Easy Recipe Converter (4 Ways to Scale up Your Baking Recipes)

Don’t waste money buying more baking tins.

Just scale a recipe to fit your existing tin.

Knowing how to double a recipe, like baked cheesecakes, will make your baking better.

You can keep my recipe converter handy as a guide for future baking.

It lays out the easiest way to scale recipes along with some important “MUST DO’s” for when you start baking.

What to do With Your Recipe Yield

Using the chart above will give you a multiplier. This figure is called the yield.

The yield is used to multiply all your ingredients with to enable you to scale your recipes up or down.

However, there can be problems.

More on that in a moment.

Beware of The Bake! (Times Change With Size)

Most recipes allow you to convert them.

As always there will be some exceptions to the rule.

Generally speaking, most tinned cakes like a Victoria sponge, tray bakes, icings, cookies and individual bakes like cupcakes will all scale easily.

But, once you have found the yield of your recipe that is not the end of the story.

Sometimes you can’t bake cakes the same way especially if the tin is larger.

The middle will not be cooked and the outer edges will be burnt.

Not a great start.

So, be aware that your baking times and temperatures will have to be monitored.

How To Scale Cooking Times?

If you are multiplying recipes for larger groups using a larger tin, turn down the temperature and extend the baking time.

On the other hand, if you want to make a smaller recipe, don’t cook for too long.

By how much is very much up to you. Keep checking by inserting a clean knife into the centre of your cake, pulling it out, and if it’s clean it means your cake is ready. If the knife is still wet with ingredients, your cake needs baking slightly longer.

Keep an eye on your bakes.

Don’t be tempted to multi-task and rush off to be a superhero parent if it’s your first time scaling.

Don’t Crack Too Many Eggs!

When scaling eggs for your recipe, you could be ultra careful or just ‘wing it’.

So, let’s cover both here.

If you were ultra studious you would weigh your eggs in batches of 3, divide that measurement by 3 to give you the average weight and use this figure in your scaling exercise.

Sounds a lot of hassle to me. Better to just weigh an egg in its shell and multiply that by your multiple.

Guesstimate – can work just as well!

No need to be pedantic about it.

Baking needs to be fun after all. That’s why The Bake Off is so successful!

Obviously if you just need an egg yolk or white then crack open and separate your eggs first before weighing.

Obviously!

Round Up & You Get A Bonus

If your new measurement calls for 234g of sugar, don’t be too precise. Consider rounding it up.

I think it is always best to over estimate your ingredients.

You can benefit from it.

For example, if you make too much batter for a cake mix, use the left overs to create a smaller version for yourself, like a cupcake.

You can enjoy this as your reward for all your hard work!

Saves it going to waste.

Talking of Going to Waste…

If you have extra egg yolks left over make some lemon or passion fruit curd or a sneaky meringue nest with the whites.

You can justify it by filling it with fresh fruit and calling it healthy!

Sort of.

Always good to reward yourself I think.

Don’t Leave It To Trial & Error

Once you have your scaled recipe using my recipe converter, make a note of it for future reference. ‘Post-it’ notes are perfect for this as you can simply stick them to your cook book recipe.

Make notes of your baking times and temperatures and this will serve you well for future bakes.

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