Baking Three Cake Tins at Once: Shelves, Swapping and Timing

Fan or conventional oven: it changes the answer

Fan ovens usually bake hotter for the same setting, so UK recipes often give a lower fan temperature, such as 180°C conventional or 160°C fan (350°F, gas mark 4). Use the setting your recipe gives for your oven type.

Where to put three tins

1. Check they fit with space round them. The Bake School suggests at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) between each tin and the oven walls. Tins pushed together or against the sides bake unevenly.
2. Use two shelves near the middle. Put the shelves just above and just below the centre of the oven, rather than right at the top and bottom.
3. Two on one shelf, one on the other. Stagger the tins so the top tins don’t sit directly above the bottom one, leaving room for heat to move round them.
4. Fill the tins evenly. Weigh the batter into each tin so they bake at the same rate.

When it is safe to swap the tins

Opening the door lets heat out, and moving a cake before it has set can make it sink. Don’t touch the tins in the first part of the bake.

These are guides, not exact times. Check the cakes rather than the clock: they are ready when the middle springs back when pressed lightly and a skewer comes out clean. With three tins in, the bake may take a little longer than the recipe says, so start checking at the recipe’s time and keep going.

When to bake in batches instead

If three tins won’t fit with space round them, or your oven is small or uneven, bake two tins and then the third. Baking powder starts working as soon as it is wet, so keep the wait short: leave the third tin somewhere cool and bake it as soon as there is room.

Two deeper tins can also replace three shallow ones, then be cut in half. The cake tin conversion guide shows how to scale between tin sizes.