Small Christmas cakes

[BurningTheToast]

I have several single neighbours and I want to make Christmas cakes for them all - about 5 or 6 in total. I want them to be a satisfying size - not so small they only have one or two helpings, enough to share if they have a guest, but not so big that they're eating them for weeks. Do you reckon 4 inch or 6 inch cakes would be best? I really can't decide.

Thanks (the sloe gin to go with them is already steeping....)

4 inch should be fine, considering that they’ll have marzipan and icing too.

Nigel Slater small cake recipe is amazing

I make 3 or 4 small cakes every year. I do have a couple of round springform tins that I use occasionally but the most effective way of doing it is to make one cake in an 8" square tin. Wrap and feed the cake as a whole and only cut it into quarters when you are ready to marzipan and ice it. There's no faffing around with scaling recipes and cooking times plus you only have one tin to prepare.

That's a good idea about cutting an 8 inch square into quarters, because my first thought about small cakes was 'what would you do for tins' because few people have multiple small tins and the alternative would be baking cakes one after the other and it would take days.

Plus if you make 2 x 8 inch cakes, you'll have some left for yourself.

Daft question re cake tins but if the recipe states to use a 20cm (8") round tin, would it be ok to use a 20cm square? 🤔

@Horsemad a 7" square tin equates to an 8" round tin according to my recipe. I've attached a photo of the scaled recipe with the different amounts of ingredients for you to compare.

Aaaw, thank you @TheWoollybacksWife! That is really handy, thanks! 🙂

I do 4” square ones - I’ve got the Silverwood 12” tin you can slot dividers in however you like.

That’s a good size for one or two people

I made them last year as teachers gifts in small tuna tins. I did a normal fruit cake recipe and made 12 small cakes. They take a surprisingly long time to cook, I just guessed and did them low and slow and they came out fine.

Thanks everyone - I think I might try @TheWoollybacksWife 8 inch square cut into quarters idea. Decorating wise, I love @thenewaveragebear1983 's tiny ones!

I'm making a big one and cutting it before icing. Mary Berry has a lovely one.

I use baked bean tins to make small ones as gifts. I make the usual amount of mix and use a smaller than the recipe calls for tin, so the left over mix goes in the baked bean tins.