Ask a Splendid Table: Switching pan size is no piece of cake

Q How do you substitute cake pans? The pear gingerbread recipe I want to do calls for a 9-inch-square pan. I've got an 8-inch-square and two 9-inch-round layer-cake pans. Can I switch to one of these?

A Switching pan sizes in baking is tricky because baking times and temperatures are based on the kind of cake, how much batter is in the pan and how dense it is.

Toying with time and temperatures in nearly every kind of cake is asking for trouble. That said, there are exceptions. For instance, when you are doing recipes like brownies -- where how the cake rises isn't the issue, but, rather, how moist or not moist it becomes in baking -- you can get away with switching pans. This guide should help and following it is my take on a pear gingerbread that will work in your 8-inch-square pan.

Unless specified in a recipe, use a shiny metal cake pan rather than a dark one. Darker pans change baking times and the results.

• 8-inch-square pan holds 7 cups

• 9-inch-square pan holds 9 cups

• 9- by 13-inch cake pan holds 13 cups

•91/2- by 131/2-inch cake pan holds 151/2 cups

• 95/8- by 51/2- by 2 3/4-inch loaf pan holds 8 cups

• 8-inch-round layer-cake pan holds 4 cups

• 9-inch-round layer-cake pan holds 61/2 cups

• 9-inch-round spring-form pan holds 101/2 cups

Great umami! Q Let's cut to the chase: This umami thing that makes dishes taste better comes in certain foods. I don't need the science, I just want to know which foods. Thanks for the CliffsNotes.

A OK, here are the essentials. These foods enhance the flavors of other ingredients they come in contact with. The old cliché applies here: They make the whole greater than the sum of its parts to a greater or lesser degree.

For instance, a few drops of fish sauce in a salad dressing is barely detectable in taste, but enlivens other ingredients, as do some shiitake mushrooms in a soup or stew, or a spoonful of tomato paste stirred into a quick vegetable sauté. Miso operates in a similar way; use it as a rub, broth base or a finishing seasoning in a stew or a soup. Collect what appeals from this list to have on hand to lift a dish that's not quite making it.

Foods containing umami: Seaweed, including kelp; Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese; anchovy; sardines; mackerel; tuna; cod; prawns; squid; oyster; clams; beef; pork; cured pork; chicken; tomatoes; shiitake mushrooms; enokitake mushrooms; truffles; soybeans and soy products; potatoes; sweet potatoes; Chinese cabbage; carrots; green tea; red wine; miso; Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce (nam pla, nuoc nam); soy sauce; bovril (beef extract); Vegemite (vegetable extract); dried shrimp; ketchup.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper hosts "The Splendid Table," Minnesota Public Radio's weekly show, www.splendidtable.org. Send questions to table@mpr.org.