Altering recipes

[Shimmer]

I have a cake recipe that I love the flavor of, but for some reason it was created for 8" pans. It barely makes a high enough cake in 8" pans, and I like the presentation of 9" pans better. Is there any type of formula that anyone knows of to add just enough to a recipe to make it a little larger? =)

~~Shimmer~~

[Jock]

In terms of the area of the 2 pans, the 9" is 27% greater than the 8" pan.
If you are scaling your ingredients you can multiply by 1.27 and that should do it. If you are using the scoop and level method, the nearest approximation would be 1/4 extra of everything (a cup of flour would become 1 1/4 cups, a tsp of salt would become 1 1/4 tsp, etc.)
You would need to adjust the baking time because there is more batter to cook. I don't know if there is a formula for that. Keep a close eye on it after the stated time in the original recipe until you can determine the new baking time for future efforts.

Jock

[thebighat]

If you have it, or can get it, read the section in The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum on doing this. A bigger cake apparently needs a little bit less leavening due to surface tension, whatever that is. It might be for a significantly bigger jump than from 8 to 9, but, there it is.