Would I be able to cut this cake recipe in half, and still have it taste just as good?

If you're taking about a cake, especially one cooked in layers, you'll need smaller cake tins.

For a half quantity you need half the area, which is about 70% of the diameter. That's not exactly possible, so you'll end up with a 20cm tin instead of 25cm (and still a little thinner), or 7" instead of 10" depending on what you've got available.

If you kept the diameter the same, you'd end up with thinner layers, that are harder to assemble and cook quicker.

You'll also need to reduce the cooking time so it's not overcooked. You might reduce the oven temperature by by a few degrees, but it will need more checking until you've got the hang of it.

I often make a 2/3 quantity from a recipe using 3 eggs, because about with fractional eggs is too much hassle, and you need to keep the proportions the same. That might cook 5 minutes quicker for fairly common (without long cooking times) cake recipes. That would need 2/3 the area or about 80% of the diameter.

This recipe is essentially to make things like pancakes and then assemble them together as layers (looks like ten in the recipe images).

The kind of recipes where halving is a serious concern is those where you need to change the size of the layers (thickness or diameter). In this case, you could try making a half-height cake with half the normal layers. No change in the size of the things that you cook, just fewer of them.

You could also make the same half recipe, cut the layers in half (after baking), and then stick them together to normal height. This would give you half the normal version. You could leave the flat half side of the cake unfrosted, which would be closer to how a half-eaten cake would present.

Some math if you want to try other alternatives (I'm better with math than cooking).

• 9" round layers are about twice the area of round layers between 6.3" and 6.4" in diameter. In case you want to make smaller layers.
• You'd need about two thirds the frosting, not half. The surface area due to height doesn't decrease as much as the circles do (because 6.35 is more than half of 9).
• You might make the frosting layers thinner, but that would likely change the cake experience.
• If you make smaller layers, keep them the same thickness to keep the same cooking time.

This answer suggested that you might change the cook time. That would be correct if you were changing the thickness of the layers. If you're just changing the number of layers, it doesn't apply. Just bake five layers as you normally would.

If you're changing the diameter of the layers, there is going to be very little if any change in the time it cooks. You'll still be baking from the bottom up. Very little from the sides in during the six minute bake time.

The two easiest methods are to bake half the normal number of layers. Then either make the cake half height or cut the layers in half to make half a full height cake. I'd suggest trying those methods first. If they're unsatisfactory, you can always try the other method afterward. The other method may require more experimentation and adjustment. Thus why I suggest trying the first two first.

If you want to scale it down proportionally in all dimensions to get half the volume while keeping the same layer thickness, then reduce the number of layers from 11 to 9 and the diameter from 9 to 7 inches. 7²×9 is very close to 9²×11/2

Assuming the cake is half as high as it is wide (4.5 in for the original, 3.5 for the halved version) and the outer layer of icing is the same thickness as the filling layers, the amount of icing for the half sized cake would be 0.516 the original amount. That's close enough to just halve it and not worry about the slight discrepancy.