Scaling cake recipes

calendar March 12, 2025 nav_categories Tech nav_tags recipe

My waist needs less cheesecake

I try out a lot of cheesecake recipes.

I'd say 99.9% of them come out delicious, but a 9" cheesecake is still a big cheesecake.

Cheesecake is also very calorie dense, so to avoid putting on a lot of weight, I figured I had 2 choices:

  1. Stop making cheesecakes
  2. Figure out a way to stop eating excess cheesecake

Option #1 was really an option, and I figured an easy way to solve option #2 was to simply get a smaller springform (cheesecake) pan.

I've had 10+ springform pans in my life, and the best one I've found is the USA Pan 9-Inch Leakproof Springform Pan, which allows you to use a water bath and not have to wrap the pan in foil, which collects condensation while baking.

Unfortunately, they don't make a 6" version of that, so I went with a Fat Daddio's PSF-63 Anodized Aluminum Springform Pan, as I've had excellent results with the Fat Daddio's cake pans.

Calculating the area of a circle

Now with my new, smaller 6" springform pan, I need to scale my recipes to fit the new size pan.

Brushing the dust off my geometry, calculating the area of a circle is the formula:

$$ V = \pi r^2 h $$

Using the above formula for a 9" cake, assuming 1" depth:

$$ volume = πr^2h=π(\frac{9}{2})^2×1 = \text {approximately 63.6 cubic inches} $$

And for a 6" cake:

$$ volume = πr^2h=π(\frac{6}{2})^2×1 = \text {approximately 28.3 cubic inches} $$

Ratio for a 9" pan to a 6" pan

The ratio of the volume from a 9" pan to a 6" pan:

$$ ratio = \frac{23.3}{63.6} = \text {approximately 0.44} $$

My standard 9" cheesecake recipe calls for (5) 8oz packages of cream cheese, or 40oz of cream cheese.

Sizing that to a 6" cheesecake would be approximately 17.6oz, or easily rounded up to 18oz of cream cheese.

Ratio for a 6" pan to a 9" pan

For the times I want to scale a recipe from a 6" pan to a 9" pan:

$$ ratio = \frac{63.6}{23.3} = \text {approximately 2.25} $$

So if I took the above 18oz of cream cheese for a 6" cheesecake, that would be 40.5oz of cream cheese, or easily rounded down to a simple 40oz of cream cheese.

References

USA Pans 9-Inch Leakproof Springform Pan
https://www.usapan.com/leakproof-springform-1086sf

Fat Daddio's PSF-63 Anodized Aluminum Springform Pan
https://shop.fatdaddios.com/products/springform-pans