
	Semi-sweet Chocolate	10.00	Ounces	5	10	15	20	25	30	35
	Heavy Cream	0.50	Cups	0.25	0.5	0.75	1	1.25	1.5	1.75
	Butter	0.50	Tablespoons	0.25	0.5	0.75	1	1.25	1.5	1.75
	Amaretto	2.00	Tablespoons	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Amaretto Cookies	0.50	Cups	0.25	0.5	0.75	1	1.25	1.5	1.75
	# Pans		Pan Sizes
			6	8	10	12	14	16	18	Inches
		1	2.5	3	6	8	15	22	24	Cups
		2	5	6	12	16	30	44	48	Cups