I have never made a 1/2 and 1/2 cake and my niece has requested one for her graduation so can anyone give me some recommendations so that maybe I won't have a disaster on my hands?
Thanks
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I have seen special batter separators that you can get for sheet cake pans to cook cakes with two different batters. Let me know if you want me to find the link and send it....

Hello and welcome to CC!

When I have made 1/2 chocolate 1/2 vanilla cake this is what I do;

I cut one of my thin plastic cutting boards to fit the exact width of the cake pan. While holding the plastic in the center I pour the chocolate in one side and then pour the vanilla into the other side. Pull the plastic out and you have a perfectly half and half cake. It bakes up beautifully without problems. I bake at 325 until a toothpick inserted into the chocolate closest to the center comes out clean.

If you do not have these thin cutting mats I have heard of a stiff piece of foil being placed across the pan to divide the batter too.

Have fun!

Editing to say the first time you try this a second pair of hands will help you not get jumbled up in case the plastic or foil slides on you.

Best bet would be to bake the two different flavors separately. This will stop one type being over baked or one being underbaked. That happens alot when you do chocolate and white cakes together. Afterwards butt them together with icing.

When I get a request for a 1/2 1/2 I bake the two cakes separately. For example, I will bake a short white and a short chocolate, cut each in half and stack them on top.

when i make a 1/2 cho. and 1/2 vanilla cake, I makeup the vanilla batter in one bowl and make the choc batter in another. After greasing and flouring the sheet cake pan, i pick up booth bowls, one in each hand and pour the batters at the same time . one batter on one side of the pa and the other batter on the other side. That way you will get even amounts on each side. This works for me.

I bake the cake separately too and then butt them together with icing. But before I do i level the tops and sides so that they'll be even.

I don't use a divider. Prop your cake pan up on one end. I use an overturned saucer....you don't need much height. Pour one flavor in the lower end of the pan. Lower the pan and pour the other flavor in the other end. No, it's not a perfectly straight line but a customer has never whined about it not being exactly an even split. I see a lot of questions about when the batter meets in the middle and concerns about how it will blend.....it's not Kool-Aid. It won't flow into each other. It's like lava .... when it meets in the middle of the pan, the batter will stop.

Remember that chocolate cake will rise higher than white cake. I use the baking strips and I don't have the problem with the white cake being overdone while waiting for the choc to finish baking.

If you ever do a multi-flavor in the 12x18 pan (3 mixes), I always use 2 white mixes to 1 chocolate because chocolate rises higher (and spreads further while baking) so even tho' you have a 2-to-1 split, it will turn out pretty much 1/2-n-1/2. Not exactly but very close.

make sure if you bake them in the same pan that you use similar batter. If one is thicker than the other or rises more, they might get swirly where they touch.

I have done it two ways, pouring the batter at the same time from the opposite ends of the pan and baking the flavors separately. Pesonally, I like the method of baking both flavors at the the same time. Even if your batter would happen to mix together in the center a little bit, the customer ends up with a surprise marble cake in the center. Lots of people like that. I also found that putting the batter into those large 4 C measuring cups with the handle on it helps alot. When I try just grabbing both of the bowls at once, I usually end up dropping one in the pan! LOL