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I found a 9 inch cream cheese cake recipe I want to try for 12-15 people and I want to halve the quantities. How do I adjust the temperature, baking time and pan size? Thanks 🙂

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Assuming you're baking in a round pan: The volume of a cylinder is pi * r^2 * h. You halve the volume and want to keep the height the same. That means you want to scale the radius of the pan by a factor of 1/sqrt(2). So for example, if the recipe is intended for a pan of diameter 25 cm it has radius 12.5 cm and you want to use a pan with radius 12.5*(1/sqrt(2))=8.8 cm, or diameter approximately 17.6 cm.

Adjusting the baking temperature and time is a bit trickier. I would start by lowering the temperature by about 25 degrees Celsius and start checking the cake with a pick about 15 minutes before the stated time in the recipe.

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    In practice 1/√2 is near enough 2/3, given that you'll be rounding to the nearest available pan. So in the OP's case a 6" pan is probably the closest you'll get
    – Chris H
    Commented Dec 21, 2020 at 19:46

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