a tried and true 9x13 cake recipe?

[rose water]

i. am. so. not. a. baker. i am a savory mix it up together type. i have a kitchen that's totally unequipped to bake. and we're having a party of a bunch of three year olds, their parents, and their admirers, and i need to bring cake

i'd love to make the epicurious recipe for persian love cake: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...
but who has two eight inch cake pans? (everybody on this board, i suppose, but certainly not me).

or i'd love to use up the lifetime supply of great dark chocolate i always buy but never bake with.

or molasses.

is there an easy way to adjust quantities and baking times of standard cake recipes for a 9 x 13 pyrex? is one allowed to bake on those aluminum dollar store lasagna pans? we have some of those--9 x 12 and about 12 x 16?

and icing? how does one do that?

oy...sorry to be in need of such very remedial help. you all are making brioche and doing amazing things, and, well...help!

[rose water]

Thank you all so much for pulling me through this weekend!

We ended up making this:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/07/best-birthday-cake/
Fluffy, light, delicious yellow cake

http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/4754/Black-Magic-Cake.aspx
Dense and fudgy but not heavy, perfectly richly chocolaty without being too sweet

Topped with http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/760095
I pureed strawberries with some simple syrup and mixed that into half of the frosting for a lovely subtle strawberry frosting. And yes, no sign of the gaping cake cracks at all with the frosting on top.

The cakes were a total hit. They won over even the very grumpy park staff. And my dad, who inexplicably, is a total Costco addict, even acknowledged that I did well to make my own. It was his advocacy of their intensely frosted cakes the size of my NYC apartment that prompted my need to make these cakes in the first place.

Thanks again for all your help!

[mrbigshotno.1]

Here's a good one for this time of the year, best with vanilla ice cream.

http://www.recipesource.com/baked-goo...

[Hank Hanover]

That recipe calls for two 8 x 1.5 inch cake pans.... together they hold about 10.5 cups. A 9 x 13 x 2 inch pyrex pan holds about 15 cups. So you can increase everything by about 50% which would be the following:

1 cup cake flour go to 1.5 cups
14 tablespoons superfine sugar, divided go to 21 Tbls
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder go to 2 – 2.5 tsps
1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt go to 1/3 tsp
3 large eggs, separated go to 4 yolks and 5 whites
6 tablespoons water go to 9 tbls
1/4 cup canola oil go to 1/3 cup
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel stay with 1 Tbl or go with 1.5 Tbls
1/4 teaspoon whole cardamom seeds go to 1/3 tsp

You won't have to increase the frosting because you don't have 2 layers. In fact, you may have too much. Is there such a thing as having too much frosting? not in my book.

[rose water]

Thanks! Given Cailtin's wise words above,I think I'll wait for proper pans before I try this one. It'll also give me the chance to get fresher cardamom. The stuff from my college friend's trip to India was awesome in 1997...

[rose water]

hmm...from this smitten kitchen recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/07/best-birthday-cake/ it seems that two 9' cake layers can be combined to make one 9x13 sheet. does this sound right? what do you recommend for baking time?

if that's a reasonable rule of thumb, then i could do that yellow cake, the epicurious double chocolate recipe, the persian love cake, or try doubling this: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/638322#4886001
in this thread, there are a lot of recommendations against doubling recipes: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/730642
what am i risking if i double a recipe?

[Caitlin McGrath]

It's true that most recipes meant for 2 9-inch by 1 1/2-inch-deep pans will work fine baked in a 9x13-inch pan. In fact, boxes of cake mix specify these as two possibilities for baking a single batch. For baking time, you're probably looking at 30-40 minutes instead of 25 minutes for the layers.

I would stick with recipes meant to be baked in a 9x13 or two 9-inch layers. The Double Chocolate cake is too much batter for a 9x13 (it makes two 10-inch or three 9-inch layers), and I feel like the Persian Love cake is something that would be nicer as a layer cake. That chocolate-fig cake is more a small, dense torte kind of thing .

The Hershey's Black Magic Cake is well loved on Chowhound, is very simple to make, and a great basic, moist chocolate cake that will work well in a 9x13 pan, as the recipe specifies. The double chocolate cake is essentially the same recipe plus some melted chocolate, in larger volume. You can obviously use better cocoa than Hershey's. Recipe: http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/4754/Black-Magic-Cake.aspx

As for frosting, it all depends what type you want. The simplest, and what is perfect with the black magic cake, is whipped cream, sweetened a bit (I like to use powdered sugar because it dissolves well and the cornstarch helps stabilize the whipped cream a bit), and with a shot of vanilla. If you need something that can sit around a bit in warm weather, maybe try a half recipe of the cooked flour frosting: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/760095 or, if you want intensely chocolate, a whipped ganache.

[rose water]

Thank you for that detailed run down of all the options I was considering. It's incredibly helpful. So I think we'll go for the hershey cake. Is it ok to use dutched cocoa instead? And while I'm at it with the remedial questions, which side of the final product is up--the puffed up top, or the nice even bottom?

[greygarious]

It is best to serve a 9x13 cake right from the pan, because it is HIGHLY likely to break if you try to turn it out. Either way, frosting goes on the puffed side.

[rose water]

Yeah, lesson learned before I saw your post. Why do all the recipes say to cool for 10 min then turn out onto a rack to cool? I was worried about drying out the cake, but now it's sporting some nice cracks that I hope the frosting will cover up.

[blue room]

The one time I had to take a 9x13 out of the pan I had made a "sling" of parchment paper. This sling was placed *under* the parchment paper used to actually line the pan. Then the batter was poured. It worked very well. The paper edges above the batter line singed some, but didn't catch fire.
p.s. I think it's wonderful of you to even *consider* making a Persian Love Cake for 3 year olds!

[toodie jane]

Frosting hides a multitude of sins! No one will know.....!

[Caitlin McGrath]

It's fine to use dutched cocoa in that recipe. Because lots of 9x13 pans have slightly flared, not straight, sides, it doesn't work so well to flip the cake flat-side up, as you can with a layer cake. So, yeah, frost puffy side.