Making small Christmas Cakes - help

[katymac]

Decided to make Christmas Cakes for relatives this year (bit late I know)

I have only ever made large Christmas Cakes before - I usually use the Hamelyn All colour cookbook - but I don't know if it will make a smaller cake (issues with cooking?)

I was thinking about a 6 inch cake maybe 3-4 inches deep

Any helpful suggestions or tips?

Oh & I have a new cooker that I haven't done cakes in before & I reckon i cooks faster/hotter than I am used to - so I worry about that too

Bump

I love that cookbook.

I have a tin that size I used to use to make a small cake for my MIL. I wrapped the outside of the tin in brown paper and baked it at 130*C for 2hrs15. Then another 15 if it wasn’t cooked, It was deeper than 3-4” though, probably about 6” again.

I always was convinced my oven ran hot as I have to reduce times or temperatures for a lot of recipes but I borrowed a oven thermometer and it seems roughly accurate.

I make a large square one and cut it in 4, then cover with marzipan/icing - otherwise I find that the cooking time is so hard to predict and spend half a day attached to the oven.

I had a colleague at school who made individual cakes in empty baked bean tins one year with her class. Would they be too small?

Oh Beyond what a good idea!

My old oven was pretty good for timings but this one cooks much faster so I'll turn it down a bit (both are fan assisted so I'm not sure why the difference)

I think tins would be too small - but it's a great idea

*I had a colleague at school who made individual cakes in empty baked bean tins one year with her class. Would they be too small?•

I thought of baked bean tins as well.

www.eatsamazing.co.uk/family-friendly-recipes/dessert-sweet-treat-recipes/tin-can-mini-christmas-cakes

OK my large tin isn't big enough for 4 cakes

I found this tin

But I'm going to have to mess around with cooking times something rotten

I made two 6” square cakes this year. I used the guardian’s perfect Christmas cake recipe which did both ok. I think I cooked them for about 2 hours.

I'm thinking the hole in the middle might make them dry

But it will make them easy to decorate! Wreaths

I wonder if I should soak the fruit overnight - I have some Jamaican rum?

Definitely soak the fruit!

Our school also did the baked bean tins (obviously the small, shallow ones). They looked lovely when decorated, and the parents were thrilled with them!

I found the right sized rectangle but it's too shallow - so I may add foil & brown paper & see how I do

I do the same as BeyondThePage, I've made two normal size square cakes then cut them into quarters - makes the cooking time much easier to figure out :)

Op you could always do a square cake and cut circles out with a pastry cutter

I made a 6 inch cake this year using this cake tin.
www.amazon.co.uk/Silverwood-Anodised-Round-loose-based/dp/B000EF80WG?tag=mumsnetforum-21
I used Delia Smith's recipe for wedding cake, where she gives different quantities and times for each size tier, so used the 6 inch recipe.

www.deliaonline.com/information-centre/scaling-up-cake-recipes

Well one large on is in......fingers crossed

katymac, using one large cake pan is fine, but when you cut it in to smaller cakes, the liquid in the cut pieces of dried fruit will leach in to the icing and mark it. Obviously this doesn't happen too quickly, but I would suggest delaying cutting and decorating as long as possible to limit the risk. You don't want staining coming through your icing.

Damn - I didn't see this and cut it already

DH has suggested he eats all this one & I can make another one......

I always put a marzipan layer between my cake and icing, I tend to feed it a lot so the cake is slightly sticky on top and it doesn't go though. That only works if nuts are allowed though..

If you google "Nigel Slater small Christmas cakes " you should find a guardian column where he gives a recipe for a small Christmas cake. It is gorgeous, packed with fruit. He advises using more interesting fruit than normal eg dried cherries, golden raisins etc on the grounds that you aren't using so much!

I use marzipan too; but sadly the cake is too dry

I think I made it too shallow. So DH will eat it all - with custard and I'll make another thicker one....poop!

Lucky DH.

I don't think greed had anything to do with his decision to say "well you can't give your aunty a cake that isn't perfect....." do you?