Sponge Cake Help!? Any suggestions?

Question

I am making a sponge cake for my boyfriend's Birthday. There will be 11 people a the party but I am not sure about:

What size cake to make?

Do I use a sandwich tin or a deep tin?

Thanks

Answer 1

Pan size and cake size are difficult to suggest.  Most households do not have a sandwich pan with a large enough diameter to make the round cake that would best suit this situation.   Most cake mixes and recipes also don’t take larger size cake pans into account.  On top of this, you’ll definitely need to make a layered cake.  

A normal sandwich pan with a diameter of roughly 8-9 inches should work.  Larger pans do exist, but recipes and mixes are absolute in their yields, so using a larger pan would simply make for thinner layers.  If you have a 10 or perhaps 12-inch sandwich pan and a mix or recipe that can use them, then you are better off making a larger diameter cake.  

You’ll have to figure out the number and sizes of the pans that you will need, which means finding out the cake recipe’s yield before you start.  You might need to double the recipe and fill more cake pans.  Cake pans traditionally need to be filled ¾ of the way up, so you would have to make enough batter to fill each pan to this depth.  If the cake is from a cake mix, you’ll need to check the box to see what types of pan combinations that cake mix is intended to fit in.  

11 people is a lot (too many in most cases, actually) to feed from a traditional home-baked round cake, especially if it is going to be the primary dessert (hopefully you have at least one other dessert planned).  If there are as many as 11 people coming over you need to make a cake that has several layers, which means 2-3 pans and some sort of filler in between.  Many cake mixes fill about two standard sandwich pans.  Another option would be to use a different type of pan, such as a large Bundt pan, a tube pan, or a rectangular (9 by 13 inches, perhaps) and serve the cake in smaller slices with another dessert.  If you use another pan, particularly a rectangular one, your yield might be enough where you can get away with skipping the filling.

When I bake cakes at home from any source, I usually use a rectangular 9 by 13 inch pan.  You can get a decent number of slices from this cake while avoiding awkward slices in most cases.

You should probably avoid deeper pans, as the cake recipe or mix might not work in them.  You’ll also need to add some sort of filling (frosting, jelly, fresh fruit, etc.), which means that you would have to make at least one level cut across the cake, add the filling, and sandwich the severed layers back together.  This is a lot more work than leveling off thinner layers and stacking them with filling in between.

BOTTOM LINE: use the largest diameter sandwich pan that you can find.  10 or 12 inches would be easier on you and ideal for the party, but many people don’t have them and recipes and mixes often don’t take pans of this size into account.  If you have to go with a smaller round cake, you’ll need 2-3 layers.  If you can avoid the round cake and bake a rectangular one instead, you might find this one easier to work with at a party for 11 guests.