Can you cut a baking recipe in half?

Question

I know you can double a recipe, but can you cut it in half? I was going to make cupcakes, but I didn't want to make 24 so I was going to cut the recipe in half. When my mom heard this, she panicked and said you couldn't cut baking recipes in half. Yes/No?

This was what I was going to make, along with the strawberry icing that is linked:
http://southernfood.about.com/od/cupcakerecipes/r/r70225d.htm

And what about cake flour vs regular flour? Will the world explode or what would happen if I were to use regular flour?

Answer 1

My answer is as old as the hills: in baking terms, you are as right as is mom. You're just looking at things from two different vantage points.

Mom is trying to teach you not to mess with baking formulas: don't mess = don't screw up. Sound, if a bit rigid. :-)

You can manipulate a baking recipe all you like, as long as *ALL* the proportions are maintained. If you cut everything in half, you'll be fine as long as you don't end up with fractions of things that are not divisible. Like 1/13th of an egg, for instance, to give you someting way-out-with-the-fairies.

Where mom is spot-on is that baking things is not a matter of *recipes* so much as *formulas*: they're very much all or nothing how-tos. You can mess with them if you want: just don't wail and holler if, as a result of your tinkering, you've baked a brick, which, of course, we have all done too, from time to time... :-/

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Wile I realize these comments were posted 9 years ago, but I hope it is revisited from time to time. I didn't see anything written about livening agents. I have found that cutting baking powder or baking soda will always make a recipe fail. I live alone and don't find many recipes that fit the bill. Pancakes are a great example. A recipe for 12 griddle cakes can be a handful to cut back to 6-8. If you find yourself with part of an egg in the results you either have to cut back or move up to the next whole egg. Milk, butter and oil don't seem to present a problem but flour always seems to be a problem.

Answer 3

Yes you can. Just divide each ingredient in half. Make sure you get the math right.

As for the cake flour, if you use regular, the cupcakes will be a bit heavier and denser and won't rise as much.

Answer 4

Yes i cut cupcake recipes in half all the time and they all turn out fine! if anything you'll have extra icing! and 24 cupcakes is a lot of cupcakes so don't worry about it!

Answer 5

Yes, you can. But you must cut every ingredient in half! The only time that i can think of when you couldn't is if the original ingredient is, like, 1 egg. Then, you will have to just make it and cut whatever you made in half.... sorry.

Hope this helps,
Wyatt123456789

Answer 6

Sure you can! Just use half of what you would have used for the full recipe, really easy. Say if you had one cup of milk for a recipe and you wanted to cut it in half, you would just use 1/2 cup of milk instead, etc.

Answer 7

Yes, you can usually halve recipes w/o much trouble. The rub comes if the original calls for 3 eggs... You need to whisk 1 of them, attempt to divide it in half, then use that half plus a whole egg.

Answer 8

Yes you can. You should really have no problems. But if in doubt, go to allrecipes.com and find a similar recipe. ON that site you can tailor the recipe to the amount you want.

Answer 9

That would be a very easy recipe to cut in half.
Good luck and happy eating.

Answer 10

no you cant there is a reason there is a smaller baking recipe