Spreading myself (and my cakes) thin

[LoneSavant]

I have a few recipes of great sheet cakes that I'd like to translate into a featured dessert for my cafe this week.....however, my recipes bake the cakes only as little as a 9x13x4 pan, and they get at least 4" high.

Can I translate a basic butter cake recipe to an inch-thick sheet pan without major changes? Obviously it will bake faster, but will I need to lower the oven temp. to avoid overbaking?

Any tips from more experienced patissieres on changing size and shape of my cake batters?

[CanadianBakin']

I'm sure others with more experience will chime in but to get you started...

I would say you could bake off that recipe in a full-size sheet pan and yes it's going to cook way faster. Are you baking in a conventional oven or a convection? And what type of cake?

[LoneSavant]

I use a convection oven at work, which will also ratchet up cook-time--the recipes I'm looking to scale are basic yellow butter cake.

I know I can achieve a thin layer with using a genoise, and in a pinch, i'll just do that; i'd just prefer the effect of a tender grandma-style butter cake.

[tmriga]

I just did this last week. I use a standard home oven for my baking.

I sprayed a half-sheet bun pan with baking spray, then lined the bottom with parchment paper. I spread the batter evenly across the pan, and baked it for 15 minutes. It baked up perfectly.

Let me know if it works for you, too.

Theresa

[JeanneCake]

I do this a lot - and the parchment is key. You want to make sure you spray the corners well, this is the only place I run into "dry"spots. Find the most level pans you can (I hoard them) so you don't inadvertently create hills and valleys to over/under bake. Depending on which oven I'm in, there are different hot spots to watch for, so as long as you time it and spin the pans if you need to, you'll be fine!

I've never really had to adjust anything like leavening (which RLB tells you is necessary when scaling into different pans in The Cake Bible) in any of my recipes, the issue for me is oven temp and how the oven bakes....

Sometimes, if I am picky about height, I will use a pan extender. But I only have them in half sheet sizes, not full sheet sizes....

[CanadianBakin']

I'd start checking at around 15 minutes but of course you'll smell it. Make sure it's level with convection. I usually bake in a standard oven but a kitchen I use just got a convection and my chiffon baked so quickly it didn't have time to level. I hadn't had this problem before. Butter cake will probably take a bit longer and be a bit more fail safe but I'd still take an extra minute to level.