Scaling a recipe
Scaling means multiplying every ingredient by the same ratio. That works for most savory cooking, but baking is less forgiving: pan size, bake time and leavening do not scale in a straight line, which is why the cookie dough batch and pan size tools exist. The pan size converter works from pan area, the method baking references such as King Arthur’s pan guidance recommend.
Baker’s percentages and hydration
Bakers express each ingredient as a percentage of the flour weight. In that system a bread with 700 grams of water and 1,000 grams of flour is at 70 percent hydration, and the baker’s percentage and bread hydration calculators let you compare formulas and scale them cleanly. Weigh ingredients when you can, since a cup of flour can vary by a lot depending on how it is packed.
Eggs and frosting
The egg size converter uses USDA egg weight standards, where a large egg averages about 2 ounces (56.7 grams) in the shell, so you can swap sizes in a recipe written for another. The frosting calculator estimates how much to make for a cake size. Treat both as starting points and see how we calculate for the sources.