How To Perfectly Bake 2 Or More Cakes At The Same Time

If you've ever baked multiple cakes at the same time, you understand the struggle of making enough space in the oven. In fact, whether cooking or baking, multitasking with multiple pans is never an easy or straightforward feat. When making a cake, this process proves especially difficult — though you don't necessarily need to wait for one cake to finish before baking the next. Rather, if you alternate where in the oven your cakes are baking, you'll have evenly baked desserts with no time wasted.

In general, you'll want to follow the same protocol you'd use when baking multiple trays of cookies simultaneously. For cakes, there are two ways to do this. If baking on multiple shelves, you'll want to alternate your cakes' positions, moving them from one rack to the other. If baking on the same rack, however, you'll still want to shift things around. You can do so by both spinning the pans around and swapping their locations. This way, the cakes receive the same amount of heat from all angles. 

Such shake-ups may seem unnecessary but they ultimately guarantee that your cakes will bake evenly, prioritizing the texture of your finished product. After all, you never want a cake that's over-baked or overly browned on the top, bottom, or any one side. As for when, exactly, you should consider moving your cakes around? There's no specific time that will make or break your bake — so long as you don't act too quickly. 

You want your cakes to bake evenly, but it's best to switch things up after the midway point of your baking process. The exact timeframe differs from recipe to recipe, but basically, you'll want to give your cakes enough time to bake on one side so your cake batter can set. The last thing you want is to move your cakes around, only for the movement to make them fall apart altogether.

The timeframe, likewise, depends on which shelves you're using. If your cakes are occupying the same rack, you can wait until they're baked roughly two thirds of the way through before switching things around. If you're moving them from one shelf to another, however, you may want to wait even longer, until they're roughly 75% done baking.

As for how to integrate this step into your typical cake recipes? Simply set your timer for less time than the recipe calls for, and make sure to rotate your cakes carefully once it goes off. Because you're dealing with multiple pans, you have to be extra careful, particularly when your cakes are baking on the same rack. In this case, you'll probably switch their locations first. Then, spin them around roughly 180 degrees. As such, you'll want to keep your oven mitts handy — and add the extra step of an oven switch-up into your favorite cake iterations.