Smaller Time Honoured Christmas Cake

Asked by VirginiaClarke. Answered on 3rd November 2021

Full question

I would like to use the largest quantity of Time Honoured Christmas Cake ingredients and divide the ingredients into 4 or 5 tins. How many tins are needed, and what size tins should be used? Also, how long should cooking times be?

Our answer

Nigella's Time-Honoured Christmas Cake (from FEAST and HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS) is a traditional rich fruit cake. The recipe gives the ingredients needed for three different sizes of cake, the largest of which is 25cm/10 inches. This would normally be baked in a 25cm/10-inch springform pan that has a depth of 7cm/2¾ inches.

The smallest springform pan that we could find is 10cm/4 inches diameter and 5cm/2 inches deep. We estimate that you could probably make 3 cakes of this size from the ingredients for the largest Time Honored Christmas Cake. The baking time is likely to be 1½-2 hours at 150°C/130°C Fan/300°F, but bake until a cake tester inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. However, as we haven't tried the cake in this size we are unable to guarantee the results. Alternatively, you can bake the largest cake as a 23cm/9-inch square cake, following the instructions in the recipe, and when ready to ice, cut the cake into smaller square or rectangular cakes (maybe 9 cakes, each approximately 7.5cm/3 inches square).