Red Velvet Cake And Pan Size

[doubletakecwm 0]

I plan to make a specialty bat cake for Halloween, and the Red Velvet cake is perfect, but my question is this:

Would the recipe for the Red Velvet cake bake-out well on a Jelly Roll pan? My pan size is a non-stick 12" x 16" pan. I planned to bake it 20 minutes, and line the pan with either parchment paper, or greased, waxed paper. Thanks

[plm555 0]

Hoo boy! Your question had me trying to remember my high school geometry -- a struggle I assure you.

After some rudimentary calculations involving the value of pi (remember pi? pi R square -- cake R round), volume of batter, etc., my concern is that you may not have enough batter. There are a lot more square inches in a 12x16-inch pan than in two 9-inch round pans (192 sq. in. versus 127.2 sq. in). Even if you consider that the depth of the batter will be less, say only 3/4" deep, you still wouldn't have quite enough batter. (I'm assuming your pan has 1-inch lip.)

So I continued to put pencil to the paper, and determined that you would have enough batter to come to a depth of slightly over 5/8". At that depth, I would consider baking it no more than 15 minutes -- in fact, I'd start checking it at 12. Your idea of baking it with greased parchment paper is a good one. Of course, the cake will rise, but it may be thinner than you envisioned.

If you make your bat cake with our Red Velvet Cake recipe, I, and the rest of our readers, would love to see it. Send photos, please.

[doubletakecwm 0]

Hi, thank you for your prompt response; You were pretty much on target on the volume. I was out with the flu, lol, when Pi r sq was taught, and it never made sense to me, my brain would not go there. lol.. anyway, for fun, I baked a yellow box cake, which suggests it is for two, 9" layers. This time, I only greased, and floured my large sheet pan. I had baked it for 20 minutes. When it came out, I ran a knife around it, and inverted it on a foil-lined rack; sadley, it broke up in the middle, but I did not wait the ten minutes to cool, so hopefully that is the reason, and not that the area is too big to turn out without breaking apart.

The finished cake was about 5/8", by the way. I do want it a bit thicker, but don't want to add too much batter, so If you agree, I could double the recipe, and then fill the cookie sheet halfway, and hopefully, that won't be too much, and bake cupcakes with the rest. This time with parchment paper as well. ( my pan is about 1" deep )

I would make this double recipe twice, for a 2-layered bat, on the first layer, I plan to cut out the bat's body, and fill it with red jell, top with the whole layer, frost in black frosting. The fun is hopefully when they cut into the bat, it will ooze bat's blood. I will send you a picture.

doubletake

[plm555 0]

Your Bat Cake sounds delightful. Colorful, delicious and gory. Perfect for Halloween.

I think the parchment paper will solve your removal problems. Let the paper hang over the ends of the pan an inch or so and then, after you run the knife around the edge (and, yes, wait the 10 minutes), you can grab the ends of the paper and lift the cake out. Put it on a cookie sheet, top it with another cookie sheet, invert them, remove the top cookie sheet and peel off the parchment paper.

I think you can safely fill the pan to within a quarter inch of the top. Now that you've had a practice run, I'm sure it will turn out well. And please do send photos.

Thank you for sharing your creative idea.

[doubletakecwm 0]

Thank you, I surely will. Happy Halloween, and holiday baking. doubletakecwm