If you had 6 things to do what order would you do them?

stares at error messages

stares at error messages

Readn' Tea Leaves
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Dec 7, 2020
This is a logic problem, but I hope I'm not alone in the solution I usually pick.

So say you have to bake 6 cakes for the sake of argument. There are a set number of steps that need to be completed as part of the recipe. You have some choice in how you complete the recipe. You have to make six cakes and the recipe is the same for each cake.

For example, you might do the recipe six individual times. Or, you might do each step in the recipe six times and then do then next step six times also until done. Which would you choose, or make up your own? Yes, they are literal cakes, so wet, dry, oven, and icing.

After a while I share what I'd do, but I just want to know how people would try to solve the problem.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: Aunt Carol
You prepare ingredients in the correct amount for 6 cakes.
Preparing the ingredients to be oven ready is usually a quick process.
Depending on the size of your oven, you put as many cakes in there at once as possible.
After all 6 cakes are baked, you wait till they cool down and then put the icing on all 6 of them (unless some are needed before others).

At least that's the way I used to do it when I was making cakes for a living.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: OrionBalls, The Big Vivs and Aunt Carol
There are at least two bottlenecks: the mixer and the oven. You can fit a lot less in an oven in practice than in theory, especially something that has to raise; the sides of an oven usually heat unevenly.

The cake pans are a potential third bottleneck; if these are layer cakes, that's at least twelve cake pans, which is a weird amount to own.

Assuming a standard home kitchen, I'd measure out dry ingredients into six bowls, because that's too much for one big homogeneous mixer-load and you don't want to end up with all the baking powder in one cake or something.

Mix one cake's worth of batter while the oven is preheating, bake it, dump it from the pans and set it to cool. Wipe and grease the cake pans and repeat; you don't have to clean the mixing bowl until the end.

Cakes generally take a minimum of 45 minutes to bake, so by the time the last one is in the oven, you can do a brief clean of the kitchen and take a break to cool down. Once the last cake is out and partly cooled, mix the frosting (takes very little time) and start frosting all the cakes, starting at the first one.

If the oven heats really evenly or these are single-layer cakes, then I'd do the same but mixing/baking two cakes at a time.
 
In just about everything doing the same task 6 times consequtively is far easier than needing to "switch gear", and usually faster too.
 
I would probably make six times the batter, and then bake them sequentially in the oven or by batches if more will fit.

Mind you it depends on how many bowls, pans, and oven space I have. Parallel processes by single massive amounts or side-by-side step-by-step synchronizing usually cause me to be more cautious rather than less. I notice when 1 step is missed more often by this method rather than become overloaded and forgetful. If that became the case, I would do the cakes one-by-one as I needed to.
is_it_worth_the_time.png
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: stares at error messages and Aunt Carol
I'd make 6 times the ingredients of cake. Then pour into 6 cake cooking trays. Depending on oven availability, then cook cakes as much would fit in oven. Then have cake. @NigKid got it right. I just wanted to know if I was alone in using this strategy.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Aunt Carol and NigKid
cake needs time to bake and mix, so you can have a double pipeline going, which make it more efficient to do them each as individual cakes while another is processing
 
Nigga do you bake cupcakes one at a time? Think of how a bakery operates. Do all the cakes at once.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back