Portions For Chocolate Fruit Cake

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Fruit Cake (from FEAST) is a popular alternative to a traditional rich fruit cake. It also has the advantage of not requiring the dried fruits to soak in advance, plus it does not need the "maturing" time given to a tradtitional fruit cake. The cake is made in a 20cm (8-inch) springform pan and usually this size of fruit cake will give up to 40 small portions of cake. A small portion is usually around 2.5 x 2.5 cm (1 x 1 inches) and around 5cm (2 inches) thick and is the size of cake usually given out in small boxes at weddings. If you wish to serve the cake as a dessert or at tea we would suggest allowing 20 portions per cake.

So for 400 small portions you would need to make at least 10 cakes. The cakes will keep well for up to a month if each is tightly wrapped in a double layer of greaseproof paper (or baking parchment or parchment paper) and a double layer of foil and left in a cool, dry place away from direct light. Don't wrap the cake directly in foil as the foil can sometimes react with the dried fruits and leave an odd taste. You can "feed" the cakes with some extra coffee liqueur before wrapping, if you like. If you need small portions then we would also suggest that you chop the prunes into raisin-sized pieces as this will make cutting the cake a little easier, rather than having to try and slice through bigger pieces of fruit.