Welcome, lost creature. Let's try to guess the reason for your blank stare: you saw a delicious recipe and want to replicate it, but you don't have the recommended pan. What to do? You're about to find out. Spoiler: You'll have to use math!
After all, if you have a house full of baking pans of all shapes and sizes, it's not ideal to go out and buy a new one every time. You need to know how to choose the right size for the replacement pan. This is where your knowledge of math and geometry comes into play. How do you manage?
You've seen a delicious recipe and want to replicate it, but you don't have the recommended pan. What should you do?
First step: Calculate the area of the suggested pan and the area of the pan you have available and compare the two. If the numbers are similar, you can use the pan!
Second step: To find the area of a square pan, you need to multiply the side by itself. For a rectangular pan, however, you need to multiply the short side by the long side.
Third step: To find the area of the round pan, multiply the radius by itself and then by 3.14.
How to convert a round pan to a square or rectangular one
To solve your problem, you can vary the shape of the pan to use (square instead of round, for example) but the surface area must remain the same that the dough will occupy. To understand if the surfaces of the pans are similar, You need to calculate the area of the pan suggested in the recipe and that of the cake pan you've chosen as a replacement , comparing them. Remember that:
square pan: find the area by multiplying one side by itself;
rectangular pan: multiply the long side by the short side and you will have the area;
Round pan: multiply the radius (half the diameter) by itself and then by 3.14. The result is in centimeters squared. In the latter case, you'll need to measure the diameter of the pan: take a tape measure and place it along the center of the pan. Divide the resulting number by two: that's the radius.
You also need to consider the height, but don't worry! Typically, cake pans, sponge cake pans, and springform pans are six centimeters tall. So, simply replace them with a pan that's the same height. Otherwise, compensate with a wider pan.
If, however, you find yourself having to deal with pans of very peculiar shapes and sizes, such as our oval-shaped pans heart, of flower, of Christmas tree, of Santa Claus, of star, of dove or the Happy Stone molds, in this case you will have to choose a pan with the most similar geometric shape and calculate everything else .
Replacing one pan with another will allow you to keep the quantities suggested by the recipe unchanged.
How to change the doses according to the size of the pan
This method works if your calculations tell you you don't have a suitable pan for the substitution. Then, use any pan, but change the quantities: math is involved here too. We need to calculate the area of the pan suggested by the recipe and the area of the pan we're using, and divide the latter number by the former. The result is the coefficient by which to multiply the ingredient quantities.
Thanks to this method, moreover, you can use the same cooking times indicated in the recipe .
Choose the pan based on the number of people
If none of the previous methods work for you ( perhaps because you're not good with math ), you can choose the pan based on the number of people you'll be feeding. But this time, forget about the calculator; here's a rough list:
6 people: baking tray with a diameter of 18 cm;
8 people: baking tray with a diameter of 20 cm;
10 people: baking tray with a diameter of 22 cm;
12 people: baking tray with a diameter of 24 cm;
14 people: baking tray with a diameter of 26 cm;
16 people: baking tray with a diameter of 28 cm;
If you found this article useful, please follow us on our pages. Instagram And Facebook for other suggestions and above all to find the best pan for you!
