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Most cake mixes make too much batter for a single 8 in. round baking pan. Currently, most mixes make about 5 to 5-1/2 cups batter. For a cake to bake up perfectly, one 2 in. high pan should be filled no more than 2/3 full (3 in. pans no more than 1/2 full), and for an 8 in. round pan, that is 3-1/2 cups batter. With 3-1/2 cups batter, the cake layer will take 30-35 minutes to bake.

If you choose to divide the batter equally between two 8-in. layers, the bake time will be 5-10 minutes shorter, but the baked cake will not bake all the way up to the top of the pan.