Compare the batter capacity of the pan your recipe uses with the pan you will use, and work out how much to scale the ingredients.
This calculator only converts quantities. It does not work out baking temperature or time, how full a pan can safely be filled, or the finished height after baking.
Values to have ready before you calculate
The inside dimensions of the pan the recipe uses. Measure them yourself with a ruler. A pan size name alone does not tell you the dimensions.
The inside dimensions and the number of pans you will use this time.
The depth the batter will actually fill. Not the full height of the pan and not the height after baking.
The quantity of each ingredient in the recipe. Settle on one unit per ingredient in advance: g, ml or pcs.
How much you have right now. Leave an ingredient you have not checked as unknown. Entering 0 means you genuinely have none.
Please check your entries
What to scale to
The two goals need different amounts. Only one goal is shown at a time, and changing the goal means calculating again.
Pan dimensions
Enter the inside dimensions. Not the outside diameter, but the space the batter actually goes into. For steeply sloped pans it is more accurate to pour water in and use the measured capacity.
The pan in the recipe
The diameter inside the pan.
Approximated as a rectangular box. For pans with strongly sloping sides, use the measured capacity instead.
The height you pour the batter to. Not the full height of the pan and not the height after it rises in the oven.
The capacity you measured by pouring water up to the height the batter will fill. It does not tell you how full is safe.
Enter how many of this pan one batch of the recipe fills. A whole number from 1 to 100.
The pan you will use
Add a row if you are using different kinds of pan together. The batter capacity of every row is added up and compared with the recipe pan. Up to 20 rows.
Recipe ingredients and what you have
Enter the quantities exactly as written in the recipe. Use a single unit per ingredient. Grams and millilitres are not converted into each other. Up to 100 rows.
The quantity box also takes fractions such as 1/2 or 2 1/4. When you leave the box the value is shown back as a decimal, 0.5 or 2.25, so you can see straight away how it was read. A fraction with 0 as the denominator cannot be entered.
Paste a recipe table
What you paste is handled inside this browser only. It is not sent to a server, not saved, and not passed to automatic translation.
Put one ingredient on each line. Tab-separated text copied from a spreadsheet, comma-separated text, and free-form lines such as flour 200g are all read. With tabs or commas the fourth field is read as the amount on hand; free-form lines leave the amount on hand unknown.
The units g, ml, pcs are read. Units that are an exact, fixed multiple of g or ml, such as kg or L, are converted for you. Converted lines appear in the preview next to the text you pasted, so check the number of digits. Units such as cups or tablespoons weigh a different amount for every ingredient, so they are not converted on your behalf and the line stays among the lines that were not read.
This is how it was read
Line
Pasted text
Ingredient
Recipe quantity
Unit
Amount on hand
Lines that were not read
The lines below are not thrown away; they are shown as they are. In each of them the ingredient name, the quantity or the unit could not be read. Enter them into the ingredient rows by hand.
If a line separated by commas is not recognised, try separating it with tabs. In languages that use the comma as the decimal mark, a comma that separates fields cannot be told apart from a decimal comma, so a comma counts as a separator only when there are three fields or more.
There are no lines that could not be read.
Nothing calculated yet. Enter the pan dimensions and the ingredients, then press Calculate this batch.
Your entries have changed. The results below are from the previous entries, so calculate again.
Results
A required ingredient has 0 on hand. Restock that ingredient, or switch to the Fill the pan goal to see the amount you need first.
Ingredients whose amount on hand was left as unknown did not limit the scale factor. You may actually be short of them.
Pan scale factor
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The total batter capacity of the pans you will use divided by the batter capacity of the recipe pan. It ignores how much of each ingredient you have.
Scale factor for this batch
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The recipe quantities multiplied by this value are the amounts needed in the table below.
Share of target batter volume
-
The ratio treating a full fill of the pans you will use as 100 percent. It does not decide how full a pan can safely be.
Ingredient table for this batch
Ingredient
Recipe amount
Needed this time
On hand
Short by
The values in the table are rounded for readability. Do not add or multiply the rounded values again. The internal calculation uses the unrounded values.
Ingredients whose amount on hand was not checked
Ingredients you are short of
What this result assumes
The batter space is approximated as a cylinder or a rectangular box. Pans with sloping sides hold a different amount in practice.
It assumes that scaling up or down by the same factor produces the same result. The effects of technique and pan shape are not in the calculation.
The unit for each ingredient is taken as already settled by you. Grams and millilitres were not converted into each other.
Ingredients whose amount on hand was left as unknown were only left out of the calculation. They were not judged to be sufficient.
Calculation setup file
Saves the pan dimensions, the ingredient table and the goal you have entered as a file on your own device, and loads them back later. The file is not sent to a server and is not left in this browser either.
A short note that tells you which recipe the setup belongs to. Up to 200 characters go into the saved file with it. It is not used in the calculation.
Only the values used in the calculation, the ingredient names and the note are saved. Results are not saved; they are calculated again when you load the file. Because it carries the ingredient names and the note, the file is not anonymous. Check what is in it before you send it to anyone.
Only a file saved by this calculator can be loaded. It reads the single file you pick yourself and never restores anything automatically. Before a loaded file overwrites what you have entered, you are asked first.
How it is calculated
The steps below are used. Every value comes from you and nothing is looked up automatically.
Round batter space = pi times (inside diameter divided by 2) squared times batter depth times number of pans
Rectangular batter space = inside length times inside width times batter depth times number of pans
Measured batter space = capacity you entered times number of pans
Pan scale factor = total batter space of the pans you will use divided by the batter space of the recipe pan
Limit from each ingredient = amount on hand divided by recipe amount. Only ingredients whose amount on hand was entered are counted.
Scale factor for making as much as your ingredients allow = the smaller of the pan scale factor and the ingredient limits
Scale factor for filling the pan = the pan scale factor
Amount needed = recipe amount times the scale factor, short by = amount needed minus amount on hand (0 if below zero)
Share of target batter volume = scale factor divided by pan scale factor
Ingredients whose amount on hand was left as unknown are kept out of the ingredient limit. Treating unknown as 0 would drop the scale factor to 0 because of a single ingredient you simply had not written down.
Worked example
A made-up example to show how the screen works. It is not a specific recipe or the conditions of any particular product.
The recipe pan is one round pan 18cm across with a batter depth of 4cm, and the pan to use is one round pan 15cm across with a batter depth of 4cm. The ingredients are flour 200g (100g on hand), sugar 120g (200g on hand) and egg contents 150g (150g on hand), and the goal is to make as much as the ingredients allow.
The pan scale factor is about 0.6944 and the factor the ingredients allow is 0.5.
That fills only 72 percent of the target batter volume.
The amounts needed are flour 100g, sugar 60g and egg contents 75g, and the ingredient that limited the factor is flour.
Frequently asked questions
What if I only know the pan size name and not the dimensions?
Measure the inside diameter and the depth the batter will fill with a ruler and enter those. The same size name varies between makers, so this calculator does not guess dimensions from a size name.
Why does it not give a baking time and temperature?
This calculator only converts quantities. Baking depends on the material and thickness of the pan, the oven and the depth of the batter, so it cannot be set safely from these entries alone.
If I leave the amount on hand blank, is it counted as 0?
No. Unknown is left out of the calculation and the shortfall stays as not checked. For an ingredient you genuinely have none of, enter 0 yourself. Entering 0 gives a result saying the batch cannot be made.
Can I mix grams and millilitres?
Pick one unit per ingredient and use it for both the recipe amount and the amount on hand. Different ingredients may use different units. What it will not do is invent a density to convert g and ml for the same ingredient.
Can I enter eggs as a number of eggs?
Choose the pcs unit and it will scale by count. To work in grams, weigh the egg contents yourself and enter that. It does not assume an average weight per egg.
If the scale factor comes out as a decimal, can I just use it?
The quantities are calculated as they are, but some ingredients such as eggs are hard to divide. Whether to nudge the factor down or prepare more and split it is your call.
What this calculator does not do
It does not work out baking temperature or time.
It does not decide how full a pan can safely be filled.
It does not predict the finished height after baking.
It does not substitute another ingredient for one you are short of.
It does not invent a density to convert between g and ml.
It does not read a recipe from a web address or estimate pan capacity from a photo.
It does not claim that allergies or reactions stay the same when you change brand.
Related calculators
If you need to settle the units first, use the converters below.