I have NEVER baked before. Am a 60 year old male and want to surprise people by bringing a carrot cake to a party. But I want it to be tall just like Cheesecake Factory.....if I use a 9" cake pan instead of a 12" pan and the same amount of ingredients does that make it taller.....like how much batter should there be covering the bottom of the pan

Any help is appreciated. Please keep in mind I have NEVER made anything.....

AYes if you bake it in a smaller tin it'll be taller. It's quite hard to bake deep cakes well though. I bake in separate tins and then level, split and fill.

AFill your pan a little more than half way full. Does your recipe state to use one 12 inch pan? It takes about7 1/2 cups of batter to fill a 12 inch pan. A 9 inch pan would take 5 1/2 cups. Check out this link for lots of helpful information. Good luck!

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-wedding-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm

yes like cupcakemaker said adding too much batter can be a real problem to getting the cake to bake right--just bake more layers and stack them up...carefully ;)

and bravo for diving into some baking--so rewarding

consider doing a little testing if possible before you launch out with all your lovely ingredients

best baking to you

AWelcome back, K8! I love your helpful advice and positive messages. :)

thank you, Krypto--very sweet of you

If I want a cake to be taller, I just bake two layers separately, then trim and stack them. It also means that if one of your cake sinks in the middle you can just cut that one a bit shorter. and you don't lose out on too much height as you still have the other one to play with.