want to make individual 4 inch Christmas cakes but only have one tin - possible?

[sphil]

I have had the brilliant idea of making these for teachers at school. I have one 4 inch cake tin... Would it be possible to make the mix and cook them one after the other all on the same day? Would the cake mix be OK hanging around for this time? I've searched the net and recipes quote between 1 and 2 hours to cook between 5 and 10 cakes all at once, so should be possible if I spend one whole day doing the cooking. ( I need 7)

Money tight atm (DH made redundant) which is why I don't want to fork out for more tins!

Oh, and to complicate matters further I have an Aga...
TIA

Do you know anybody who bakes a lot and might have one of these you could borrow?

I don't know the answer to your question, but I'm sure somebody will be along.

Have never cooked with an Aga, so cannot comment on that point. But, I don't see why you can't do it, unless the recipe calls for baking powder. It does not work if left hanging around in already mixed with liquid cakes.

purple - that is on my list to get next - tis the mother of all cake tins >

I have had one a little while, and I have used it, ahem, once so far .

But I intend to keep it forever, and by then, maybe I'll have had much more use out of it.

Bake one large square shallow cake and cut it into individual squares? Once marzipanned and iced, they would be fine.

I have found the answer! My Aga book has a recipe for an 8 inch Xmas cake which I'm going to divide in half and cook, then repeat x 4 over the next couple of weeks. Thanks all - it was Purpleturtle's post about her cake tin which made me remember I have a similar set of tins for Aga, which in turn made me look at Aga recipe book ....

Do you need half the mixture for a 4" cake? Or do you need quarter?

In my head, you see, you'd get 4 x 4" cakes from an 8" square cake. Do you see what I mean?

Glad to have been of assistance, by the way!

I was reading elsewhere about someone who made little individual christmas cakes and cooked them in cut down baked bean tins (washed out, I presume ). So then you could do one huge batch (once you and your friends have eaten enough beans...) all at once.

Is your cake tin round or square?

If square cook 2 x 4" cakes and cut into eight cubes.

If it's round then I'd use a roasting tin instead and cut out rounds using a lid / baked bean tin / insert circle template of your choice here. You'd have bits left over which is a tad wasteful but I'm sure your family will help scoff the crumbs, and it would save having mix hanging around.

As for Aga - depends on your recipe but you will be fine to open the door and do a skewer test every now and then.

I made the baked bean tin suggestion on a thread not so long ago. Didn't do so here, as I assumed (don't know why) we were going for square cakes here.

If it's a 4" round tin then I apologise for questioning your maths, sphil. You are, as you know, correct.

It is round .

I'd thought about the baked bean idea - read it on here, of course - but they'll be a bit small I think? Smaller than 4 inches anyway.

Sphil I didnt know about your DH, are you all OK? Youn know where I am if you need anything (even if just a whinge) right?

We did cakes like that last year, and they went down a treat- I amde ours in a large silicone muffin tin from Asda for a fiver , worked wonders, then bought little cake trays off ebay, ived with royal snow peaks (becuase I cant do flat neatly), topped off with a cinnamon stick and flakes of ornagey edible glitter. Looked lovely, all warm and spicy- then wrapped in Christmassy polythene I bought from Ebay for afew quid. Think I willr epeat this year tbh, so easy.

What about the big soup tins?

Although, as you're using an Aga, you don't have the whole 'heating the oven specially' scenario that I have with the rather oversized electric oven that came with my house.

Oh yes - good idea. Would be so much easier to do them all at once! Am I right in thinking you have to wrap the outside of the tin in brown paper, as well as lining the inside with greaseproof?

Yes, I think the brown paper - 2 layers? - stops them from overcooking round the edge.

I remember my mum making little ones in bean tins, but it would've been getting on for 30 years ago, and suddenly there is a huge weight of responsibility from sharing dim memories...

Good luck!

Yes, if the teachers get burnt cakes I will KNOW WHO TO BLAME
Would be easier to buy half a dozen bottles of wine wouldn't it?

That's what I did last year!

I make lots of small Christmas cakes which I sell and give as presents. Make them all in used tins, and I've found the best tend to be ex meat tins, i.e. chicken in gravy (the cat thought the contents particularly yummy), salmon is good as the tins are teflon coated and slightly angled so the contents slip out easily, also stuffed vine leaf tins are good. About this time of year I start looking at the more obscure parts of the supermarket. I also have a couple of tiny spring-form tins but they are no better than my (almost) freebie ones.

Be careful you don't get the hight to width ratio wrong; it's very easy to make them too high, and they look slightly unstable, so baked-bean cans are not brilliant.

I make mine in an Aga, starting off in the baking oven and finishing in the simmering one. I can't remember the times, but think about 40 mins in baking, then a couple of hours in the simmering. I get lots of repeat orders so must be doing something right.

Good luck.

Phew! Someone who knows what they're talking about turned up.

Molecule, would you try making them double height in a bean tin and then cutting in half or even thirds?

Not sure if I know what I'm talking about, and I'm sure someone far more experienced will be along soon, but after lots of trial and many errors they do seem to work.

Don't ever try cutting them as 1) fruit cake is a devil to cut cleanly because of all the damned fruit getting in the way and 2) you are (or rather I am) quite likely to be unable to cut it completely evenly, so will end up with a lopsided cake, which once iced will scream at you about its imperfections.

Some good ideas Molecule, will look about to see what I can spot tin-wise.

I'dlove to try my hand at selling Christmas cakes but daren't becuase A) MIL does something similar (does sugarcraft and has a small business etc, albeit back home), and I don't want to upset her , and B) I definitely don't want DH thinking I am turning into MIL LOL!

Sphil, another thing I did last year for all the 'little' gifts- dinner al;dies who made to special diets etc- was bags of gingerbread biscuits, think I got a recipe of Waitrosewebsite designed for gingerbread houses but was yummy.

I will scour the supermarket for the right tins - thanks Molecule.
I don't want to ice mine - a friend used to do cakes years ago which had glazed nuts and glace fruits on the top in a pattern - looked fabulous! And (i would think) much easier than icing.
Like the idea of gingerbread too. I really should give DS2's 1:1s something more than the others as they have been particularly fab this year (they go to each other's houses on their crossover day to talk about how the week's gone - in their own time!!)

Have had a root through the larder. The salmon tins do look perfect. If you want something slightly larger, steamed-sponge-pudding tins have good proportions of height to diameter.
Think I may try this, instead of one large cake that PIL and me will still be eating in February.