Does anyone know if or how you can take a recipe for layer cakes (one with at least 2 layers) and convert it to a sheet cake, or a bundt cake---so you do not have to ice the sides and middle?

My gut feeling is to just make the recipe and dump it in the sheet or bundt pan. BUT baking is so precise, I know directions have to be followed exactly or the cake may well not turn out, and I don't want to mess it up after all the work up to that point ! 

Betty,

Yes, you can just make the recipe and put it into a 9x13 or a bundt pan.  You will have to increase the baking time a little, but it will still turn out.  I have even took muffin recipes, and turned it into a cake.  Mainly what you need to be concerned on with being preccise on  in baking, is measuring the ingredients.  Sometimes, depending on what you are making, the temp. of the ingredients as well.  For example, if you make home made bread, all your ingredients need to be room temp.  (except for the hot water to dissolve the yeast) but eggs, flour, etc. should be room temp or it doesn't usually turn out as well.

My father owned a bakery for 30 years, so I have gotten a lot of useful tips from him over the years.  Baking is my passion now.

Thank you so much. I like to cook, but I "tinker" a lot with recipes and ingredients to taste, and it took some hard-learned lessons for me to learn about how important precision is when baking. I cook pretty well, but baking is still hard for me---but every now and then I get the urge. Icing the sides of a cake? That's REALLY a pain!!!. But what a great talent to have! (plus I live in south Florida, and the humidity is incredible.....)

Yesterday I was in the supermarket in the baking aisle, looking at food coloring.  Another lady in the same aisle was looking at boxed cake mixes.   She came over to me with a pretty standard cake mix in her hand and said, timidly, "Excuse me, do you bake?"  I said yes (reservedly, because I am far from an expert baker -- heck, I don't even make pies!  and I wondered, during this split second between my answer and her next question, if she was going to ask me something really, really hard) , and she asked, "Can I use this mix to make cupcakes?"   I told her that yes, but the baking time will be less, and that she should check the instructions on the box because many times they tell you how long to bake it according to pan size or whatever and the time for cupcakes may very well be on the box.  She look relieved, thanked me, and walked away.

Wow.  I guess a lot of people really don't bake nowadays.  At ALL.   (I envision the poor lady picking her child up from school and learning she has to take two dozen cupcakes to school the next day and being at a total loss, not knowing quite what to do ... )

 Heck, I know what to do in that case: go straight to the grocery store, where they have the cupcakes made , decorated and boxed for delivery!

Betty,

Well, sometimes the humidity can affect your baking as well.  I live in Central Fl. so I am with you knowing all about that.  I get calls all the time from friends who ask baking questions. Some I can help, others no.  I had one friend call me and say that she made a box cake and read the directions wrong.  She put in 1 1/2 cups of oil instead of 1/2 cup.  She said what can I do?? I said, "can you scoop any of the oil out? she said,"no, I already mixed it up, and put it in the oven" ha ha.  Like I can help her at that point right??  I asked her later how it turned out, and she said, "it was so moist, we couldn't eat it"  I think she will read the directions a lot more closely now.

Robin, No, I don't think a lot of people bake anymore.  Sometimes I feel like an old person, because I am only 40 but make homemade bread, lots of baked stuff, and I even can veggies from our garden.  But NOBODY I know does any of these things anymore.  It is almost sad.  I am teaching my girls how to bake so that they can bake for their future husbands and children (my kids are teens)  This is a gift, that I am afraid is dying.  People used to make home made everything, years ago, and not to much anymore : (

Sherry; got ideas to here. c