CAN I BAKE A POUND CAKE IN A 9X13-INCH PAN?

Can I Bake a Pound Cake in a 9×13-inch Pan?

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been asked about alternate baking pans for pound cakes? Can I bake the cake in a 9×13-inch pan? in a sheet pan? a round pan? what about in a bundt pan?

I wish I had a dime for every time I was posed this question.

Maybe you’re curious about baking pound cakes in alternate size pans because you want to cut cubes for a dessert kabob or petit fours. Or, maybe you just don’t have a bundt pan or tube pan.

Can I Bake a Pound Cake in a 9×13-inch Pan?

As bakers, we’re taught that baking is essentially chemistry (in a tasty form). Baking is, in fact, chemical reactions. Cooking is not. Furthermore, because baking is chemistry, we’re taught to be very precise with measurements. However, after you learn the rules, you can break the rules within reason.

I bake almost all of my pound cake in this tube pan. I prefer a 2-piece tube pan over a bundt pan. As well, some of my pound cake recipes are so large a regular size bundt pan is too small. Furthermore, I find a 2-piece tube pan easier to remove a cake from.

The pound cake batter is much denser than other cake batters.  Therefore, I thought changing the pan from a bundt pan or tube pan to a sheet pan just wouldn’t work for a pound cake. Won’t the edges be overcooked before the center gets done?

The Results…

Do you know what? It was a surprising revelation that, yes, indeed, you can cook a pound cake in a 9×13-inch pan and it will turn out wonderful.

Here are the details. I made my Whipping Cream Pound Cake. I cooked it in a dark 9×13-inch cake pan. Additionally, I cooked it at 325°F for 55 minutes and it was cooked perfectly.

The edges were crispy, but not overcooked. As well, the top was crusty! You can tell in some of the photos where the pieces are cut that the top is crusty.

Details…

My Whipping Cream Pound Cake is made with 1 cup butter, 3 cups sugar, 3 cups flour (full recipe here) which is the typical amount of those ingredients for a regular size pound cake. Those amounts make 1 tube cake, one bundt pan, or 2 loaf pans.

A 13×9-inch baking pan holds 14 cups and can easily accommodate a 12-cup Bundt cake recipe.

For pound cake recipes that make 1 loaf pan (or 1 and 1/2 cups flour, 1 and 1/2 cups sugar) the cooking time for a 9×13-inch cake will be much less.

For my large pound cakes, Old Fashioned Blue Ribbon Pound Cake and Mile High Pound Cake, which contains 4 cups of flour cooking it in a 9×13-inch pan will take longer to cook. I would test them at 65 to 70 minutes for doneness.

What about other pans?

9-inch round: A single standard eight- or nine-inch round cake pan only holds six cups by volume. This means that a 12-cup Bundt recipe will require two cake pans.

Another word about baking cakes, I recently discovered bake even strips. They prevent the dome in the middle of your cake. For 9×13-inch cakes it doesn’t matter much. However, if you’re making a layer cake, you have to cut that dome off to stack the layers. Why waste even a little of that delicious cake? Truly, you want these!

Here’s a handy guide for Baking Pan Equivalents.

I have reviewed a large number of pound cake recipes. You can get all those recipes here. As well, I wrote How to Bake the Perfect Pound Cake that’s really helpful.

Finally, I highly recommend you calibrate your oven once a year, How to Calibrate your Oven here.

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Also, you can also find great recipes here or at Meal Plan Monday and Weekend Potluck.