I want to make 1/2 a cake recipe. Do I change the time? This is different than meat or veggie cooking.

Anova Precision® Cooker
1

I want to make 1/2 a cake recipe. Do I change the time? This is different than meat or veggie cooking.

2

I would think the principle is the same, actually. Heat will go through the cake and cook the cake mix, so the time taken is still dependent on the thickness, or height, of the cake. If your smaller cake has a smaller diameter but the same height as a regular cake that you’ve made, I would leave the time the same.

Of course, correct me if I’m wrong here, I don’t think a longer time will matter. In conventional cooking, leaving the cake for too long in the oven causes it to be dry. In sous vide, with the sealed bag and all, I doubt you’ll lose much moisture.

3

Thanks for the information. I tried it at the time listed and the cake came out rubbery. If I do it again I think I’ll cut the time back and see what happens. Or I can just make it the old fashion way,in the oven. LOL

4

Are they in individual jars? Then no. 3 jars of the same size will cook in the same way as 6.

If it’s a single cake in a large jar, then @kl005, has it mostly right. If your jar is proportionately narrower, so that you fill it to the same level with your mixture the cooking time should be about the same.

The assumption is that this is just a theoretical exercise, but there are plenty of people out there that are wanting to make larger portions of the sweet treat recipes that are available. A lot of the recipes use the small 4oz mason jars for cooking in. The 8oz jars are proportionately scaled so that double the mixture fills to much the same depth.