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The recipe below makes a small panettone cake. I would like to make a cake twice the size, is it ok to just double all the ingredients? 

Yeast                 1⁄2 tsp
Strong White Flour    300 g (11 oz)
Sugar                 2 tbsp
Butter                15 g (1⁄2 oz)
Salt                  1⁄4 tsp
Ground Cardamom       1⁄2 tsp
Grated Lemon Zest     1
Medium Sized Egg yolk 1
Milk                  140 ml
*Mixed Peel           50 g (2 oz)
*Raisins              100 g (4 oz)
Aaronut
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Ηλίας
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  • It's not significant in this case, but I've seen people 'double' cake recipies that called for mixing in 3 eggs with 30 sec after each one. She should've added 2 eggs at a time, but instead ended up over mixing and getting tunneling in the cake. – Joe Jan 23 '11 at 17:13

2 Answers2

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I have made larger cakes by doubling the recipe with no problem. Often when changing a recipe, the ratio of dry ingredients to wet can change, but it will remain the same with simple doubling.

However, do NOT double the cooking time. It's going to cook for longer, but not nearly twice as long. After the regular time, start checking it with a cake tester or toothpick to see if it's completely cooked.

Martha F.
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    Well, it will remain *approximately* the same. Unfortunately we're stuck with volumetric measurements here which probably weren't that accurate to begin with, and are going to be even less accurate as it scales up. Probably not significant enough to care about for just double, though (if it were triple or quadruple I'd be worried). – Aaronut Jan 22 '11 at 23:43
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Doubling a recipe can work, but for a cake you'd have to make sure that the whole thing cooks evenly. If you simply use a very large pan, the cooking time may not be enough to cook the double-cake entirely. If you simply leave it in for longer, the surface might burn before the interior is done. If you do try this approach, check that a bamboo skewer comes out clean to make sure the interior is cooked.

If you have enough equipment (like two springform pans), I would double the recipe and pour half into two cake pans and bake them separately and save the hassle of worrying.

calico-cat
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