17 calculators
Cake Calculators: Servings, Bake Time, Buttercream and Fondant
Servings for a round, square or sheet cake, batter and bake time for a sponge or a dense butter cake, pan swaps, buttercream quantity for a round cake, ganache, fondant, tiers and altitude. Every one of them shows its formula on the page, because a figure you cannot check is worth very little, and a good half of the numbers in cake decorating are trade conventions wearing the clothes of standards.
Servings and size
- Cake Servings Calculator Servings for any pan size and shape at wedding, party and generous portions, all three at once. servings = cake top area (sq in) / slice footprint (sq in)
- Tiered Cake Calculator Build a stack of up to four tiers and get servings, batter, dowel counts and weight per tier. total servings = sum of each tier area / slice footprint
- Cupcake Yield Calculator How many mini, standard or jumbo cupcakes a batter makes, and what a cake recipe converts to. cupcakes = batter (cups) / cups per liner
Batter and baking
- Batter Volume Calculator How much batter any pan takes at any fill level, and how deep it sits before it rises. batter (cups) = pan volume (cu in) x fill fraction / 14.4375
- Bake Time and Temperature Calculator A starting bake time computed from pan geometry, with the oven temperature convention and the doneness tests. minutes = 3.79 x depth^1.3 x area^0.45 x (350 / temp F)^1.5
- Sugar Syrup and Soak Calculator Simple, light and rich syrup ratios by weight, with the Brix figure and how much soak a cake takes. Brix = sugar weight / total weight x 100
- High Altitude Baking Adjustment Calculator Leavening, sugar, liquid, flour and oven adjustments by elevation, from published extension guidance. adjustment band selected by elevation, from published extension tables
Pans and scaling
- Pan Substitution Calculator Swap any pan for any other: the capacity ratio, the scale factor and the new batter depth. ratio = target pan volume / original pan volume
- Recipe Scaling Calculator Scale a recipe between any two pans, with the ingredients that do not scale linearly called out. factor = target batter volume / original batter volume
Frosting and finishing
- Frosting Quantity Calculator Buttercream needed for any cake, from its real surface area, for every finish from naked to fully piped. volume = (side area + top area) x coat thickness + filling area x filling thickness
- Buttercream Batch Calculator How many batches of American, Swiss or Italian buttercream a cake needs, and whether your bowl will hold it. batches = cups required / yield per batch
- Fondant Quantity Calculator The disc diameter and the weight of fondant a cake needs, at any rolled thickness. disc diameter = cake width + 2 x cake height + 2 x margin
Tiered cakes
- Tier Support and Dowel Calculator Dowel count, ring diameter and carried weight for any tier pair, plus the board and box sizes. dowels = ring circumference / 3 in spacing, minimum 4
- Cake Board and Box Size Calculator The board and box a finished cake needs, including the height most people get wrong. board = cake width + 2 in, box = board + 1 in, box height = cake height + 2 in
Chocolate
- Ganache Ratio Calculator Published couverture ratios for dark, milk and white chocolate across five uses, scaled to your quantity. cream = chocolate x (cream parts / chocolate parts), by weight
- Chocolate Tempering Temperature Calculator Published melt, cool and working temperature ranges by chocolate type, with the seeding quantities. melt, cool to set the crystal, then return to working temperature
Equipment
Already worked out for the common sizes
If your pan is a standard one, the arithmetic is already done and written up with the conventions spelled out.
