I took the three month Wilton Cake Decorating Courses and have been trying to bake and decorate cakes for work/family/friends. However, I am having a hard time getting my cakes to rise. I usually use a boxed cake mix (1 box) for two 9" cake pans. However, they do not rise. I have checked my oven temperature and it seems to be accurate.

Should I use 2 boxed cake mixes for these sized pans? (I use the Wilton Cake Pans.)

Can anyone give me their suggestions on how much cake batter they add to their pans!!

Thanks - this is my first posting here on cake central.com but I enjoy reading all of the forums and looking at all of the lovely decorated cakes.

Misfit

Welcom to Cake Central! As I am sure you know already, it is quite addicting

As for the cakes not rising... are you meaning they are not filling up the whole pan? My guess would be not enough batter. According to Wilton's chart you need 5 1/2 cups of batter for One 9" pan. One box mix of DH makes 5 to 5 1/2 C... some other brands make less. So I do not think you are making enough cake for it to rise properly.

Here is a link to Wilton's charts (links at bottom of page for 2" and 3" and wedding/party cakes) These charts list amount of batter for each pan, suggested icing, temps and times to bake at, and servings for the different types of cakes.

http://www.wilton.com/cake/cakeprep/baking/times/index.cfm

HTH

Leily

Thanks Leily for your reply. When I split the batter between the two pans, it is only filling them up a little less than halfway. So I am guessing that I am not using enough batter. I'm kind of new at baking since taking the cake decorating classes.

When I read the boxed cake mixes, it always says enough for two 9" inch pans, but I guess I should not go by that. I will use the Wilton Website that you gave me and go by their pan measurements.

Hopefully, this will help me. I am making a birthday cake for a friend's father tomorrow and want to make sure that it rises. I will just double my recipes and hopefully will see better results.

Thanks again.
Misfit

Welcome to Cakecentral!

Here is a link to an article on Cakecentral that might help you also!

http://www.cakecentral.com/article14-Cake-Baking-Cutting--Serving-Guide---2-in-Deep-Pans.html

The box mixes will do two 9" pans, but that is usually for someone not looking to decorate a cake... some people like the smaller layers which is fine. Also the dimensions on the box are usually talking about the cake pans you find in your normal baking isle... they are not the cake decorating pans, usually only 1 1/2" tall sides (kinda hard to explain i guess... )

Wilton's chart is figured on getting 2" high cakes So that is why they are calling for more batter in the pan.

Hopefully this helps you get cakes looking they way you want =)

Leily

If you use one box and the cake mix extender recipe (from this site) it makes enough batter for two 9" cake pans - and the layers are nice and full.

Thank you all for your help! You gave me all good tips and I think that I understand now the differences in the pans (store bought versus Wilton) and cake mixes.

I will definitely look for the cake extender recipe. This sounds like it is what I need. Do you just use this then for one boxed cake mix?

Thanks again for your help.

Misfit

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-1977-0-Cake-Mix-extender.html\\

Here is the link to the Extender recipe. It does call out for it to be added to One cake mix. However I have made to mixes and added One extender recipe just to get a couple of extra cups (if I would have doubled it, I would have had way to much.) It came out fine. Just a way to make the batter go a little further

HTH

Leily