The Easiest Way to Divide Cake Batter Evenly

Christine Gallary
Christine GallarySenior Recipe Editor at The Kitchn
After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, I worked at Cook's Illustrated and CHOW's test kitchens. I've edited and tested recipes for more than 15 years, including developing recipes for the James Beard-award winning Mister Jiu's in Chinatown cookbook. My favorite taste testers are my husband, Hayden, and daughter, Sophie.
Follow
updated May 1, 2019
pinterest
comments
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
Post Image
(Image credit: Christine Gallary)

Making a layer cake is hard enough. You’ve got to worry about baking the cake layers, making filling, getting the frosting on crumb-free, and let’s not even talk about the final decorating! My first challenge has always been dividing the cake batter between the pans so they bake up uniformly, and just eye-balling it never seems to work for me.

Here’s an easy, mess-free way to evenly divide your cake batter into the cake pans!

I used to work in a kitchen that had multiple kitchen scales, so I would place each cake pan on a scale and just transfer the batter into them, making sure the same weight of batter ended up in each pan. But at home? My one scale wasn’t going to cut it, and sometimes my brain isn’t up to doing kitchen math to figure out the right weight of batter that needs to go into each pan.

Instead, all you have to do use an ice cream scoop to transfer the batter! Transfer level scoops of cake batter, one scoop at a time, into your pans, alternating between the pans. If you get distracted along the way, you can just count how many scoops are in each pan to make sure they’re even and proceed with the scooping. When you’re all done, level out the batter with a spatula and confidently bake, knowing they’ll all rise and bake up to the same level.

Funfetti Birthday Cake (Image credit: Faith Durand)

More Cake Tips

Filed in:
Baking
Cake
Cooking Methods
Dessert
Tips & Techniques