Help, please can any one help me with a tried and tested recipe for a
nice soft sponge cake for a 12 inch square cake tin.? have made
hundreds but never this big and i know it is not as simple as doubling
the recipe etc. Ingredient ammounts and baking temps etc most
gratefully welcome. It is for a lady's 108th birthday so i really need
it as soon as, so i can try one first before the real thing. thanking
you all in anticipation. pauline.

Do not complicate your problem by having exact measurements with
regards to ingredient ratios or looking for alternative recipes.Keep it
simple.
A soft sponge cake is just a properly made cake and it does not come
from a special recipe.
The favorite recipe of another person may comes out like crap to your
preparation and even taste. Be realistic
If you already have a workable sponge cake recipe( that you like ) then
make sufficient amounts.
It does not matter if you double or triple,
Pour just 1/2-2/3 of the baking depth the amount of batter. Pour the
other in other cake pans.
A larger pan needs to be baked at lower temperature than a smalller
pan.
The rule is bake it evenly at moderate temperature. If you bake small
pans at 380-400 deg F( for 20 minutes) bake the larger pans at lower
temperature but longer time.
Baking it at 350-360 deg F that about 45-60minuters that depends on
the recipe and the oven efficiency or until a cake tester inserted
comes out clean) is simpler. Besides ovens are not the same we do not
know the peculiarities of your oven that you are familiar with.
Roy

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005, walamalacalucy wrote:

> Help, please can any one help me with a tried and tested recipe for a
> nice soft sponge cake for a 12 inch square cake tin.? have made
> hundreds but never this big and i know it is not as simple as doubling
> the recipe etc. Ingredient ammounts and baking temps etc most
> gratefully welcome. It is for a lady's 108th birthday so i really need
> it as soon as, so i can try one first before the real thing. thanking
> you all in anticipation. pauline.

If you have a recipe for a smaller tin then you just need to make more for
the larger tin. I went from a recipe for a 8 inch round to a 19x13 inch
tin. What I did was make the recipe for an 8 inch round. Pour the batter
in the tin and measure from the top of the batter to the top of the tin.
After I baked it and removed it from the tin I measure from the bottom of
the tin to the top of the tin. Measurement 2 minus measurement 1 gave me
how deep the batch should be before baking.

I did some rough math (16 * PI or 50 is the area of an 8 inch round; 19 *
13 or 247 is area of the new pan; 250 / 50 = 5; I need 5 times the
batter). Made more than enough batter (round down the results for the old
pan, round up the results for the new pan, round up the final results. If
the height of the batter was 1 inch in the old pan I poured enough in the
new pan so there was 1 inch depth.

If you are good with math you can actually calculate the exact difference
but I found that if the original recipe was not by weight, converting
things like 1/4 tsp or pinch was difficult. It was easier to multiply the
recipe by an even number and toss the extra (actually I experiment with
the extra batter in muffin tins).

I baked it at the same temperature or maybe a shade lower. I set the time
for the maximum the smaller cake usually took. I didn't even bother
checking it until the timer went off. Then I would check the cake with a
wooden toothpick every so often, right in the centre. I kept track of the
time and wrote it down. This way the next time I make the 19x13 cake I'll
know how long it takes. It actually took more than double the time.

--
Send e-mail to: darrell dot grainger at utoronto dot ca

if your recipe is for an 8 x 8 pan that is 64 sq in.

a 12 x 12 pan = 144 sq in.

if the pans are same depth you need a little over two batches.

I would double the ingredients in your recipe assuming your mixer will
take it, otherwise just mix two batches.

If the 12 " pan is deeper then do three batches.


Your other option is to bake 2 or three 8 x 8 " cakes and assemble them
on a cake board before frosting.

two 8 x 8 gives one 8 x 16
three 8 x 8 gives 12 x 16

It was my grandmothers 80th recently and a lady at her church made a =
cake. She did something my Grandma though was clever, she made 2 square =
cakes (don't know what size wasn't there) one plain and one chocolate, =
then sandwiched them together with buttercream side-by-side to make one =
large cake, she then iced the cakes as one, but when serving she had a =
choice of flavours (very good for fussy children!) so that people who =
didn't like plain sponge could have cake and vice-versa - I hope this =
helps some.
Rehn

"walamalacalucy" > wrote in message =
om...
> Help, please can any one help me with a tried and tested recipe for a
> nice soft sponge cake for a 12 inch square cake tin.? have made
> hundreds but never this big and i know it is not as simple as doubling
> the recipe etc. Ingredient ammounts and baking temps etc most
> gratefully welcome. It is for a lady's 108th birthday so i really need
> it as soon as, so i can try one first before the real thing. thanking
> you all in anticipation. pauline.

">
> "walamalacalucy" > wrote in message =
> om...
> > Help, please can any one help me with a tried and tested recipe for a
> > nice soft sponge cake for a 12 inch square cake tin.? have made
> > hundreds but never this big and i know it is not as simple as doubling
> > the recipe etc. Ingredient ammounts and baking temps etc most
> > gratefully welcome. It is for a lady's 108th birthday so i really need
> > it as soon as, so i can try one first before the real thing. thanking
> > you all in anticipation. pauline.


thanks to all who answered. the problem has been solved, just made 3
times the ammount of cake mix and put it in a large tin and also made
a few cup cakes with the extra mix. set the oven a little lower than
usual and baked for almost an hour. cheers everyone.

Roy wrote:
SNIP
> The rule is bake it evenly at moderate temperature. If you bake small
> pans at 380-400 deg F( for 20 minutes) bake the larger pans at lower
> temperature but longer time.
> Baking it at 350-360 deg F that about 45-60minuters that depends on
> the recipe and the oven efficiency or until a cake tester inserted
> comes out clean) is simpler. Besides ovens are not the same we do not
> know the peculiarities of your oven that you are familiar with.
> Roy

You know, this kind of information is really valuable to me.

Thanks Roy

Roy wrote:
SNIP
> The rule is bake it evenly at moderate temperature. If you bake small
> pans at 380-400 deg F( for 20 minutes) bake the larger pans at lower
> temperature but longer time.
> Baking it at 350-360 deg F that about 45-60minuters that depends on
> the recipe and the oven efficiency or until a cake tester inserted
> comes out clean) is simpler. Besides ovens are not the same we do not
> know the peculiarities of your oven that you are familiar with.
> Roy

You know, this kind of information is really valuable to me.

Thanks Roy